Buhach Colony loses heart-breaker in section title game on walk-off, two-out single.

There can be such a fine line between winning and losing in baseball.

Buhach Colony High senior catcher R.J. Garcia knows if he can come up cleanly with the throw from right field, he likely tags out the runner sliding home with the game-winning run and the game goes on to extra innings.

There were other opportunities the Thunder had to add on to a lead late in the game.

Instead, it was the Bruins storming back from a three-run deficit late and winning on a walk-off single by Ty Uber with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning to defeat Buhach Colony 5-4 to win the Sac-Joaquin Section Division III championship on Monday at the University of the Pacific’s Klein Family Field.

“It hurts,” Garcia said. “It’s painful. I know this group — even though I won’t be here — will come back hungrier than ever and take it next year.”

The Thunder (25-7) came into Monday needing to defeat Ponderosa (18-15) twice to win the section championship.

Buhach Colony came close to forcing a winner-take-all second game.

The Thunder jumped out in front with two runs off of Bruins starter Devon Suske in the first inning.

Garcia and Jake Sapien drove in runs as the Thunder took a 2-1 lead after the first inning. Buhach Colony added to it with an Alex Kendrick run-scoring single in the third and a Brandon Ruiz RBI-single in the fourth to extend the lead to 4-1.

The Bruins fought back, scoring a run in the fourth to cut the lead to 4-2 when Kendrick fell trying to catch a pop up behind second base.

Ponderosa tied the game at 4-4 with two runs in the sixth with the help of two infield singles. The second one hit off of second baseman Nathan Farrar’s glove, allowing the tying run to score. Farrar then threw home to stop the go-ahead run from scoring to get out of the inning.

Buhach Colony had a shot to take the lead in the seventh with runners on the corners. The Thunder tried to steal a run on a double steal. However, the Bruins threw out the runner at the plate to get out of the inning.

That set the stage for Ty Uber in the seventh inning. The sophomore, who already verbally committed to Stanford, delivered the walk-off single with two outs off of BC reliever John Trujillo. The throw from right fielder Brendan Ekizian glanced off the glove of Garcia at home as the winning run slid across the plate.

Buhach Colony coach Greg Wakefield’s message to his team was not to hang your heads. They ran into a team in Ponderosa that had played well all playoffs.

“They really had a great season,” Wakefield said. “We came up a little short today, to a team that’s on fire, and played extremely well. My hat’s off to Ponderosa. I let them know, hey, that that team over there played well today and they had to to beat you.”

Buhach Colony left-hander Antonio Cortez pitched well, leaving with two outs in the seventh inning after throwing 109 pitches. The Thunder outhit Ponderosa nine to seven.

“It was an amazing season,” Garcia said. “There’s no other word to describe it. Game in and game out, this team got after it. I don’t think there’s any other group of guys that I would want to go on this journey with.”