May 26—JAMESTOWN — Bismarck Century head baseball coach Kent Schweigert was sweating a little bit Friday afternoon — and it wasn't because it was 84 degrees out.

Up 7-2 over Bismarck Legacy, Schweigert stood by and watched as the Sabers put up a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth to cut his team's lead to three.

By the bottom of the seventh, the difference was just one run and that's when Gavin Lill's arm came in clutch.

On a 3-0 count, Lill wound up and delivered three straight strikes to Legacy's Aaron Urlacher to seal the deal and send his team back to the WDA championship game for the second-straight year.

"I was nervous there's no doubt," Schweigert said. "You start second-guessing yourself — when you should do this and when you should do that but — we got it done."

Century will be facing Mandan in the WDA championship game on Saturday. First pitch is scheduled for 5 p.m. at Jack Brown Stadium. Legacy will play Minot in a 12 p.m. state-qualifying game.

"Now we get to relax," Schweigert said. "We're in and so tomorrow we can just go out and play. We're really looking forward to that."

Century was in control from the get-go.

With bases loaded, Century's Sid Olmsted snuck one through the gap to score the first run of the evening. A hit-by-pitch and a walk from Legacy's Gavin Brice walked in two more put the Patriots up 3-0 over the Sabers.

Two more runs scored before Legacy head coach Eddie Streeter made a change to his pitching staff.

Century scored once more before the half-inning concluded but with junior Parker Zacksby in control, the Sabers made some plays in the outfield to capture the last two elusive outs.

"We didn't really make them earn it — we had seven, eight, nine walks," Streeter said. "We kind of let them off the hook there and they took advantage but you've gotta give 'em credit, that's what good teams do."

Legacy entered the tourney as the No. 3 seed, having finished the regular season at 13-7 overall and 12-4 in the West Region. Century was ranked seventh coming into the tourney, having started out the year at 0-7.

April 25 at Watford City signaled a turning point for the Patriots and the squad went on a 7-3 win streak to put their record at 7-10 to by May 5.

"We just never gave up on the season," Kent Schweigert. "We got off to a tough start but I told the kids to keep practicing hard and we could get there. I've got to give credit to all of the kids. They've been making plays and working hard and we made some big plays today.

"(When that last strike came) I was just excited for the kids," he said. "They've worked really hard. They made some more outstanding plays today and we just needed to score a few more runs to make it a little easier but hey, we got it done."

While Century will be traveling back to the capital city with some wind in their sails, Legacy could easily be deflated after an emotionally and physically taxing game — but that's not the team Mandan should expect.

"I just told them to keep competing," Streeter said. "I like the effort towards the end — I think there was some good leadership. Some of our older guys kind of took charge there. I don't think there's anything that we're really upset by. We've got another shot tomorrow and we've got to pull it off tomorrow."

Century 7, Legacy 6

BC 060 001 0 — 7 5 1

LEG 000 103 2 — 6 7 2

BC: Parker Sagsveen, Adam Vigness (6), Gavin Lill (7); LEG: Gavin Brice, Nick Patton (2). W — Sagsveen, L — Brice.

BC — Sagsveen (5 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 5 BB, 2 K) 1-3, RBI, 2B; Tyler Kleinjan 1-3; Gavin Lill 2-2, RBI; Sid Olmsted 1-2, RBI.

LEG — Lucas Vasey 1-4, 2 RBI; Isaac Lewis 1-2, RBI; Cooper Miller 1-3, RBI; Wyatt Kraft 2-3, 2 RBI.