GRUNDY CENTER — A pitcher’s duel for the ages was a draw.

In the end, it came down to one more play made by Grundy Center.

Spartan senior Pete Lebo hit a walk-off, two-run home run with two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning to send Grundy Center past the West Marshall baseball team with a 3-1 win in Saturday’s Class 2A District 13 final at the George E. Wilhelm Sports Complex.

Ace right-handers Judd Jirovsky of Grundy Center and Beckham DeSotel of West Marshall pitched into the ninth inning in a 1-all tie before the Spartans won it in the 10th. Brayden Davie blooped a two-out single into left field off senior left-hander Hunter Polley, and Lebo hit a hard liner over the fence in right on the very next pitch.

“There’s so many plays that go into a game, you’re going to look back on this and be like ‘if this one goes this way, this one goes that way, maybe it’s a different outcome,'” said West Marshall head coach Jerod Brown. “You play a 10-inning game, there’s hundreds and hundreds of pitches. Some you’re gonna win, some you’re gonna lose, and they just got one more in the end.”

In a game filled with moments, Lebo made the one to remember. His team-leading fourth homer of the season pushed the Spartans (18-4) into Tuesday’s substate final against Ridge View (21-4) at Memorial Park in Boone.

“Polley’s a good pitcher, and unfortunately for him he let that one loose and Pete did a lot of damage on it,” said Grundy Center head coach Pat Brown II. “Probably one of the biggest Spartan victories on this field, probably one of the biggest victories that I’ve been involved in as far as a good, clean baseball game. No mistakes really, just a lot of fun.”

And a lot of strikeouts. Jirovsky struck out 16 in his 8 2/3 innings, while DeSotel struck out 10 in 8 1/3. Both reached the 110-pitch limit in the ninth inning, putting the ball in the hands of the next man in.

“Those guys were awesome,” Brown said of the starting pitchers. “You couldn’t have asked for a better performance from either one of them. Judd is what he is, everybody knows that at this point. On our side, that’s probably the best start of Beckham’s career. Even more than just executing pitches, anytime he was in a big spot he was composed. Maybe he lost some of them, but his composure was out of this world.”

Brayden Davie got Grundy Center through the last out of the ninth inning after inheriting two runners on base with two outs in the ninth. Polley singled on an 0-2 pitch from Jirovsky and, after a wild pitch, DeSotel was intentionally walked. Riley Hanford nearly beat out a slow-roller to shortstop Ethan Meester, resulting in a bang-bang play at first, and Drake Whitaker’s line drive was snared on a leaping grab by second baseman Carson Laube on Jirovsky’s final pitch.

Davie got Karver Christensen to ground out to first, but the Spartans couldn’t turn the momentum into instant offense. DeSotel struck out Ryder Slifer before giving way to Polley, who allowed a Mason Thede single before getting out of the bottom of the ninth unscathed.

West Marshall (19-13) was retired in order in the 10th before Lebo delivered the game-winner.

Grundy Center had the first scoring opportunity after DeSotel walked Thede leading off the third. Asher Lutterman drove a double to the gap in left, but Hanford made a good play to reel in Whitaker’s relay throw home and tagged out Thede on a close play.

The Trojans were the first to score, tallying just the fourth run allowed by Jirovsky in his 54 2/3 innings on the mound. After a leadoff single by Polley in the fourth, DeSotel belted a double to the gap in right-center. The relay throw home from Laube beat Polley, but DeSotel advanced to third, and Hanford came through with a bloop single to shallow left to drive him home for the 1-0 lead.

“Nobody scores on Judd,” Brown said. “You get one, you think you’ve got a shot to hold it up, and in the end we didn’t. But we kind of knew that’s how this game was gonna be played.

“Anytime you score first you feel good about that.”

The Spartans drew even in the sixth thanks to all three of West Marshall’s errors arriving in the same frame. Laube and Jirovsky both reached on errors, and Meester got Laube across when his grounder was misplayed as well.

In the seventh, Whitaker flared a one-out single to right and took second when the ball skipped past Thede. With two outs, Whitaker advanced to third base when ball four to Blayk Hart was a wild pitch, and the Trojans pushed the envelope before the very next pitch.

Hart tried to get in a rundown by taking off for second before Jirovsky threw his next pitch, but the savvy Spartan senior held onto the ball while chasing Hart back to first. With Jirovsky’s back turned, Whitaker broke for home, but Jirovsky threw to Lebo just in time to prevent the potential go-ahead run.

“Our motto is ‘gritty beats pretty,’ but West Marshall’s super gritty,” said Brown II. “Just the way they do whatever they’ve got to do, but our defense bailed us out of a couple jams.”

The Spartans made two errors, neither of which resulted in runs, while West Marshall’s three miscues helped Grundy get the tying run. GC outhit the Trojans 7-6, and both starting pitchers walked two batters — each intentionally walking the other.

“Those two were absolute warriors on the mound,” Brown II said. “Those guys were cruising. Nobody could really get settled into the (batter’s) box, and we knew going into this thing it was probably going to come down to who’s got the best No. 2.”

Lebo was the only player with two hits for the Spartans, who will bid for their first state tournament bid since 2021.

Polley and Whitaker had two hits apiece to lead the Trojans, who just missed their fourth substate final in the last five seasons but graduate just two seniors in Polley and Evan Siegert.

“Replacing seven seniors from last year’s team — seven starters, and almost all multi-year guys — half of our team had never played JV or varsity at any point,” said Brown. “Obviously we had some growing to do, but more than anything — the skills have improved and stuff like that — I think our characteristics have improved, our attention to detail, how we go about our work, how we handle adversity. Some of those things didn’t go our way tonight, and we might have folded earlier in this season.

“Our leadership was phenomenal. We had guys who were maybe in a leadership role that had never been in a leadership role before on this team and they were elite all season. They carried us through some tough times and got us here tonight, gave us a shot.”