ELWOOD — Leading 12-1 after the top of the fourth inning, the Pendleton Heights Arabians (12-3) appeared to have Wednesday evening’s game against the Class 2A No. 7 Elwood Panthers (9-3) under control.

But the host Panthers refused to be put away easy, scoring 12 unanswered runs to lead in the seventh before the visiting Arabians came away with a 15-14 victory.

With two outs and the tying run on second base, Pendleton Heights needed a late-inning hero. And with a game-tying single to right center field, senior Jay Hubble captured the starring role.

Ethan Olvey, who followed Hubble’s hit with a two-RBI double, propelled Pendleton Heights to a 15-14 victory.

“Before my at-bat, I was actually wanting Nate (Clem) to walk, because my stick had been feeling pretty good all day,” said Hubble, who was 2-for-5 at the plate with a pair of RBIs. “The pitcher was keeping it on the outside of the plate, so I was trying to take one the other way and get Sean (Collins) around. It was a great victory, but it should have never been that close.”

Sophomore Tyler Holloway started on the mound for Pendleton Heights, and it looked as if he was going to have an easy victory. The Arabians jumped ahead to an early 12-1 lead-off of 12 hits and a slew of Panther errors in the first four innings. Senior Clint McCord, who was 4-for-5 with four RBIs, led Pendleton Heights at the plate.

But then the Arabian bats cooled off, and the Panther bats started to heat up. Elwood senior Troy Worsley, who had a solo home run in the second inning, led off the bottom of the fourth inning with a double.

Worsley’s double sparked the Panthers into five hits and five runs in the inning, including a 2-run homer by Trevor Ozenbaugh.

“I have never been in a ball game quite like this,” said Pendleton Heights coach Bill Stoudt. “After the 12-1 lead, they came out swinging the bat very well. It wasn’t that we were making a lot of errors, but they were just hitting the ball all over the ballpark.”

In the fifth inning, the Panthers continued their comeback. Again it was Worsley who provided a spark, leading off with his second home run in the game and fourth of the season. Six more runs followed, giving Elwood a 13-12 lead going into the bottom of the fifth inning.

“I said in the dugout that this game wasn’t over yet,” Stoudt said. “Sure enough, the very next inning, Elwood came back and hit the ball out of the ballpark. We started struggling, and it just turned into a nightmare.”

The middle of the Panthers’ batting lineup was locked into the Arabian pitching throughout the game. Ozenbaugh was 4-for-4 with four RBIs, Worsley was 3-for-3 with two RBIs and Darren Jones was 3-for-5 with an RBI.

With the Arabians needing a hit in the seventh inning to spark a comeback of their own, Arabian junior Ben Cronk led off with a single, but the next two Pendleton Heights batters were quick outs.

Then with two outs, Clem walked, Hubble singled and Olvey doubled to give the 15-13 lead to the Arabians.

Junior Nate Frazier pitched the final inning and gave up only one run on a single hit to preserve the victory for Pendleton Heights.