CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Lake Norman's baseball team reached the first N.C. 3A final in school history Saturday.

The Wildcats beat Waynesville-Tuscola 8-7 to win a best-of-three N.C. 3A Western regional championship series in two games.

Lake Norman (26-2) will play Eastern Wayne (24-4) or Northern Nash (18-8) in next week's best-of-three N.C. 3A state championship series.

The Wildcats reached the finals in dramatic fashion.

Lake Norman was up 6-3 in the top of the seventh with ace reliever Ross Whitley, who has eight saves this season, on the mound. But Tuscola got a base hit. That was followed by a hit batter and an error.

That was followed by another hit batter, a strikeout and another error. By then, Tuscola had scored two runs.

Another error tied the game.

In the bottom of the seventh and final inning, Donnie Burt, nephew of San Francisco Giants Super Bowl lineman Jim Burt, led off with single. He moved to second on a sacrifice bunt from Nick Keith. Tyler Lewis had a sac fly to move Burt to third.

With two outs, Nick Lamoscolo had the series-winning hit – a bloop shot over third base.

Patton reaches 2A Final

Morganton Patton (27-7) beat Mount Pleasant (25-7) 3-2 Saturday to reach the N.C. 2A best-of-three championship series. Patton won the Mount Pleasant series two games to one.

Chris Fine scored a run for Patton, which will play Fairmont (19-7) or McMichael (23-5) in next week's championship series.