KULPMONT — At one point in Tuesday’s District 4 Class AAA quarterfinal, Mount Carmel was seven outs away from getting shut out on its own field. An inning and a half later, the Red Tornadoes were in a much different scenario, celebrating an 11-3 victory over Hughesville to open their postseason.

Second-seeded Mount Carmel (18-2) advances to a semifinal date with No. 3 Mifflinburg at Central Columbia on Friday afternoon.

With two outs in the bottom of the fifth, facing a 3-0 deficit, Red Tornadoes sophomore Jason Klokis, who pulled two home-run-distance balls foul earlier in the contest, barreled another one, and this time, it was straightened out, sailing over the left field fence for a game-tying, three-run blast, rejuvenating the Red Tornadoes’ dugout.

After coming up empty with six runners left on the basepaths across the first three frames, the Klokis homer broke the dam.

“Going from down 3-0 to tied in one swing will get anybody going,” Mount Carmel head coach Dave Langton said. “I felt like we were banging our heads against the wall for the first couple of innings. We hit a lot of balls hard, but couldn’t hit it in the right spot.”

It was in the top of the fourth where Hughesville broke a scoreless tie, needing just one hit to produce its three runs, thanks to working three walks and capitalizing on a pair of fielding errors by Tornadoes’ shortstop Owen Ramirez.

With the speedy MCA senior set to lead off the bottom of the sixth, Langton gave Ramirez a reassuring pep talk. He then drove the first hittable pitch he saw up the middle for a single, representing the potential go-ahead run.

“Last year, Owen was put through the wringer. He struggled, but he bounced back. He’s been really good for us all season,” Langton said. “I just told him before he came up to lead off that inning, ‘You’re in there because we believe in you. Just go play,’ and he got us started.”

Back-to-back, well-placed sacrifice bunts by by Keegan Brown and Brody Brinkash followed, each of which led to an error by the seventh-seeded Spartans (10-11).

“It’s funny because we really don’t bunt a ton. But we’ll probably do it more as we go,” said Langton, whose squad reaped the benefits of the successful small ball after being on the not-so-fun side of it in the same half-inning 11 months prior in the state championship game. Especially against a team like Hughesville, who’s been on the right side of those plays offensively for a long time, it was just ironic.”

Two batters later, with the bases still loaded, Aidan Brokenshire gave the defending state finalists the lead for good with a two-run single, but the scoring didn’t stop there, as the Red Tornadoes strung together six more hits for six more runs before the frame finally came to an end. The 13-batter marathon brought an eight-run lead.

Brokenshire earned the victory on the mound in the rematch of last year’s district championship game, striking out a half-dozen Spartans throughout the final 2 1/3 innings, which were hitless.

Before he relieved Keegan Brown with two outs in the top of the fifth, Lukas Carpenter and Brown had combined to allow just four base knocks — all singles — to Jed Abernatha, Landen Puderbach, Josiah Abernatha and Dylan McConnell.

“We knew he was going to be good for us in that spot, that’s just what he is,” Langton said of Brokenshire. “We really didn’t pitch bad at all. We just put ourselves in a hole defensively. But for him to come in and hold them there and give us a chance to get those runs back, and then deliver a big hit to give us two more runs, was huge.”

Despite encountering a few jams, Hughesville’s starting southpaw, Gage Webb, escaped each one unscathed, but was forced to do so at an inefficient rate, leading to him getting pulled after 74 pitches and three innings of work for Nathan Bieber.

Bieber retired the bottom third of MCA’s lineup in order in the fourth, and was one out away from avoiding harm again in the fifth, but Klokis, who finished with a game-high four RBI, had different plans.

After the come-from-behind win, Langton credited the final week of his team’s regular season for serving as both a necessary wake-up call and a reassurance.

The Red Tornadoes started last week with a mercy-rule, shutout loss at top District 4 Class AA seed Southern Columbia, but finished it with an impressive 3-0 triumph on the road against four-loss 6A giant Hazleton.

“I think we knew. Last Monday, we got it taken to us at Southern, and we were questioning ourselves on how we were going to respond to adversity and then, three days later, we go on the road and beat a top-five 6A team (Hazelton),” the skipper said. “We learned a lot about ourselves last week, and that showed us it’s not the end of the world and to just keep grinding.”

Mount Carmel 11, Hughesville 3

Hughesville 000 030 0 — 3 4 2

Mount Carmel 000 038 x — 11 12 2

Gage Webb, Nathan Bieber (4), Blake Babb (6) and Kyler Solomon. Lukas Carpenter, Keegan Brown (4), Aidan Brokenshire (5) and Jason Klokis. W — Brokenshire (7-0). L — Bieber (1-5).

Top Hughesville hitters: Landen Puderbach 1-2, walk, run; Dylan McConnell 1-3, run, RBI; Jed Abernatha 1-4; Josiah Abernatha 1-3. Top Mount Carmel hitters: Klokis 2-3, HR, 2B, walk, 2 runs, 4 RBIs; Brokenshire 2-4, 2B, 2 runs, 2 RBIs; Owen Ramirez 2-4, 2 runs, 2 RBIs; Brody Brinkash 1-3, walk, run; Gabe Yuskoski 1-3, walk, run; Jaylen Delaney 1-3, walk, run, RBI; Ty Spears 1-1, run, RBI; Walker McGinley 1-4; Brown 1-1.