Park's baseball team had a nine-run lead at one point on Tuesday. Then the Bruins held their breath.
Friends scored seven times in the bottom of the seventh inning to pull within a run before falling, 14-13, in a three-hour thriller at Medfield Heights Elementary School.
Right-handed pitcher Micah Saltzberg got Jacob Rainess to fly out to center with the tying run, Jacob Shields, on second base and the winning run, Christian Spence, at first in the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association B Conference game.
"I was sweating that last inning out, but I know I had a senior I could go to in Saltzberg," Park coach George Cooper said. "I knew he was going to throw strikes. It was just a matter if they were going to hit them where we were standing."
Park (2-4) had a huge inning of its own in the top of the fifth when the Bruins pushed across eight runs for a 13-4 cushion.
Jonathon Green's two-run single with the bases loaded highlighted the inning and scored Jake Palumbo and Alex Kalvar. Kyle Chang added an RBI to cap the scoring.
Friends (3-1) scored a run in the fifth and another in the sixth before its big inning in which the Quakers sent 14 batters to the plate.
Holden Marshall, who went 3-for-5 with three RBIs, got the scoring started with a triple to right-center field that scored Jacob Shields and Christian Spence to trim the lead to 14-8.
Friends used four hits and two errors to score four more times before Saltzberg got the save in relief of Chang.
"Our guys have a lot of fight in them and they showed that today," Friends coach Brett Linnenkohl said. "We really have a lot of leaders on the team and they work together."
Friends left fielder Nicholas DeMario went 3-for-4 with an RBI and double.
Palumbo picked up the victory for Park. He worked 4 2/3 innings and gave up six hits, five runs (four earned) while striking out four and walking six.
Devin Lowe led Park at the plate, hitting a home run in the first inning and finishing 3-for-4 with 2 RBIs and scoring three runs.