Saline High School's Carter Beil was hitless when he stepped to the plate in the bottom of the seventh inning with the bases loaded and his team tied with Northville, 6-6.

The Mustangs knew this, so they intentionally walked leadoff man Cameron Keller, who already had two doubles, to put the game in Beil's hands.

Turns out it was Beil's torso Northville needed to worry about. A few pitches in, the senior outfielder was hit by a pitch, bringing teammate Cory Davis home for the game-winning run in the Hornets' 7-6 baseball victory Thursday in Saline.

More Coverage on MLive.com: This Story & Photo Gallery | Boxscore "I thought, thank God," Beil admitted. "I was 0-for-3 with pop-ups ... But, whatever I can do to help the team."

"Sometimes you can take it any way you can get it," added Saline coach Scott Theisen, who has seen few wins end with a hit by pitch. "I've been doing it (coaching) for 22 years, so I suppose it has probably happened ... but nothing sticks out in my mind."

Saline nearly squandered a 6-3 lead it held leading into the seventh inning, when Northville strung together a three-run rally to tie the ballgame.

"The pitchers at least didn't fold the tent and just fall apart up there," said Theisen, who sent four to the mound. "We got out of a couple jams with runners in scoring positions. That was key, I think. Hopefully we learn from that."

The pitcher keeping the Mustang bats cool in the early going was Keller, who had a no-hitter going through four innings. Northville knocked its first hit on a Jeffery Gertley double in the top of the fifth.

Saline, meanwhile, opened its scoring in the third after Al Zeiher roped an RBI triple off the left field wall. Garrett Gordon followed suit with an RBI double, giving the Hornets a 2-0 edge.

After Keller put down three straight Northville batters, he turned around and made his presence felt at the plate, knocking an RBI double to stretch Saline's lead to 3-0.

Northville, however, countered with three to even the count, kick-started by Gertley's double. Saline committed a crucial throwing error with two outs that eventually led to a pair of Mustang runs.

"We gave them a few and had some outs we should've made," said Theisen, whose team had two errors to Northville's zero. "Although it was an ugly game at times in terms of some of the mistakes, it was also a good game to be put in some situations that sometimes takes three or four, five games to get people under that pressure."

Despite extending the gap back to three, Saline once again was plagued by an error -- a missed catch at first base with two outs -- that capped Northville's three-run spurt in the seventh to deadlock the count at 6-6.

Fortunately for Saline, redemption was on its side. And the Hornets didn't even need a hit to obtain it. Saline drew three walks before Beil took one for the team in game-winning fashion.

"We've been working on keeping our heads in the game," noted Beil. "Our coaches tell us that we'll make mistakes but we have to keep going."

Added Theisen, "Hopefully we'll grow from it. You can't always simulate that pressure in a scrimmage under those conditions."

Saline (2-0) finished with 12 hits on the day, led by six Hornets with two hits apiece. Zeiher led the RBI charge with two, adding a run scored.

The Hornets and Mustangs were slated to complete a doubleheader. However, the two teams only got through 2 1/2 innings of game two before it was called due to darkening skies, rendering the game obsolete.

Saline was trailing 9-3 when the game was called.

"They were really taking it to us," said Theisen. "It's a good wakeup call. We needed it, probably."

Kaleb Roedel is a sports writer for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734)623-2562 and e-mailed at kalebroedel@annarbor.com. Follow him on Twitter @Kaleb_R.