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Of the team's 11 wins, four came after trailing in the first few innings. That resilience showed up once again Thursday — this time in the postseason.

The No. 4-seeded Blue Devils defeated No. 13 Unatego, 8-7, in the first round of the Section IV, Class C tournament that evening at Wells College.

While Moravia is comprised of eight underclassmen compared to six upperclassmen, their youthfulness has not stopped them from mounting comebacks. 

"That's like our game," head coach Katie Sweeney told Â鶹ÊÓƵ. "We get down, and they just always come back. They do such a good job of just keeping their heads in the game, just making one play at a time. It's such a young group, and they're still learning. But they do their thing."

The Blue Devils had their work cut out for them after errors opened the door to a three-run first inning for the Spartans. But Lily Heim put Moravia on the board, advancing to second on a lead-off single and then scoring off an Ella Green RBI groundout to short. Madelyn Caza capitalized off a passed ball later in the inning to cut the Blue Devils' disadvantage to one.

With Moravia trailing by two in the second, pitcher Taleigh Sheppard backed her own effort by hitting a sacrifice fly to center field to score Emily Austin. Sheppard then returned to the circle in the third and struck out the side to keep Unatego's bats quiet.

After being dinged early on by the Spartans, Sheppard responded by striking out six and allowing just three hits following the second inning. 

"She's so strong," Sweeney said. "She really keeps her head in the game. That's really what it is, just very level-headed. She keeps the team going. She's our spark plug."

Her teammates gave her the opportunity to pitch with a lead for the first time with an RBI single from Davida Jackson that brought in Hayley Murphy in the fifth. 

However, wild pitches and errors were a problem once again, as Unatego scored a pair of runs to propel it to a 7-6 lead. But the Blue Devils would have one more answer in the bottom of the sixth.

Austin started the rally by smashing a single to left field, which resulted in her scoring off a Kylee Cooper RBI double. 

Despite being frustrated with passed balls behind the plate earlier in the game, Murphy delivered the game-deciding run to keep the Blue Devils' season alive. The backstop hit a fly ball to left field that dropped in front of the Spartans' outfielder, scoring Cooper from third. 

Murphy's ability to have a short memory and bounce back from miscues represents the thought process Sweeney had hoped to get across to her team at the start of the season.

"That was my philosophy as a coach this year, was to just keep them up," she said. "Just doing the small things: getting over our mistakes, moving on. That's what we really focused on, and they have done a really good job with that this year."

Austin ended with two RBIs and two hits, while Heim, Murphy, Cooper and Jackson had one RBI and one hit apiece. Sheppard racked up nine strikeouts in her seven innings of work. 

With the win, Moravia hopes to host No. 5 Bainbridge-Guilford on Tuesday, weather permitting. Mother Nature has rained on the parade of many teams the past few weeks, but Sweeney is confident that her team is ready for whatever comes.

"This is what it's been all season," she said. "Honestly, we've probably played more rainy games than we haven't. At this point, they're just used to the cold and the rain. They're just used to it and they battled through it."