The clock struck 12 on Carson City Little League's Cinderella run through the District 1 9-10-year-old all-star tournament.
Washoe scored 13 runs in its last two at-bats to walk past Carson 17-7 Saturday night at Governors Field in the championship game. The game was stopped with two out in the fifth because of the 10-run rule.
Washoe advances to Las Vegas for the state tournament starting July 24, while Carson City's season is over after six straight post-season victories, five of which came via the mercy rule.
All told, Carson outscored its opponents 98-26, but picked the wrong time to have its worst outing of the post-season.
"It was a tough game for all of us," Carson City head coach Mike Fettic said. The Carson coach took a brief moment to thank all of his assistants - Troy Moyle, John Simms, Kevin Krebs and Kincaid DeJoseph for their hard work with the team.
The most frustrating thing for Carson was the inability of its relief corps to slow down the Washoe offense after Carson scored five times in the fourth on the strength of Zach Simms' two-run single to take a 7-4 lead.
Simms retired the first two hitters to start the fourth. An error and four singles later led to four unearned runs and an 8-7 Washoe lead.
The perennial powerhouse wasn't through, however.
Jayden DeJoseph, who got the final out of the fourth, yielded a single to Zach Williams and Cohen Kreitlein reached on an error to start the fifth.
Enter Jace Keema, who unfortunately didn't fare any better. He walked Evan Crosse on five pitches to load the bases. Gavin Bullis also walked, forcing in a run to make it 10-7. After retiring winning pitcher Sawyer Jaksick, two more Washoe hitters walked to force in runs.
Tez Allen, who had been impressive in his relief stints, came on in hopes of dousing the fire. He walked three straight batters and then yielded a single to Kreitlein and a game-ending double to Crosse.
"Tonight I couldn't throw anybody (who could throw strikes)," Fettic said. "They just couldn't find their spots."
Eight Washoe batters walked in the last two innings and seven of them scored.
The game did start in promising fashion, as DeJoseph singled and eventually scored on Simms' single off the fence. Simms was cut down at second trying to stretch it into a double.
Washoe scored four in the first off Simms, as Washoe starting pitcher Oliver Shawa had the big blow with a two-run single.
Carson had a chance to cut into that lead in the second when Kyle Krebs and Allen singled off Shawa to start the inning. Both runners moved up on Jesse Lopez's infield out, but were left on the bases when Shawa struck out the next two hitters.
Carson added a run in the third to make it 4-2 when Bryce Moyle hit a double and eventually scored on an error and single by Simms. Shawa retired Krebs and Allen with runners at first and third to end the threat.
Carson stormed into the lead with its aforementioned five-run rally in the fourth only to see Washoe seize the momentum right back with four in the bottom of the inning. The Reno visitors never trailed again.
"We were trying to score as many as we could," Fettic said. "The last couple of night's we'd been holding up."
Carson finished with 10 hits, three coming off the bat of Simms.