AUBURN – The darkening skies in Auburn had Greely’s Matt Reade seeing green.

Reade got the green light on a 3-0 count and lined a single up the middle that broke a 6-6 tie in the eighth inning and ultimately sent Greely to a 9-7 victory over St. Dom’s in a season-ending clash between the reigning Class B and C state champions Tuesday. The loss snapped St. Dom’s 13-game winning streak.

“I normally give any player the ‘take’ sign, but it was just a gut instinct,” Greely coach Derek Soule said. “He’s a good hitter and I wanted to end it right there. This game was going to be called for darkness if we didn’t get it over with that inning.”

“At 3-0, you’re usually sitting on a pitch right down the middle, and in my mind I was thinking swing as hard as you can,” Reade said. “I got lucky. He jammed me a little bit and luckily it got up the middle.”

With a man at second and one out, St. Dom’s elected to intentionally walk Nate Martin to set up the double play and face Reade, the Rangers’ clean-up hitter who was looking to atone for three costly errors earlier in the game.

“I was a little bit surprised they walked him. He’s got good speed and he’s known for it,” Reade said. “I’m glad they put the bat in my hands. I wanted to do it. Those (errors) were definitely bugging me.”

Pat Copp followed Reade with a two-run insurance single. The Saints got a run back as rain began to fall in the bottom of the eighth on Joey Gwozdz’s RBI single. They then got the tying runs into scoring position, but reliever Sam Stauber escaped without further damage, thanks in part to a terrific leaping catch in center by Martin.

“We had our opportunities to win the game,” Saints coach Bob Blackman said. “The one area that I told the team we needed to do a little better job was to be more aggressive with the bases loaded and not take so many pitches.”

The Saints (13-2) may have been lulled into that mode by Greely starter Brandon Gallagher, whose wildness allowed them to hang around despite being out-hit, 10-2, through the first four innings. He yielded six walks and three hit batsmen. When the Saints did put the ball in play, his defense didn’t help much, making three errors behind him.

Greely (12-3) took a 4-1 lead against Saints’ starter Will Emerson with RBI singles from Adam Norton and Shawn Sanville and a sacrifice fly by Stauber. St. Dom’s cut the deficit in half without a hit (two walks, two hit batsmen) in the bottom of the second, but then the Rangers doubled the lead in the third on a two-run single by Norton.

In the bottom of the third, St. Dom’s got three runs back, again without a hit, thanks to four walks, a hit batsmen, Reade’s first error, and a sacrifice fly by Ben Randall.

The Saints tied it at 6-6 when Stauber came on in relief in the fourth and gave up an unearned run on a Reade miscue, a wild pitch and an RBI single by Richard Paradis.

Stauber got into a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the fifth, but fanned the next two batters to escape, then struck out the side in the sixth.

“I think about his third inning it looked like his arm got loose and he got some more pop on the ball and settled down. It was a real nice performance on his part,” Soule said.