It took 39 years for Cornell baseball to make its first trip to the WPIAL playoffs. The wait for the second trip was appreciably shorter.

Needing a win on the season's last day to make the postseason, Billy Mackey's three-run homer began the comeback and Roman Belmonte's walk-off single finished the job, as Cornell overturned a six-run deficit to win, 7-6, in eight innings against OLSH.

The win put Cornell (9-11) into a tie with the Chargers (8-10) in the Section 2-A standings at 7-8. The Raiders' win gave them the head-to-head tiebraker with OLSH, however, making Cornell the third-place team and owners of the section's last playoff berth.

"It's the second time in 40 years, and it's back-to-back years for us in the playoffs," Cornell coach Nate Torboli said.

"We probably should have been in a little earlier, but some things happened during the year and we fought through it. It's good to be in, not just for the kids, but for the district, the parents, everybody at Cornell."

Cornell will face Geibel (12-5), the runner-up from Section 1-A, in the WPIAL first round at California (Pa.) University on Friday at 2 p.m. The winner of that game will face No. 2-seed Serra Catholic (19-1) -- the team that knocked Cornell out of last year's playoffs -- in the quarterfinals.

But the playoff trip nearly belonged to the Chargers, who jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning off Cornell pitcher Danny Bosetti. David McNeill and Graham Harkins both brought runs home with hits before Bosetti settled down to get out of the inning.

Harkins, meanwhile, had his best stuff on the mound, limiting the Raiders to one hit over the game's first five innings.

"We played great baseball the first five innings, but we let it slip away the last two innings," OLSH coach Phil McCarren said. "We didn't make the plays we needed to in the field and we didn't get some of the hits we needed."

The OLSH lead ballooned to 6-0 in the fifth, when Andrew DeSalle and McNeill each hit two-run home runs over the short right field fence at Cornell. After the inning, Torboli gathered his players and laid out a comeback plan after the Chargers' big inning.

"I knew if we put the ball in play, things would start to happen," Torboli said. "When it came down to the sixth inning, I said we'd have to at least split the lead in half."

That's exactly what the Raiders did, beginning with Belmonte reaching base on an error. That brought up Christian Jackson, who battled Harkins through an 11-pitch at-bat, finishing with a single past third base.

"He's been a starter and batting leadoff since he was a freshman, and that was the best at-bat I've seen Christian have," Torboli said.

Following Jackson was Mackey, who struck out in his first two at-bats. But with two strikes on him again in his third plate appearance, the junior finally caught on to Harkins.

"The pitch was a little high, but I had to swing because it was in the strike zone," Mackey said. "I connected and it went out."

The pitch flew over the fence in left-center field, cutting the lead to 6-3 and bringing life to the Cornell bench. Bosetti added an RBI single, making the score 6-4, entering the seventh.

"That was a pretty good feeling, because we knew we were back in it," Mackey said.

"From that point, it was our game. We just started playing Raider ball."

Needing two runs in the seventh, Belmonte again reached base on an error and Jackson walked. Mackey struck out, the second out of the inning, bringing up shortstop Zach Schibner.

The sophomore lofted a ball to shallow center field that could have been the third out, but instead the ball fell in for a double. Belmonte scored easily and Jackson raced around to score before a throw could come home, sending the game into extra innings.

After Bosetti struck out two more OLSH hitters in the eighth -- bringing his game total to nine -- the Raiders came up to bat needing just one run to win.

Facing relief pitcher Ron Glozzer, Bryan Korzen singled and Jake Almasy reached on a sacrifice bunt attempt that turned into a single. Jamie Byron laid down another bunt, but was called out for running inside the baseline when the throw from Glozzer struck him in the back.

With the runners sent back to first and second, Belmonte stepped in, but was given the green light to swing away. The choice to not bunt paid off, as he hooked a line drive into right field, scoring Korzen home for the winning run.

"I saw a fastball and tried to make sure it got into play," Belmonte said. "I just wanted to get the bat on the ball."

He did, and as one of just two seniors in the Cornell lineup, he made sure he would wrap up his season in the playoffs.

"It feels real good to get that hit. Nice and clutch, right there," he said with a laugh.