CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – From the brink of elimination, to the cusp of back-to-back championships.

After falling to Strasburg in extra innings in Game 1, the Charlottesville Tom Sox forced a winner-take-all third game in the Valley Baseball League finals with a walk-off win Tuesday night.

Charlottesville, the league’s defending champion, plays at Strasburg’s First Bank Park at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

The Tom Sox are playing for their fifth Valley League Title in franchise history, and second in a row.   

Last year’s champions had a rocky road to reach the Valley League playoffs, spending a lengthy part of the regular season under .500.  However, they rebounded spectacularly in the second half of the season and entered the playoffs as the No. 3 seed in the Southern Division, navigating the postseason to return to the finals.  

The opener, in Strasburg, saw the two division champions go to extra innings in an offensive slugfest, before the Express won in the bottom of the 10th inning, 12-11.

Game 2, at Charlottesville’s CHO Field, was another tight contest.

Once again, the offense did its part, keeping the game within reach.  Charlottesville trailed 7-5 in the eighth inning, six outs from the end of its season. But Evan Taveras delivered a two-run double to tie the game in the bottom of the eighth, and Hudson Lutterman hit a bases-loaded sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth, plating Jackson Sirois with the walk-off winning run.

The dramatic 8-7 victory forced Wednesday’s final game.