The margin for error is microscopic in a high school baseball postseason. One gaffe here or a slip-up there can be what sends a team home.

Yet for two years straight, East Ridge has been close enough to perfect to finish on top.

The Raptors did so Saturday in dramatic fashion.

Trailing conference rival Mounds View 2-1 through five innings, East Ridge scored a run in the bottom of the sixth and seventh innings to win its second consecutive Class 4A state title via a 3-2 victory at Target Field.

They did so without recording a hit in either inning.

Will Preimesberger walked to open the sixth frame. Pinch runner Adrian Thompson stole second, took third on a passed ball and scored on a sacrifice lineout from Bennett Skinner to knot the contest.

In the seventh, Benjamin Rudser got on with a leadoff walk. Caden Stern came in to run, stole second, took third on a passed ball and scored the winning run on a wild pitch.“Dogpile at home plate, never thought that would happen,” Rudser said. “It was awesome.”

Between the two scores, East Ridge (21-6) had to keep the game tied in the top of the seventh. That looked unlikely after Jack Glancey doubled to right to lead off the frame.

But the next batter flew out to left, and Glancey tried to move 90 feet closer to home.

Bennett Skinner caught the fly out moving to his left. He hit the cutoff man, shortstop Luke Skinner, who then fired a dart to third baseman Alex Mezzetti, who applied the tag in time to end the threat.

It was perfect baseball.

To close the contest, East Ridge continued to execute every little play in an exacting manner under intense pressure.

“We work on it so much,” Rudser said, “and we try to perfect it as best we can at every practice.”

Exactly how much at practice?

“Nonstop. Nonstop. It’s a huge chunk,” Raptors coach Brian Sprout said of the team’s situational work. “I’d probably say it’s 60 percent of our practices on a daily basis.”

And it paid off in a big way when it mattered most. East Ridge had to find any way possible to manufacture runs Saturday in the showdown of star aces.

Mounds View (20-9) had Iowa commit Tyler Guerin, while the Raptors had Texas A&M commit Max Arlich.

The fifth-seeded Mustangs managed two runs off Arlich in the first after what was deemed an error at second base plated a couple runs.

Third-seeded East Ridge got one back in the bottom of the inning off Guerin.

That’s where the score stood for hours — literally. The game was stopped in the third amid heavy rainfall. The delay lasted two hours.

In that time, Arlich largely focused on intake.

“Eating a lot of food,” he said. “It was a long break, and I wanted to make sure I had food in me from when I last ate.”

Both pitchers returned after the delay, and both were sharp. Guerin allowed just one run on three hits in five innings before giving way to sophomore Andrew Gette.

Arlich said the first-inning runs he surrendered only motivated him to lock in more. A year after throwing a complete-game shutout in a 1-0 title game win over Rosemount, Arlich didn’t allow a hit from the first inning until Glancey’s double in the seventh.

Arlich threw a four-hitter on Saturday. Over the last two years, he’s tossed 14 innings of championship game baseball without surrendering an earned run.

“I don’t know. It just feels like everything comes down to these games, and those are the games I like the most,” Arlich said. “Yeah, it’s the most pressure, but that’s when you succeed.”

And he’s doing so against top-tier competition.

“I think that we were just dialed in the whole entire game. I don’t think it had to do anything on us. I think he just pitched better. You’ve got to tip your cap,” Mounds View’s Aiden Bale said. “That’s how baseball works. You’re going to lose games, and we happened to lose this game today. You’ve got to tip your cap to the pitcher. He just outpitched us, and we didn’t hit him.”

That was a strong summation of the entire contest: well-played to the finish, with one team managing to make one extra play. And in recent years come postseason, that team always seems to be the Raptors.

“It is so much fun to be a part of good baseball games that are played at a high level. You don’t want to lose them, but that’s why we’re here,” Sprout said. “To be a part of them, holy cow, it gets you going.”