Friday afternoon’s Division II opening-round game between Warwick Vets and Prout started ordinarily, but turned into an instant classic in the matter of a few hours.

The matchup featured an epic pitcher’s duel between arguably Division II’s top two pitchers – Prout’s Mason Feole and Vets’ David Simmons.

In a game that went into extra innings tied at 1, Feole threw nine frames for the Crusaders, while Simmons chucked 10 innings of one-hit baseball, tossing 125 pitches and striking out 11 for the ’Canes.

Unfortunately, Prout would maneuver its way out of a bases-loaded jam with one out in the bottom of the 10th, as Cam Skuce ripped a screamer right at the first baseman, who stepped on first base for the double play.

That was costly, as the Crusaders broke the stalemate in the 11th.

Dave Defusco came on in relief of Simmons to start the 11th, and fanned Prout’s first two hitters, Zach Moniz and Nick Fogarty.

But Prout’s lineup turned over and Defusco began to encounter control issues, walking leadoff hitter Cody Hattoy and Nick Niles, bringing up Prout’s best hitter, Feole, with a runner in scoring position.

He would capitalize, roping a single to right field that scored Hattoy to make it 2-1.

A couple of pitches later, Kyle McCann gave Prout a bit of breathing room, notching an RBI single of his own that scored Niles to increase the lead to two, 3-1.

Vets still had its final at-bats in the bottom half of the inning, but it couldn’t get anything going off of McCann, as Prout escaped with the 3-1 victory.

“I told them that ‘There’s no reason to hang your heads, someone had to win and someone had to lose,’” Vets head coach Nolan Landy said following the heartbreaking loss. “The ball dropped in for them and it didn’t drop in for us. I thought we outplayed them today, I thought we outpitched them today. We just didn’t get the win. When we needed the ball to drop in, it didn’t happen.”

Vets knew that it was in for a tough matchup against Feole, who is one of the best pitchers in the state, but Simmons outdueled Prout’s left-handed ace.

The Crusaders got on the board first in the top of the third, however, after Simmons issued a leadoff walk to Matt Marasco.

Moniz then advanced Marasco to second on a sacrifice bunt, and a wild pitch kept Marasco moving to third a couple of pitches later.

All Fogarty needed to do was hit a grounder to the right side to get the run in and he did exactly that, chopping an outside pitch to second to score Marasco for the game’s first run.

Against Feole, Vets could’ve folded after surrendering the first run, but it didn’t.

Rather, it began to put quality at-bats together.

And, in the bottom of the fifth, the ’Canes were finally able to scratch across a run.

With one down, Nick Beaufort doubled off Feole, before moving to third on a passed ball.

Second baseman Ryan Costa then singled through the right side to tie the score at 1.

Vets’ offense recorded five hits and drew two walks against Feole over nine innings.

“Just attack early, don’t wait until you get deep or he’ll slider you or off-speed you to death,” Landy said of Vets’ game plan against Feole. “Guys executed and I was very proud of that.”

Despite the score being 1-1, Simmons took a no-hitter into extra innings, with the first Prout hit coming on a single by Marasco with one out in the eighth.

“He threw 10 innings, he had one hit,” Landy said of Simmons. “What can I say? He’s been doing it all year long. I still think he’s the best pitcher in Division II, by far. We knew coming to the field that this was how it was going to be. We knew it was going to be a battle, and it was.”

Feole exited the game after working through a stress-free ninth inning, as his outing came to a close with 11 strikeouts.

Prout brought in McCann out of the bullpen in the 10th, and Vets was happy to see Feole gone.

Defusco jumped on the first pitch from McCann and ripped it into the right center field gap for a double.

Chris Reid followed with a sacrifice bunt to move Defusco to third.

Dan Pratt then drew a walk, and McCann opted to intentionally walk Kyle Denis to set up a force at any base.

The move worked out for Prout, with Skuce lining into the double play to escape the jam, allowing it to mount a rally at the plate in the next half inning.

Vets was back in action in a must-win, losers’ bracket game on Saturday against No. 8 Smithfield. The ’Canes couldn’t stay alive, with the Sentinels pulling off the upset, 3-2, behind a complete game from Ryan Powell.