As far as regular-season wins are concerned, they don’t get any bigger than this.

Behind some key hitting and an impressive pitching performance, the Aberdeen Bobcats upset the state’s fifth-ranked team — WF West — in earning a key 5-3 victory on Wednesday at Bishop Sports Complex in Aberdeen.

“This is probably the happiest win I’ve ever had in this program,” Aberdeen head coach Jimmy McDaniel said. “This is something we strive for every time we play them, and we always fell short.”

WF West (11-3 overall, 10-2 2A Evergreen) entered the game sitting in first place in the 2A Evergreen Conference and ranked No. 5 in the latest WIAA RPI poll.

Aberdeen (9-3, 7-3) entered Wednesday’s contest in third place, trailing the Bearcats by three games and second-place Tumwater by 1.5 games.

But behind a determined effort by freshman starting pitcher Lilly Camp, Aberdeen took the early lead. Camp struck out the side in the top of the first and her offense provided a spark in the bottom half of the inning when Aili Scott led off with a double and later scored on shortstop Hailey Wilson’s ground out to put Aberdeen up 1-0.

WF West responded with two runs on a two-out single by Savannah Hawkins in the third to take a 2-1 lead.

Aberdeen tied the game the next half-inning when third baseman Maddie Gore walked and advanced to second on a stolen base.

RYAN SPARKS | THE DAILY WORLD Aberdeen third baseman Maddie Gore smacks a base hit during the Bobcats’ 5-3 win over WF West on Wednesday in Aberdeen.

Camp then helped herself out by driving in Gore with a single to tie the game at 2-all.

WF West regained the lead with another clutch two-out base hit, this time off the bat of Breanna Crosby to score Staysha Fluetsch in the top of the fourth inning.

Aberdeen would tie the game at 3-all when center fielder Laynie Yakovich led off the fifth with a double and later scored on a single by Zoe Vessey.

The Bearcats once again threatened with two outs in the fifth after Camp issued back-to-back walks, but the right-hander settled in to get shortstop Avalon Myers to fly out to Merryn Bruner in left field to end the frame.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, Camp reached on a base hit with one out and was replaced with courtesy-runner Scotlyn Lecomte, who later advanced to third on a single by Aberdeen first baseman Emma Siano.

Lecomte then raced home to score the go-ahead run when WF West pitcher Kamy Dacus uncorked a wild pitch, moving Siano up to second in the process.

After Bruner struck out it was Yakovich’s turn to come up with a clutch two-out, run-scoring hit. Yakovich drove a Dacus 1-2 pitch sharply down the third-base line to score Siano and give Aberdeen a 5-3 lead.

That was all the insurance Camp would need. The Bobcats’ ace pitched like an experienced upperclassman, recording a 1-2-3 inning in the sixth and wiggling out of a bases-loaded jam with two outs in the seventh, ending the game by inducing Myers to fly out to Bruner in deep left field.

“I was so proud of everyone. … (Bruner) came up clutch and got that (last out) for us,” said Camp, who remained composed in the circle despite admitting she was dealing with the typical insecurities of a first-year varsity player. “I was struggling out there for a little bit. It was all in my head. I just can’t think of doing anything bad and that I have my team behind me. They helped me a lot.”

If Camp was scared, she hid it well in snapping the Bearcats’ eight-game winning streak by holding WF West to five hits and three walks while striking out nine.

Camp and the Bobcats defense held the heart of the WF West lineup — Hawkins, Dacus and Myers — to 1-for-9 with three strikeouts and a pair of walks.

RYAN SPARKS | THE DAILY WORLD Aberdeen freshman pitcher Lilly Camp allowed five hits and struck out nine in earning a 5-3 win over WF West on Wednesday at the Bishop Sports Complex in Aberdeen.

“The big credit is to all the players for all the hard work they do in practice and in preparing for games like this. It showed. They showed out today,” said McDaniel, who also complemented the work of his coaching staff after the victory. “This is a program win.”

The victory puts Aberdeen a game behind Tumwater for second place and two games behind WF West for the league’s top spot.

“We have to be humble in defeat and humble in victory,” McDaniel said. “We’re just at the halfway point and we’re sitting in third place. The goal is to go to state and they are all going to do their part at make sure that happens. The focus is on the next game now.”

Camp believes the will help Aberdeen moving forward.

“I think that now that we beat this team, it will give us a lot more confidence going into a Tumwater or another WF West game,” she said. “I think it just gave us a whole bunch more confidence and got us really excited about the next game.”

Aberdeen takes on Black Hills at 4:30 p.m. on Friday at Black Hills High School.

WF West 002 100 0 — 3 5 0

Aberdeen 101 120 x — 5 10 3

WF West — Crosby (2-3, R, RBI), Fragner (1-4, R), Hawkins (1-3, 2RBI), Fluetsch (1-3, R). LP – Dacus (6 IP, 10H, 5R, 5K, 2BB).

Aberdeen — Scott (2-4, 3B, R, SB), Camp (2-3, R, RBI), Yakovich (2-3, R, RBI), Vessey(2-3, RBI), Siano (1-2, R), Gore (1-2, R, 2 SB), Wilson (0-4 RBI). WP – Camp (7 IP, 5H, 3R, 9K, 3BB).