NORTH BEND — In a scene that was far too familiar for North Bend sports teams during the school year, the playoff run for the Bulldog baseball team came to an end in the state semifinals Tuesday.

Newport scored a run in the seventh inning to beat the Bulldogs 5-4, denying North Bend a shot at the state championship. Instead, it will be the Cubs playing Astoria in Keizer on Saturday for the Class 4A crown.

The loss ended a historic season for the Bulldogs, who won 22 straight games and ascended to No. 1 in the coaches poll.

But in a thrilling game against another standout team in front of a standing-room-only crowd that swelled to more than 500 people, Newport’s hitting proved to be the difference Tuesday.

“I think this is what both teams expected today,” said North Bend coach Brad Horning of the close game. “I wish we were on the other side of it.”

While North Bend’s players gathered for one final team meeting and cheer in left field, the Cubs were celebrating their second straight trip to the state championship game after a near miss two seasons ago. Last year, La Grande beat Newport for the state title.

“We’ve got to get it this year,” said Tyler Conklin, one of the stars in Newport’s win.

Newport took a huge step Tuesday when Conklin crushed two of the Cubs’ three home runs and Travis Iverson did much of the rest of the damage, including driving in the winning run with his fourth hit of the afternoon.

North Bend had tied the game for the third time with a run in the bottom of the sixth inning, but Newport’s offense came through one last time.

Cole Skriver led off the seventh with a clean single over a leaping North Bend shortstop Andrew Slack and Tristan Metcalf followed with a perfect sacrifice bunt. Horning opted to walk Conklin intentionally, even though Iverson already had three hits, including a home run.

“In that situation, you pick your poison,” Horning said later.

Iverson lined a two-strike pitch into right field and Skriver beat the throw home from North Bend’s Kale Forrester, sliding in ahead of any possible tag.

After another walk, North Bend turned the last of many great defensive plays this year. Mark Moore hit a grounder to Jarred Lincoln at second, who flipped it to Slack for a force out. Slack then threw to Dalton Iveans at first base to complete the double play.

With encouragement from the home crowd, the Bulldogs attempted one final rally. Skyler Walton beat out the throw on a grounder to third for a one-out infield single.

Kale Forrester flew out to right field, bringing up pitcher Bryce Weidman with North Bend’s last hope. Weidman tantalized the fans by slicing the first pitch just foul down the right-field line. But he bounced the next pitch right back to Iverson, who tossed it to first baseman Marcus Luther to end the game.

The seventh inning was the opposite of every similar situation earlier in the game, as well as North Bend’s opening win in the playoffs last week, when the Bulldogs scored four times in the seventh for an 8-7 victory.

Newport struck first Tuesday.

Weidman opened the game with back-to-back strikeouts. But Conklin hit an 0-2 pitch over the scoreboard and onto the street beyond the right-field fence to give the Cubs an early 1-0 lead.

North Bend responded in the second inning. Weidman had a one-out single up the middle and Sean Jany followed by hitting a ball off the wall in right field. Weidman later scored on a Newport error.

In the fourth inning, it was Iverson’s turn to play long ball for the Cubs. He crushed the third pitch of the inning off the deck of a house beyond the left-field fence to put Newport back in front.

In the bottom of that inning, Jany was hit by a pitch. With two outs, Dalton Iveans lined the first pitch he saw to the fence in left-center for an RBI triple. Iveans then scored when lead-off hitter Alex Clark bounced a ball to second and Newport’s Casee Case muffed it. Clark beat the throw to first in a close play to score the run and give North Bend a 3-2 lead.

That advantage was short-lived. After Skriver flied out to lead off the fifth, Metcalf hit a double to the corner in left. Conklin hit the next pitch just over the glove of Kale Forrester at the wall in right field for a two-run homer.

North Bend evened the score in the sixth. Weidman led off with a single to right and Mike Montalbano came in as a pinch runner. Jany sacrificed Montalbano to second, but Ohlrich popped up. That brought up Iveans, who had two hard hits already in the game, and the first pitch from Iverson landed right between Iveans’ shoulder blades, putting runners on first and second with two outs. Clark then lined a double to right to score Montalbano with the tying run.

Unfortunately for North Bend, the hot part of Newport’s lineup batted in the seventh and produced the winning run. Skriver, Metcalf, Conklin and Iverson combined for nine of Newport’s 10 hits — the other was a double by No. 5 hitter Luther — and all five runs.

“We knew we could hit the ball,” said Iverson, adding that the Cubs batted with confidence.

They had seen Weidman when the teams met earlier in the season — also a 5-4 win for Newport.

But Conklin said that game, North Bend’s last loss before its long winning streak, did not give the Cubs any extra boost Tuesday.

“This was a totally different game,” he said, adding that North Bend and the Cubs were much improved since their first meeting. “They had to make it to the semifinals for a reason.”

A big part of the reason for North Bend’s success was outstanding pitching by Weidman and Forrester.

Weidman, the ace, got the nod to start Tuesday despite suffering slightly from the flu.

“Bryce was a little under the weather,” Horning said. “He pitched well except he gave up four runs on homers.”

Ethan Ottemiller, North Bend’s veteran catcher, wanted Weidman on the mound.

“He’s probably the best guy I’ve ever caught,” Ottemiller said.

“Bryce did a heck of a job,” added Iveans.

Weidman finished with 10 strikeouts in his final game of the season. He’s one of the players who will return next year, along with fellow juniors Jany and Skyler Walton and sophomores Lincoln and Iveans.

“I’m excited (for next year),” said Iveans. “But I know we’re never going to have the team jell together (like) this year.”

“This is a great team,” said Ottemiller. “All these guys are great guys.”

That made Tuesday’s defeat harder to swallow.

“It’s a tough loss,” said Iveans. “I wish it could have gone the other way. It was a hell of a season.”

Astoria advanced to the championship game by beating Sisters 12-4 in the other semifinal Tuesday. In Class 5A, MidwesternLeague champion Thurston beat West Albany 11-9 to reach the title game against Ashland.

Notes: Newport was playing without one of its top stars, Eddie Crowe, who suffered a dislocated shoulder on a fluke play during Friday’s win against La Grande. ... Weidman and Iveans each had two of North Bend’s seven hits. The others were by Clark, Walton and Jany. ... The Bulldogs were the first league champions for North Bend since Horning’s senior year in 1991 and the first to go unbeaten in league play. They also joined an exclusive group in reaching the semifinals in a championship played in a bracket system, joining that 1991 team that reached the state title game, two volleyball squads and two girls basketball teams. North Bend has one state championship in each of those sports. ... North Bend’s other near misses this year included a one-point loss to Sweet Home in the boys state track meet on Saturday, a loss to top-ranked Sisters in the final minutes of a football quarterfinals game last fall and a playoff loss to Molalla that ended a standout boys basketball season. “This was a great senior class,” said Bill Masei, the head football coach and an assistant with the baseball team.