If the defending state champion Truckee baseball team is to repeat, it’ll first have to fight out of the loser’s bracket of the Northern Division I-A regional tournament.

The Wolverines opened the playoff tournament in Winnemucca with a heartbreaking 5-4 loss to top-seeded Elko, as pinch hitter Connor Gallagher drove in Justin Pete with a walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh inning.

The Indians took an early lead off of Truckee starter Erik Holmer, scoring a run in the first inning and two more in the third for a 3-0 advantage.

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Elko starter Dalton Ridgway, meanwhile, was perfect through four innings. Truckee finally broke through with a four-run fifth to take over the lead.

Jackson Rohlf started off the inning with a single. Chris Towle was then hit by a pitch before Holmer drove in Rohlf for the Wolverines’ first run. Travis Ferre followed by knocking in Towle with a ground out, Holmer scored on a balk and Aaron Pado delivered a two-out RBI to round out the rally.

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But Elko battled back. The Indians pushed across a run in the sixth to knot the score going into the final inning. Pete opened the inning with a double off of Truckee reliever Ty Vaio. Pado then came in to relieve Vaio, and three pitches later Gallagher came through with the winning RBI.

Truckee, which entered as the No. 4 seed, will face the loser between second-seeded Lowry and third-seeded Fallon on Friday at 2 p.m. The tournament is double elimination.