photo by: Andrew Grimm

Photo by Andrew Grimm The Cameron Dragons baseball team, pictured after winning the OVAC 1A baseball championship against Trinity Christian on Saturday in the Edison Unified Sports Complex.

RICHMOND — Cameron entered Saturday afternoon’s OVAC Class 1A championship game looking for a little redemption.

A year earlier, on the same field at the Edison Unified Sports Complex, the Dragons took a lead to the bottom of the seventh and ended up losing a heartbreaker.

This time, they left Richmond much happier.

The Dragons scored the first four runs of the game, then responded after Trinity Christian battled back to tie the game, plating five of the next seven runs to take a 9-6 victory and claim the conference title.

“We have been fortunate enough to be here five years in a row, we were 2-2 coming into this one. The kids played great, we did what we needed to do,” Cameron head coach Adam Angel said. “We executed the small things and came away with the win.

“We made some mistakes last year, we talked about it all offseason. The kids worked really hard to get back to this point and the kids executed. We did not make a lot of mistakes today, the kids played well.”

After the No. 3 seed Warriors (9-7) had tied the game with a four-run third inning, top-seeded Cameron (19-5) came right back with a pair of runs in the bottom half and then had a huge three-run fifth to turn a one-run lead into four, which proved to be more than enough for Landen Francis, who earned the win in relief striking out seven in the final four innings.

He sealed the deal and prevented any late heart break by striking out the side in the seventh. Starter Soler Reed went the first three innings, fanning five.

Both were also instrumental in the win at the plate, Reed finishing with a triple and two RBIs and Francis finishing with two doubles, a single and two RBIs in earning game MVP honors.

“(Francis) is locked in, he’s a freshman and he’s played big for us all season,” Angel said. “He’s mentally matured on the mound and got confidence at the plate.”

Kason Angel, limited to the DH role due to injury, and Hunter Evans each had two hits and and an RBI, Angel hitting a double.

Zayde Long and Anthony Bellanco each drove in a run.

For Trinity, Sam Fulk had a double and two RBIs, while Ty Hutson had a double and single, Nathan Adams doubled and Parker Hopkins and Ethan Hartley each drove in a run.

UP NEXT

As it works out, the teams are slated to rematch on Monday in a regular season game in Morgantown.