SARANAC LAKE — The Saranac Lake baseball team defeated the host Northeastern Clinton Cougars 7-2 on Friday to advance to the Section VII, Class B championship series.

Tied 2-2 after the fourth inning, the No. 3-seeded Red Storm scored three runs in the third and added two more in the seventh to defeat the No. 2-seeded Cougars. Saranac Lake will now face the top-seeded Saranac Central Spartans in a best-of-three championship series.

It’ll be the first time that Section VII will put on a championship series. The games will be hosted on home fields — as opposed to a neutral site.

Section VII’s Class A, Class B and Class C baseball championships have all adopted this series format. Class D’s championship, which Lake Placid plays in, will have a one-game championship.

On Thursday, the Red Storm’s Ethan Knight pitched a complete game, allowing just four hits en route to his team’s second straight sectional title appearance. The Cougars’ Jacob Perkins tossed six innings before being relieved in the seventh by Robert McIntyre.

Zack Goetz led Saranac Lake’s offense with three hits and four RBIs. Teammates Knight, Sam Clark, Dillon Wilson and Alius Martelle had two hits each. Connor Gillis also recorded an extra-base hit — a double — for the Red Storm, which recorded 13 hits.

The first game in the Section VII, Class B Championship Series will be held at Saranac Central at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday. The second game will be at Petrova Field, also at 4:30 p.m., on Thursday. If a third game is needed, it will take place at the Picketts Corners field on Friday.

Tickets for each series game will soon be available at gofan.co/nysphsaa7. Individual baseball game tickets are $7.50 each, with a series ticket for baseball — valid for all two or three games in a series — available for $15.