The Tupper Lake baseball team poses with the Section X banner after defeating the Norwood-Norfolk Flyers 3-1 on Sunday at Saint Lawrence University’s Tom Fay Field in Canton. (Provided photo)

TUPPER LAKE — The Tupper Lake baseball team defended its crown on Sunday, after topping the Norwood-Norfolk Flyers 3-1 in the Section X, Class C title game at Saint Lawrence University’s Tom Fay Field in Canton.

The Lumberjacks have now won the sectional title in three of their last four seasons. Head coach Dan Brown said, with so many new players on this roster from years prior, his squad was really fired up about this championship.

“This is their first win as major contributors to a sectional championship team,” Brown said. “We just came together and we played well, and we know that we can rely on our defense and we trusted in what happened.”

Karter Kenniston pitched all seven innings, striking out eight batters while giving up just five hits and one run. Kenniston got off to an unusual start in the first inning when he gave up a first-pitch triple to Norwood-Norfolk’s Brock Cousineau.

Then, just a few pitches later, Cousineau was driven in on an RBI double from Noah North.

“After that, (Kenniston) was no nonsense,” Brown said.

Kennsiton then tossed three straight 1-2-3 innings, which included four strikeouts during that stretch. In the fifth and sixth innings, the Lumberjacks’ defense came up strong and held the runners without a score before Kenniston closed out the game with another 1-2-3 inning.

“Our defense was phenomenal; our infield made every play,” Brown said. “I think John Tower at shortstop had four or five phenomenal putouts. Luka Dukett at third had three, Charlie Skiff at second base had two and Wyatt Godin at first had two really nice picks. I’ve never seen an infield play like that in high school baseball, in-person like ours did (Sunday).”

In the bottom half of the first inning, Kenniston led off with a walk before he stole second base. After advancing to third on a ground out, Dukett hit a sacrifice fly to even the game at 1-1.

While still tied, Cooper Cuttaia singled with two outs in the bottom of the fourth inning, the senior was able to reach home plate through past balls to claim the lead.

In the bottom of the fifth, Tower led off with a single and stole second base. After a pair of outs, Dukett hit an RBI single to drive in Tower to extend the lead to 3-1.

The Lumberjacks, which have outscored their opponents 223-65 this season, didn’t have the offense clicking like it normally does. The team had five total hits. Tower, Dukett, Godin, Cuttaia and Kyler McClain each had one hit.

“I mean, it’s awesome when we score 15 or 20 runs in a game, but we know that’s not realistic when you get the state level of play,” Brown said. “Defense is what you’ve got to rely on, and pitching. (On Sunday) we only scored three runs, which is not our game plan, but we came with the gloves. We came with the arms and we shut them right down.”

Brown added that the team never had its typical breakout inning, where they score multiple runs.

“We got into some scoring positions, we just didn’t capitalize,” he said. “But it didn’t matter because we really locked it down with our defense. It was phenomenal with our infield.”

Cousineau and North each had two hits, while Daniel Webster had one for Norwood-Norfolk, which ended its season with a 9-7 overall record. Ronald Stickney started on the mound as the Flyers recorded six strikeouts.

Earlier this season, Norwood-Norfolk defeated Tupper Lake in the first game of a doubleheader on May 8. Stickney pitched during that game.

“We came (here) knowing that there was the potential for that,” Brown said. “We’re just like any other baseball team, we can lose to any team on any given day. It was in our minds that this was a team that gave us our only league loss on the year, but we just said that we’ve got to come in, we’ve got to play defense, we’ve got to be smart at the play, we’ve got to see pitches and we’ve got to play Tupper Lake baseball. We knew we’d come out on top as long as we played our game and we stuck to our game plan.”

Up next, the Lumberjacks will take on the Section 2, Class C champion, Saratoga Central Catholic Saints at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday at the Joe Bruno Stadium at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy. Brown said his team is going to take the next few days to work on defense and their approach at the plate.

“We know they’re probably going to come with the hard-throwing pitcher, we know that they’re gonna hit the ball, so it’s just knowing and having that mindset of they’re gonna hit the ball, it’s gonna be OK,” he said. “We might not get a lot of hits, so we gotta make it count with our situational hitting. We’ve got to come to the plate with a good approach and know what pitch we’re looking for. It’s like any baseball game, we’re going to go and give it our all, and we have just as good of a chance at winning that game as any. As long as we stay up and try to play our game, who knows what’s going to happen?”

The Saints are currently 23-1, and have won their last seven games.