SARANAC LAKE — For the second straight year, the Saranac Lake baseball team came up short of its goal of winning the Section VII, Class B title.

The Red Storm fell 7-1 to the Saranac Central Spartans on Thursday night at the Petrova field in Game 2 of the best-of-three series. Saranac Lake, which lost 5-1 in the series opener, ends its season with a 7-11 overall record.

A year ago, Saranac Lake lost to the Spartans in a one-game championship in extra innings. This time around, Saranac Central cruised to sectional title, allowing just six total hits during the series. Red Storm head coach Bryan Munn didn’t think the two-game result was indicative of what his team can do.

“I just feel like we had a team to be able to go far and could play with these guys for two games in a row,” he said.

Saranac Lake held strong through the first two innings, before the Spartans went to a bit of small ball in the top of the third inning. Saranac Central reached base on bunts and infield hits, along with capitalizing on the Red Storm’s three fielding errors that inning, to take a 5-0 advantage.

Munn said those mistakes, coupled with an injury to shortstop Connor Gillis during that inning really affected the game.

“(It) kind of changed the whole game plan as far as positioning and there was some things that came up that I wasn’t really ready for,” Munn said. “I had to make some quick decisions and some questionable moves on my part. I’ll own that.”

The Spartans extended their lead to 7-0, following back-to-back RBI singles from Robbie Squier and Landon Giroux in the fourth inning.

Saranac Lake scored its lone run in the bottom of the fifth inning, when Andrew Gay’s infield single drove in Sam Clark. However, back-to-back innings from Spartans pitcher Austin Lareau shut down any chance at a comeback.

Lareau tossed a complete game, striking out six batters, while allowing six hits en route to the victory. Seth Petrashune, who was named the series MVP, recorded two hits — a single and a triple. Lareau, Giroux, Squier and Max Coryer each had one hit.

Ethan Knight struck out one batter for the Red Storm, while teammate Connor Coventry entered in relief in the sixth inning and recorded two strikeouts. Munn said Knight battled and battled on the mound, despite facing some adversity through costly errors.

“It’s just tough when you have to get four or five outs in an inning,” he said. “But that happens. They’re kids, and we move on to the next day, whether it’s playing baseball or it’s summer vacation, whatever it is. I thought Connor came in, he was throwing hard. His curveball was working. It’s just one of those things. It was a little too late.”

Coventry also led the Red Storm offense with two hits, while Clark, Knight, Gay and Zack Goetz each had one. Coventry was named Saranac Lake’s sectional series MVP for his play at bat, and in center field, which included making some highlight reel diving snags.

“He’s made some catches that I thought, ‘I’m not sure how he got to that ball,'” Munn said. “He struggled a little bit at the plate this year, but if you asked him, he’d tell you the same thing. But he’s been a great teammate, he works hard and he’s full of intensity and emotion. And I love that in a player.”

Coventry was one of 10 seniors who capped of their high school baseball career for the Red Storm. Munn said they’re a hardworking group and was proud of what they’ve achieved in the past two seasons.

“I’ve coached a lot of them since they were little kids, so it was emotional for me to watch them walk off,” he said. “But I met with the juniors and said that we’ve got to get right back to work, and I’ve got a good core coming up from JV, and hopefully we can make another run and get back in the championship. Hopefully, it goes our way a little bit.”

The Spartans, which improved to 18-3 overall, will now take on the Section 2, Class B champion on June 5 in the NYSPHSAA subregional round.