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The Westhampton Aviators came from behind to beat the Jersey Pilots, 7-5, to win the 2009 Atlantic Collegiate Baseball League title. Photos by Brett Mauser

Westhampton - The smiles on their faces - the players, the fans, whoever was wearing red at Hite Field on Friday - said it all. This one meant a lot. In the inaugural season of the Westhampton Aviators, they'd finally scaled the peak they'd first set out to climb two months ago, bringing the Atlantic Collegiate Baseball League championship to the East End with a 7-5 victory over Wolff Division champion Jersey Pilots.

Campbell's Alex Aycoth ropes one of his three hits on the day; he went 10 for 18 in the playoffs, including three hits in each of his last two games.

It turns out the mob near the mound at the division championships four days ago was merely a dress rehearsal for inarguably the biggest moment in the history of the team and the organization. Alex Pracher, who struck out the side in the ninth inning, was the recipient of body blows from all angles as the Aviators celebrated the '09 title.

"I just tossed my glove aside and let it happen," Pracher said. "I was actually a little scared because we have some big guys on the team. It was fun. Even if I injured myself at the bottom of it, I wouldn't trade it for anything. Most teams take all year to build relationships and get an idea of who's who, but we had confidence in each other and meshed really well."

Westhampton earned the second seed in the Kaiser Division playoffs and knocked off Southampton 16-0 in the semifinals. It was on the brink of elimination when the North Fork Ospreys took Game 1 of their best-of-three series but the Aviators struck back with 9-2 and 7-1 wins to reach the final.

"We came out here and we might have played against each other but nobody really knew each other," first baseman Chris Griffin said. "After the first week, we worked out and played a couple of games and we really played together as a team."

Westhampton was dealt a three-run deficit about as soon as the National Anthem was over. However, the Aviators clawed their way back with the long ball and a little mischief on the basepaths, ultimately using a four-run fourth inning to go ahead for good.

First baseman Chris Griffin makes a stab along the line and flips to pitcher Raymond Courtney for the out.

Jersey's Park Smith, Marcos Torres and Ken Gregory socked back-to-back-to-back home runs in the top of the first inning to silence the buzz on the Westhampton side. Aviators starter Peter Budkevics (C.W. Post) put another runner in scoring position in that inning but escaped further damage with consecutive strikeouts to end the threat. Westhampton's bats immediately went to work, with Andrew Siano (Hartford) working a lead-off walk and Griffin (Iona) launched a split-finger fastball from Pilot starter Chris Roach deep to left-center for a two-run homer, cutting the gap to one.

Then came the four-run fourth. Siano's chopper in front of the plate stayed afloat long enough to bring in Mike Mandarino (Camden County) and then Nick Ahmed (Connecticut) stroked a single to left to tie the game at 4. Westhampton's top two base stealers went in motion shortly after. Ahmed stole second easily but Torres' throw sailed into center field. To make matters worse, center fielder Bill Rice allowed the errant throw to squirt by him, allowing Ahmed to score all the way from first to give Westhampton a 6-4 edge.

"I think that was the turning point right there - to go from down two to up two," Manager Dave Walker said. "Nick's been doing that all year. When he gets on base, he's usually on third in a matter of three or four pitches."

Westhampton continued to attack in the fifth as Joe Vaskas (Concordia) came around to score on a single by Gerard Tingos (Long Island U.). The Aviators were held scoreless the rest of the way, but relief work by Ray Courtney (Fairleigh Dickinson) and Pracher (Stanford) sealed the win. Courtney registered the victory by holding Jersey to one run over 3 1/3 innings. Pracher took the ball for the final 2 1/3 innings, getting Gregory, the ACBL's leading hitter, to fly out to end the seventh, and then retiring the next six batters as well to earn the save.

UConn's Nick Ahmed gets a high-five from teammate Chris Walker after scoring from first on a stolen bases and two Pilot errors on a single play.

The final four outs came by way of the strikeout, including a swinging strike to Mickey Zudonyi on a Pracher slider that sent the Westhampton dugout barreling onto the field.

On the heels of a three-hit day in the Kaiser Division championship series finale, Alex Aycoth went 3 for 3 on the day. The Campbell product had a monster postseason, batting .556 (10 for 18) in the five games, four of which were Westhampton wins. The Aviators, who led the division in runs scored, scored at least six runs in all five games with a playoff high of 16 against Southampton in the semifinals.

Chris Walker, the team's catcher, was an original Hampton Whaler and won the division a year ago. Bearing an Aviator uniform this year, he was thrilled to have taken it one step farther. Said Walker, "Imagine you work your whole life to do something - most people don't win a championship - but all the hard work and preparation paid off."

Under a setting sun, the celebration is on at Hite Field in Westhampton where the Aviators pulled out a 7-5 victory over Jersey to claim this year's ACBL crown.