WILKES-BARRE — It took three extra days, 12 total innings and some help from the rest of the league, but Hazleton Area still managed to pull it off.

A long shot at the start of the week, the Cougars nevertheless claimed the WVC Division I East title on Saturday after a full afternoon of baseball at Hollenback Park.

Completing a game that had been suspended because of darkness on Wednesday, the Cougars outlasted Holy Redeemer 8-7 in 12 innings to win the crown outright. The championship came courtesy of a big assist from that same Royals squad, which knocked off Pittston Area 3-2 just a few hours earlier on Saturday at Hollenback.

Hazleton Area (9-6), which trailed Pittston Area and Coughlin by a game as late as Wednesday afternoon, won two games this week while the Patriots and Crusaders both lost twice to finish 8-7.

"Never thought we’d be here," Cougars coach Gino Cara said after the celebration. "This was important to me. It was very important to me on a personal level. These kids have been with me since they were 9 or 10 years old. To come back like this…"

It was an impressive feat. Fittingly, it was decided on a tense day on the diamond as Henderson Concepcion brought home Kyle Klein with a sacrifice fly to right in the top of the 12th, breaking a 7-7 tie that had stood since Wednesday.

Erik Johnson set the Royals down in order in the home half to pick up the win and finish off seven innings of relief.

The teams had originally played nine full innings thanks to a tying two-run homer by Redeemer’s Eric Ringsdorf with two outs in the bottom of the seventh on Wednesday. The game resumed Saturday in the top of the 10th.

"We’re probably the best six-loss team to ever win the division," joked Cara. "I think that says a lot about our conference. There aren’t many six-loss teams that win divisions, but this whole conference was outstanding this year, top to bottom."

The Royals, the lone Class 2A team out of 11 in Division I, proved that earlier in the day by stunning Pittston Area.

Ringsdorf delivered a two-run double in the first for an early lead. Pat Condo made it 3-1 in the fourth with an RBI single and Redeemer held off a late rally in the seventh, stranding the tying run at third base.

Will Cavanaugh pitched five innings of four-hit ball and Jim Strickland escaped a pair of jams for a two-inning save.

The Royals finished the regular season 5-10 and will once again be a threat in the 2A tournament, looking for a third straight appearance in the district title game.

"Obviously we’re out here to win (it all)," Redeemer coach Chris Ritsick said. "We’re getting prepped and ready for a run at the districts. … I think we still need to clean things up, but I think we’re headed in the right direction."

Pittston Area coach Paul Zaffuto had a different assessment of his squad after a second straight loss to teams trailing in the standings.

"The last two games, we didn’t even come to play," Zaffuto said. "We had championship on the mind, and guys just figure because we’re Pittston and we’ve been successful in the past that teams are just going to hand it over to us. They don’t understand that they come after us twice as hard.

"Redeemer’s sitting at the bottom of the pack, and here they are playing their hearts out. Our guys are cheering (on the bench), but they’re not showing anything on the field. They didn’t give me an effort that I thought we should’ve got for a championship game."

The Patriots had several chances to rally against the Royals and force a playoff for the division title. Anthony Schwab and Tyler Loftus both hit RBI singles, but the Patriots stranded 10 runners on the day, including three in the sixth and two in the seventh.

Earlier in the game, miscues led to two runners being thrown out at third.

That opened the door for the Cougars, who captured their second division title in four seasons under Cara.

"This one," Cara said, "is better than the last one. Every next one is better than the last one."