The Suffolk Youth Athletic Association 11U Bronco team made comeback wins its trademark at the recent PONY Baseball sectional tournament in Chesapeake, and it saved the most astonishing example for the final championship game.

“It was pretty impressive,” coach Lance Cleghorn said.

The SYAA team advanced unbeaten to the championship game of the double-elimination tournament. To come in second, it would have to be defeated twice by the Western Branch Gold 11U team, which it had already topped earlier in the event.

But the WB squad was up for the challenge.

“We had a very strong pitching performance with Darius Surrett and Aidan Gay closing it out, but we came out a little flat and didn’t play very good defense,” Cleghorn stated in an email.

SYAA fell 12-6 and needed a different kind of performance in the second game, but it did not get it initially.

“Aidan Gay was pitching and was outstanding, but we were down 13-4 going into the bottom of the fifth,” Cleghorn stated.

Recalling his thought process during the game, the coach said, “You think, ‘We just don’t have it today,’ and then all of a sudden they started coming back.”

The SYAA squad recorded nine runs in the bottom of the fifth to tie the game. It was hard for Cleghorn to pinpoint a star because the entire lineup was involved.

“Everybody did their job in that inning,” he said.

Johnny Gray took the mound in the sixth inning and helped keep any Western Branch players from reaching base. Then, the Suffolk team scored four runs to take the lead.

Gray pitched the seventh and final inning, facing the opponent’s potent rotation at the top of the order. Only four batters made appearances before the game was over.

“That Western Branch Gold team, they are a strong hitting club,” Cleghorn said. “(Johnny) did exactly what he was supposed to in that position.”

Gray also complemented his clutch play on the mound by going 4-for-5 at the plate, hitting for the cycle, meaning he produced a single, double, triple and home run in the SYAA club’s 17-13 win.

“You can’t count them out anymore,” Cleghorn said of his team.

The squad’s other two wins in the tourney came in extra innings. After a luck-of-the-draw first-round bye, it won 8-7 over Western Branch Blue 11U in eight innings.

Nate Varnier threw seven strong innings, and Gay closed it out in the eighth. The Suffolk team scored twice in the bottom of the seventh to tie the game, and Joseph Frole tripled in the bottom of the eighth and scored the winning run off a single by Gay.

Cleghorn’s team next won 10-9 in eight innings against its eventual championship opponent, Western Branch Gold. The SYAA club again had to score twice in the bottom of the seventh to tie the game, but then went down again in the eighth.

His team trailing 9-8 with two outs in the bottom of the eighth and two runners on, SYAA’s Nate Varnier scored from third on a wild pitch. WB tried to make a play at the plate, but had to track the ball down again when it was deflected after it struck Varnier.

Nicholas Cleghorn, who had been on second base, saw the deflection, rounded third and ran home for the win.

“This was a very heads-up play for Nicholas, as I don’t think anyone else in the park noticed what was happening,” Coach Cleghorn stated.

After noting many standouts on his team, the coach summed up the source of success at the tourney.

“It was a whole team effort,” Cleghorn said. “It took all 13 kids to win those games.”

The SYAA 11U Bronco team begins play this weekend in the PONY Baseball regional tournament in Huntersville, N.C.