Staff photo / Brian Yauger Champion junior Konner Reed delivers a pitch during Friday’s victory over LaBrae in Leavittsburg.

LEAVITTSBURG — Friday’s game between Champion and LaBrae has been sitting in limbo since the beginning of the season.

All the Flashes had to do was get nine outs and Champion would earn its first win over the rival Vikings since 2023.

LaBrae had the tying runner on third, but the Flashes held on to top the Vikings 3-2.

“LaBrae is a great team,” first-year Champion coach Anthony Meyer said. “They have a lot of good athletes, they have really good pitchers, they got guys that can hit up and down the lineup, and I know for our seniors, I don’t think they beat these guys since their freshman year, so this is a big win for them, and a big win for us to be able to regain focus. We started this game back at the end of March, so to come out here in May, about a month and a half later, it really shows how focused these kids are, and how dedicated they are.”

Meyer’s first year has been an exciting one for the Flashes (12-7). There have been some tight games and some promising signs for the future of the program. For Meyer, who played on Champion’s 2017 state championship-winning team, getting his team back on a deep tournament run is the goal.

“We got a couple young guys that are starting – actually three freshmen in our starting lineup, and some guys that had to move around that we didn’t have plans for at the beginning of the year – so a lot of kids have stepped up in a lot of big spots,” Meyer said. “We’ve won some big games, and we’ve lost some close ones, but one thing these kids do is they never give up. These kids battle to the end. We’ve had multiple games go extra innings, and these kids have fought and never laid down and quit.”

They had to do just that on Friday.

LaBrae’s Easton Armstrong was sent home by Eric Reibold to cut Champion’s lead down to a single run with a runner on third, but Flashes junior Konner Reed held strong to end the game.

“We knew we had nine outs to work with, and we knew we were going to get solid pitching from Landon Brunstetter, he’s been like that all year, he’s lights out, and that’s what we got from him,” Vikings coach Ed Anthony said. “Sometimes we start off a little slow, and the first two innings we did. Then this third inning here, we had opportunities. … We really had an opportunity there to at least tie it up, and I would have liked our chances in extras with our ace out there.”

LaBrae (15-5) ends its regular season with a pair of challenging games. The Vikings host Girard today at 1 p.m., then go up to Lakeview on Monday for their season finale. In its first tournament matchup, the four-time league champion Vikings will welcome Loudonville to town.

Champion concludes its regular season on the road against Girard on Tuesday, then opens its tournament hosting Pymatuning Valley on Friday.

For Meyer, the plan is to just keep growing.

“I think we just have to keep building on what we’ve been doing,” Meyer said. “We take our practices very seriously, and the things that we do to prepare for each and every game, and I think just continuing to maintain that focus and that chip-on-your-shoulder mentality that I always tell them about, improving from what we’ve done, and learning from the losses. Improve on the mistakes, don’t let them happen again, just continue to keep building and get momentum to go into the tournament, hopefully make some noise.”