DECATUR — The Cassopolis baseball team battled its way into the district championship game in Decatur on Saturday after defeating the Marcellus Wildcats by a score of 8-1.

Unfortunately for the Rangers, their season ended at the hands of the host Raiders as they were blanked in the championship game 8-0.

Cassopolis rode the arm of Neo Flynn-Balliro to victory as he struck out three and didn’t give up a single walk in the complete-game effort.

After the game, Cassopolis coach Nick Davis had high praise for the opposing team.

“I have a lot of respect for those guys and their coaching,” he said. “They’re a good baseball team overall.”

The game may have ended with a lopsided score, but the Rangers were unable to pull away until a bottom of the sixth-inning rally.

Entering the bottom of the sixth, the score was tied at 1-1, until the seven-run explosion by the Rangers.

“Marcellus gave us everything we wanted for six innings,” Davis said.

Cassopolis finished with eight hits against the Wildcats and exhibited great plate discipline with six walks as well.

Cerious Wilson and Colin Bogue paced the team with two hits each, while Mason Polomcak, Hunter Parsons, Grayson Hagenbuch and Gage Collins each added singles.

Wilson and Parsons both added two RBI’s each, with one of Wilson’s coming from a double he smashed into leftfield.

Polomcak, Collins, Bogue, and Flynn-Balliro each drove in a run as well.

Saturday’s victory was the product of a season of development according to Coach Davis.

“This season overall was definitely a lot of learning — just getting back to playing baseball the right way and buying-in to the baseball program here in Cassopolis,” he said.

Davis believes the Rangers are on the right track and hopes to bring some of the positives from the first game into the championship.

“One of our biggest things is confidence and being able to stay focused for seven innings, and I felt like today was a great example of that,” he said.

The Rangers have a reason for confidence as they brought a 16-9 record into the championship game, but they also understand that mistakes will happen.

“Keeping a positive outlook on the game is going to be huge for us,” Coach Davis said.

In the championship game, the Raiders took advantage of some walks and errors to win the district title.

Travis Hunsberger tossed a three-hitter for Decatur while striking out five.

Dylan Green suffered the loss for Cassopolis.