SWIFTWATER Two teams coming off exciting Mountain Valley Conference baseball playoff victories delivered more of the same in Thursday's championship game.

Tuesday's semifinal upsets set the bar high in terms of drama, but East Stroudsburg South and Pleasant Valley exceeded and hype and expectations in an exhilarating title game.In a game that couldn't be settled in regulation, the Cavaliers edged Pleasant Valley, 6-5, in eight innings.The Bears played small ball early on as they've been doing the past few weeks jumping out to a 2-0 lead.Despite the early advantage, however, Pleasant Valley didn't take full advantage of its chances."We had a big opportunity in the second inning when we had the bases loaded with one out and we only brought one run home," said Pleasant Valley head coach Charlie Inserra. "I believe we allowed South to mentally get back into the game at that point. At no point did I think they were going to roll over and we could cruise."The Cavalier bats were relatively quiet early in the contest. Trailing 2-1 in the bottom of the fourth, ESS put runners on first and second base with just one out. Inserra brought in relief pitcher Thomas Aruda in a tough position. It proved to be the correct move as Aruda got a 6-4-3 double play on the first pitch."Everyone that took the mound today really competed, Inserra said. "We talked about letting the other team physically beat us. We didn't beat ourselves we made very few mistakes defensively and didn't issue many walks. We made South beat us and they did."The Bears were still clinging to a 3-1 lead in the sixth when the Cavaliers rallied. A Jake Cirillo RBI single got things started before Mike DelCorso scorched a two-run double to give the Cavaliers the lead. Anthony Merola followed with a RBI single to give the Cavaliers a 5-3 advantage heading into top of the seventh inning.The Bears were down to their final out in the top of the seventh inning with runners on second and third for Travis VanHouten.VanHouten fought off a Furst pitch with two strikes and sent very high fly ball to shallow left field. But the swirling winds played havoc with the ball and it fell just in between two diving Cavalier outfielders. Both runners scored to tie the game and the Bears appeared to again have the momentum."Over the last week and a half we've really embraced the underdog role," said Inserra. "There were plenty of times during this game where we could have quit but our kids didn't."Nick Domenici came into the game in the seventh inning to sit down the Cavaliers in order and send this game to extra innings.The game was about to take another dramatic twist in the top of the eighth inning. Brendan Kearns of Pleasant Valley was at the dish with two outs and his team was looking for a spark. Kearns hit a Texas-Leaguer down the right field line which dropped between the second basemen and right fielder. The Cavalier fielders collided and the first basemen was forced to retrieve the ball from right field. Kearns great motored his way around third base looking for the inside-the-park home run. In what may have been the most exciting single play this season, Kearns was nailed at the plate by a perfect relay throw."That's one of those wild plays where they needed to retrieve the ball, make a good relay, and apply the tag and they did," Inserra said. "These games are all about taking a shot and we tried to take one there with the game on the line."Kyle Furst led off the bottom of the eighth inning with a single. Furst eventually ended up on third base as the bases were loaded with one out. Benny Nieves hit the game winning sacrifice fly to deep right field which scored Furst to give the Cavaliers the win and the MVC title."These guys are resilient and they don't quit," said Cavalier coach Kane Furst. "They could have folded but they didn't. I couldn't be more proud of the hard work they put in and their never say die attitude that they have."The loss ended the season for Pleasant Valley (8-12), which needed the automatic berth that goes to league champions to qualify for the District 11 playoffs."I'm extremely proud of our team," said Inserra. "We didn't belong in this game in the eyes of a lot of people and if you break this game down, we missed a bunch of opportunities to win this game. South deserves a ton of credit, they're well coached and the bottom line was that someone had to win today."Pleasant Valley 110 001 20 - 5 9 1EastburgSouth 001 004 01 - 6 11 1Borger, Aruda(4), Domenici (7) and Shank; Nazario, Furst (3) and Hennessy. W - Furst. L - Domenici.