Before the season began, the Yuba City High baseball team came up with a mission statement. The Honkers printed it, and tacked it up on the clubhouse wall.

"These guys wanted to repeat as section champions," said Honkers coach Jim Stassi. "We looked at that statement and talked about it every day, and that kind of set the tone for the season."

On Monday, Stassi smiled, "mission accomplished."

The Honkers defeated Benicia 3-2 in the Sac-Joaquin Section Div. III championship game at Sacramento City College to capture back-to-back titles.

Brandon Pope, who had been stellar in his last two playoff starts for the Honkers, was once again, a monster on the mound.

The senior played out his last game in a Honkers uniform in style.

Pope set the side down in order in the first two innings, and after allowing a pair of hits and a run in the third, he responded with back-to-back 1-2-3 innings in the fourth and fifth.

Altogether, Pope who mixed some off-speed pitches in with his fastball, struck out 10 batters, scattered five hits, walked just two and allowed only two runs in the complete-game win.

"Brandon has really come around recently because of Jack Johnson," Stassi said about his pitching coach. "I tried for two years to get Brandon to throw a curveball, and Jack gets in here, works with him, and just weeks later, he's throwing one."

However, the win didn't come easy.

With Yuba City up 3-1 in the bottom of the seventh, Benicia threatened.

The Panthers' Tim Mangini led off the inning with a single and Matt Greenwald followed with a hard-hit double off the wall in right-center field.

Then, with runners in scoring position, Adam Dosier grounded home pinch runner Joe Windmiller from third and Benicia cut the lead to one run.

With one out and a runner on second, Pope's split-finger fastball shined.

Pope struck out Danny Dias, walked Daniel Wyman and then caught Josh Van Blake swinging to seal the deal, empty the Yuba City dugout and end up on the bottom of a 20-man dog pile.

"This is a tribute to the amount of time they've all put in to this," Stassi said. "It's the fruits of our labor."

The Honkers had their work cut out for them against Benicia's pitcher Trey Mohammed.

The 6-foot-4 senior was all arm and he showed it.

Mohammed struck out 12 Honkers through his six innings.

"We knew he was going to set up his fastball on the outside of the plate," Stassi said. "But we didn't know he would have that good of command of his off-speed stuff. He gave us some trouble." Although, Stassi admits, "we had our chances to put some more runs on the board."

Yuba City hit into an inning-ending double play in the first, and then had a runner picked off in the second, before getting things to go its way.

After Benicia scored off a Devon Zenn RBI-single to strike first in the third, the Honkers fired back.

Justin Lamb hit a single, stole second, and with two outs, James Haymore hit a ball down the third-base line, forcing third Dosier to backhand the grounder. However, the ball got by him and went rolling into the outfield, and Lamb from second.

With the game tied 1-1, Yuba City scored the go-ahead run in the sixth when James Haymore walked, moved to third on a Jake Stassi single and then took home on a wild pitch.

Zenn led Benicia by going 2-for-3 on the day, while Zach Walden led the Honkers by going 2-for-3 and scoring what would prove to be a game-winning insurance run in the seventh off a Kevin Noall single.

Noall also went 2-for-4, but would be stranded on base after both hits.

Yuba City left eight runners on base for the day.

While coach Stassi was pleased with the team effort, a few individual performances stood out.

"I thought Justin Lamb and Tyler Fry both made some very tough defensive plays for us in pressure situations," he said. "I thought Max did a nice job for us behind the plate."

Lamb and Fry combined on six putouts in the game, including three to end innings.

Stassi also credited his assistant coaches for the achievement, especially Jeff Kuykendall and Joe Graben.

"We're going to lose coach Graben after this year, he's retiring and he's a big part of what we do here," coach Stassi said. "But I may try and drag him back here next season."

Contact sports reporter Bryan DeMain at bdemain@appealdemocrat.com or at 749-4796.