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Powered by the hitting of Nick Testo and Ivan Wood, and the pitching of Harry Klein, the Avalon baseball team won the Maryland State B Private School championship, 6-2 over St. Maria Goretti at Shirley Povich Field Wednesday.

Klein allowed two runs in five innings of work to pick up his seventh win in 10 decisions for the Black Knights (16-9). Ace pitcher Bennie Sanchez, who racked up six wins this season, worked two shutout innings to seal the victory.

Testo, the team's catcher, went 3 for 3 with three runs batted in to give him 24 for the season. Ivan Wood added a hit, three walks and two RBIs against J.J. O'Neill, who Avalon coach Patrick Duffy said is headed to the University of Maryland-Baltimore County and who has a fastball that can rise to 90 miles per hour.

"We really weren't sure what kind of team we would have," said Duffy, who has reached the championship game four out of the last five years. "We've never had a team play this close. Their togetherness was just unbelievable. They truly wanted to see each other succeed."

Goretti took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning but Avalon quickly tied the contest on a run-scoring single by Testo to bring home Josh Brunvoll. Avalon then took the lead on a Testo RBI in the third inning. St. Maria knotted the score on a sacrifice fly in the top of the fourth.

After seeing its first two batters go down via strikeout in the bottom of the fourth, the Black Knights got a two-run double by Wood. Testo knocked in another run with a double in the bottom of the sixth inning for a 5-2 advantage and a groundball by Klein brought another run.

The win was the 100th of Duffy's career. Sanchez, who finished the year with 104 strikeouts, Klein, Testo and Wood were named to the all-tournament team. Klein went 2-0 with a 0.58 ERA in the tournament while Testo batted .643 and Wood had seven RBI during the team's four-game championship run.