PENFIELD, N.Y. — There will be more baseball this summer for the Kingston-Saugerties American Legion Senior baseball team after it scored a dramatic 9-6 victory over Cottreall-Warner Post 942 in 10 innings at Penfield High on Wednesday, July 29, to claim the club’s first New York State title since Kingston Post 150 and Lamouree-Hackett Post 72 of Saugerties merged into one squad in 2020.

Kingston-Saugerties (24-9-1) scored five runs in the top of the 10th inning to break a 4-4 deadlock and take a 9-4 lead. The five-run cushion allowed the local Legion team to withstand a two-run homer to center field by Cottreall-Warner’s Max Caron in the bottom of the 10th off SUNY Ulster hurler Jaylen McLean, who pitched the final eight innings.

McLean, a Rondout Valley graduate, allowed just five hits and two runs (one earned) and escaped a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the seventh to keep the local Legion’s title hopes alive.

Kingston High graduate Kaden Deibert, who had a solo homer in the top of the third inning, added an RBI single to right field in the 10th inning to make it 5-4 for Kingston-Saugerties. Cairo-Durham High graduate Jake Young added a two-run single to push the locals’ lead to 7-4.

Catskill High graduate Austin June plated another run for an 8-4 lead with a run-scoring single to left field. Kingston High graduate Landon Van Gaasbeck, who had doubled, scored the final run on a groundout to up the lead to 9-4.

Deibert said the run to an American Legion state baseball championship for Kingston-Saugerties was a dream come true.

“Winning the state title has to be one of, if not the best, feelings you can experience in baseball,” said the 2026 Kingston High graduate and Freeman First-Team All-Star outfielder. “Being able to accomplish it with such a close group of guys made it even more rewarding.”

While there were many tense moments in the 10-inning contest, Deibert was confident Kingston-Saugerties would eventually close the deal and earn the state title.

“Honestly, there were times when it felt like the game was never going to end,” Deibert said. “But I knew as long as we kept making plays, stayed together and never gave up, we’d find a way to come out with the win.”

The last time an area Legion team captured a state title came in 1995 when Kingston Post 150 claimed its fifth state championship. The first one for Kingston came in 1934, followed by 1986, 1988 and 1995. This is the first state championship shared by Post 72 of Saugerties.

The team from Kingston Post 150 made it all the way to the American Legion World Series in Middletown, Connecticut. Budde Post 507 from Cincinnati, which was led by Pete Rose Jr., beat defending national champion Boyertown Post 471 of Pennsylvania, 7-0, in the title game.

The 2026 American Legion team from Kingston and Saugerties has advanced to the Mid-Atlantic Tournament to be held Thursday, Aug. 6 through Sunday, Aug. 9 at Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. Post 150-72 is slated to face the Connecticut state champions in its first game of the double-elimination tournament at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday.

Other state champions in the Mid-Atlantic Region are teams representing Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Kingston-Saugerties entered Wednesday’s action on the final day of the double-elimination event with a perfect 4-0 mark over the first four days of the tournament. However, Cottreall-Warner forced a winner-take-all showdown when it blasted Kingston-Saugerties 13-0 in a game called at the end of five innings due to the 10-run mercy rule on Wednesday morning. Cottreall-Warner from the Rochester suburbs came out of the loser’s bracket after dropping a 5-3 decision to Kingston-Saugerties on Monday, July 27.

Kingston-Saugerties jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning in the state title game on an RBI triple by Catskill-Herkimer High product Will Cummings and an RBI double by Catskill High graduate Johnny McKenna.

Cottreall-Warner cut its deficit to 2-1 with a run in the bottom of the first and took a 4-2 lead with three innings in the bottom of the second.

Deibert and McKenna hit back-to-back solo homers to deadlock the game at 4-4 in the top of the third.

Kingston Post 150 baseball chairman Fred McCoy, who oversees the operation of the Kingston-Saugerties Senior team and the Kingston Post 150 Junior team, commended the players and coaches of the new state senior champions for their hard work during the season.

“It means a lot,” McCoy said. “This year’s team really came together. The chemistry of the team was unbelievable. State Legion champions. It sounds great.”