The Valley Christian Academy Lions of Roseville shut down the Millennium High offense Monday in a 6-0 shutout to claim the Sac-Joaquin Section Division VII baseball title for the second-straight year.

The loss at Sacramento City College’s Union Stadium ended the Falcons’ season (20-8, 9-1 Central California Athletic Alliance) Division VII title game — finishing each time as runner-up to the Lions (23-6, 10-0 Sacramento Metropolitan Athletic League). The Falcons lost to the Lions in last year’s title game, 3-1.

This year, the Lions took advantage of an infield error and four base hits to take a 5-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning, and scored once more in the bottom of the sixth on a Falcon error.

Millennium batters reached base four times and had only two base hits for the day.

Senior shortstop Jose Avila singled to start the fourth inning and advanced on a ground-out, but was caught in a run-down on the next play after he went for home on a ground-out. Eddie Diaz singled to lead off the sixth and then was left stranded on second base.

After the first inning Falcon pitcher Larson settled into the game and struck out six batters.

Only three Lion batters reached base in the next four innings, but Larson had another run score in the sixth to go with 10 hits, no earned runs and six strikeouts in the game.

Senior shortstop Jose Avila, said that despite the loss, the team can consider this a good season. The Falcons reached a school milestone this year by claiming a share of the CCAA title this year, with co-champions Elliot Christian, for the first time.

“This year was probably one of the best seasons out of all four years,” Avila said. “Just teamwork, practice, everything just worked out.”

Junior third baseman Gavin Compton said that the experienced players inspired everyone else to work hard.

“I saw a lot of heart. I saw a lot of will to win and I saw our seniors, they really wanted to make it this far,” Compton said. “We tried to push ourselves to make it all the way.”

Junior pitcher Austin Larson felt that a share of the league title is an accomplishment the team should be proud of.

“We had a few injuries but came back from them,” he said. “We played good ball all year. There were just a few games we couldn’t win.”