The Johnston High School varsity baseball team secured a Division-II championship on June 8 at McCoy Stadium with a 4-1 victory over The Prout School, completing a two-game sweep in the state finals.

Johnston scored two runs in the fourth to take the lead. Senior captains Nick Loffredo and Ryan Geraghty teamed up in the sixth inning to make the score 3-1, before the Panthers tacked on one more in the seventh on a Geraghty two-out triple that scored junior Chris Pistacchio.

Junior Gian Bianchi won MVP honors after pitching a complete game for the Panthers, racking up seven strikeouts and holding Prout to just three hits.

The series loss is the fourth straight in the finals for the Crusaders, who staged a late rally during Game 1 on June 6 but fell short, 11-7.

Watch for Jared Sugerman's complete game re-cap tomorrow morning on JohnstonPatch — click the "Keep me posted" link below to receive an e-mail alert when the story is posted.

Information for this article was transmitted in-progress by Jared Sugerman.