Pompton Lakes made defending the Passaic County baseball title its primary goal for this season. Thanks to their strong pitching, the Cardinals accomplished their mission, edging DePaul 2-1 in the tournament final.

Senior Mike Coss closed out his career with a four-hitter, striking out six, to lead Pompton Lakes to the victory. Coss worked out of his only real jam of the day in the sixth when DePaul loaded the bases with nobody out. The lefty induced a key double play ball, on which the Spartans scored a run, and then got a chopper back to the mound to end the inning.

Pompton Lakes also had a hard time generating offense against DePaul sophomore lefty Chris Babb, who allowed only five hits. The Cardinals got their runs in the fourth inning, when they put runners at second and third with one out. On an odd play, Nick McCarthy's grounder to short plated a run and a second run came home on a DePaul error.

Pompton Lakes didn't have the offensive punch this season that it did in 2013, when the Cardinals also won a sectional title. But they rode pitching and defense to secure this county crown, with Kevin Magee earning the win in Saturday's 4-2 semifinal triumph over Lakeland. The third-seeded Cardinals finish the baseball season 19-4.

DePaul, the fourth seed, knocked off top seed Passaic in the semifinals. The Spartans end up 13-12-1.

As usual, the Passaic County final was played on Memorial Day morning at Passaic Tech.

For sports video highlights of this high school boys' baseball county final, click play in the box at left.