SANFORD - It was a rare occurrence in high school sports. As both teams exited Norman T. Oldham Stadium at Lee County High School Friday night, Cary Academy and Fuquay-Varina fans gave each baseball team a warm round of applause, and each group was genuinely pleased with the result.

Fuquay had just defended its Central Carolina Scholastic Summer League title with a 10-4 win against Cary Academy, giving the Bengals their fourth CCSSL championship in the league's six years of existence.

This was the first year Cary Academy had participated in the CCSSL, and was one of the smallest schools in the field. The runner-up finish left few Chargers fans disappointed.

Bengals coach Milton Senter said the four wins in five days weren't easy, but he had players who took pride in defending the title.

Shortstop Zak Orrison had already played in two showcase games in Greenville before driving to Sanford for the CCSSL title. Pitcher Garrett Suggs - who had three RBI and three doubles - cut short a beach trip to help out his team, which was almost out of pitching after the semifinals.

"The coaches called me up and said 'we've no pitching left (for this game),'" Suggs said. "I came down, drove home, came here and played the game."

And then there were four players on the team who, like Suggs, had to hurry home after the game and rest up for the first day of football practice, which began Saturday at 7:15 for Fuquay.

"It takes that level of commitment and I personally appreciate that. They didn't do it for me, they did it - I hope - because that's the way we teach them, to be committed," Senter said. "What it really comes down to in the end is that they respect what we're doing enough here at the end that they come on in and play."

While Fuquay is making a CCSSL tradition for itself, Cary Academy coach Ray Pope said he was initially unsure if his program should play in it.

"We've come a long way," Pope said. "I wasn't sure where my program was and if we ready to come out and compete ... It worked out real well and we're looking forward to doing it next year."

The Bengals won their four playoff games by an average of seven runs - defeating Cape Fear 14-1, Scotland County 8-1 and the JV Fuquay team 10-8.

Cary Academy downed Riverside-Martin 12-8, Orange 5-4 and Southern Lee 14-11.

"We expect now to win the ball game. It's a little intimidating playing 4-A schools when you don't know much about them," Pope said. "Then we start winning games here and games there and the confidence is building."

Suggs drove in the first run of Friday's championship game on a double in the bottom of the first. A two-run blast to deep right-center field by Kirk Stephenson in the next inning made it a 3-0 Fuquay lead.

Controversy surrounded the top of the third inning, when Cary Academy - already with one run scored - had the bases loaded with two outs. Despite the throw being late and taking Fuquay first baseman Tyson Fernandez off the bag, the Chargers batter was called out to end the inning - which negated another run that scored.

"We have to get over adversity and we let that bother us a little bit," Pope said.

The Bengals rode the momentum into the bottom of the third, banging out seven more runs on a two-run homer by Addison Braswell and RBIs from Clint Williams, Tyson Fernandez, Stephenson and Suggs.

Cary Academy brought three runs across the plate in the bottom of the fourth, which concluded the scoring on either side.