Prout’s Jonathan Sartell keeps his eyes on a fly ball as he prepares to make the catch during last night’s title game against North Smithfield.

The Providence Journal / Glenn Osmundson

PAWTUCKET — For Brian VanPelt and the rest of the North Smithfield High baseball team, their task was simple last night.

“We just needed to come out here and make a statement,” VanPelt said about what the Northmen needed to do in the deciding game of the best-of-three Rhode Island Interscholastic League Division II championship series.

Scoring 18 runs in a seven-inning game certainly is a statement.

That’s what the Northmen did as they chalked up their school’s first state baseball title with an 18-7 victory over Prout at McCoy Stadium.

Trailing, 4-2, after the first inning, the Northmen took the lead with three runs in the second, then kept fighting off Prout’s comeback efforts before finally breaking the game open with seven runs in the sixth.

North Smithfield had won the first game of the series, on Monday, but Prout came back and tied it with a victory in the second game, on Tuesday.

“The big question was, ‘Are we going to come back after losing a tough game on Tuesday,’ ” said North Smithfield coach Marc Talbot. “These are great kids. They have come back a lot this season. We got down, 4-2, in the first inning and we came right back the next inning and got it right back. That has been their trademark all year long.”

The Northmen amassed 19 hits, including three by VanPelt, who also earned the pitching victory with a five-inning start.

“It’s great; we just wanted to bring it home,” VanPelt said about giving North Smithfield its first state baseball crown.

Once the Northmen had the big lead, Matt Okruta, the tourney MVP, gave VanPelt some help by pitching two innings of shutout relief on only two days’ rest.

“Brian VanPelt’s control was little off, but he battled through it,” said Talbot. “Then Matt Okruta came back on two days’ rest. That’s a great leader there.”

The Crusaders and Northmen took 32 minutes to complete the first inning, and when the frame was finished, Prout had a 4-2 lead.

North Smithfield jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first when VanPelt drove in two runs with a two-out double to right.

But Prout came back in the bottom of the inning with four runs on four hits as the Crusaders sent nine batters to the plate. Joe Anzeveno and Andrew Conlin each singled in a run and Jake Bergen doubled home two.

North Smithfield didn’t waste any time regaining the lead, however, as the Northmen collected three runs on three hits in the top of the second. Brendan Berry, who had scored one of the Northmen’s runs in the first, delivered the big hit in the second-inning uprising with a one-out single that drove in two runs.

VanPelt, who threw 38 pitches in the first inning, including three walks, settled down in the second and tossed shutout ball for the next two frames.

That gave VanPelt and his teammates a chance to add to their lead, and the Northmen didn’t waste the opportunity as they pushed their advantage to 10-4 with five runs in the fourth. North Smithfield did all of its scoring with two outs as it banged out six consecutive hits with two down. Matt Okruta started the two-out uprising with an RBI single, followed by hits from Trevor Scarboro, VanPelt, Nick Narodowy, Kevin Okruta and Eric D’Agostino.

VanPelt looked like he still was coasting in the bottom of the fourth as he retired the first two batters via strikeouts. But he walked three straight batters and then gave up a two-run single by Chris Cocci. Anzeveno followed with a ground-rule double over the left-field fence, plating another run and cutting the Crusaders’ deficit to 10-7.

But North Smithfield widened the lead to 11-7 in the top of the fifth on hits on Ben Ethier and Barry and Matt Okruta’s sacrifice fly. After five innings, the Northmen had 13 hits, with Ethier, Barry, VanPelt and D’Agostino having collected two apiece.

A couple of good defensive plays, one by Scarboro at first base and the other by Kevin Okruta in left field, enabled VanPelt to keep the Crusaders from scoring in the fifth.

Then the Northmen clinched the victory by scoring seven runs in the top of the sixth. Six of the runs were unearned.

North Smithfield

230 517 0 — 18 19 1

Prout

400 300 0 —  7 10 9

VanPelt, M. Okruta (6) and Ethier; Conlin, B. Horsfield (4), Anzeveno (5), Romano and Manning.

jgillool@projo.com