Benicia High’s varsity baseball team proved it’s not how you start but how you finish that matters.

The Panthers, who began the season losing eight of their first 11 games, rallied to beat Bella Vista, 8-4, to capture the Sac-Joaquin Section Division II championship Monday night at Sacramento City College’s Union Stadium. It was the second SJS championship in the past three years for Benicia, which was left for dead after a horrible start to the 2016 season.

“I kept saying, even when we were 3-8, that there was something special about this team,” said Benicia manager Jim Bowles. “I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I knew they’d go on a roll. They didn’t like losing and they didn’t accept it. They knew it was early in the year and they knew what our goals were.”

“This is the definition of a “comeback” year,” said senior Riley Pitkin, who threw four stellar innings of relief to earn the victory. “We were one of the unluckiest teams early in the season but we believed in the process and stuck with each other. Then everything started clicking.”

“We started off slow, but we just kept working and now we have a championship,” added senior Maurice Calhoun. “It all came out good.”

No. 3 seeded Benicia (19-12) got off to a slow start against top-seeded Bella Vista (22-9), which was looking for its first SJS baseball championship in school history. Benicia ace Cole Eigenhuis, who came in with a 7-1 record and a 1.37 earned-run average, walked two batters and hit another early in the first inning, and Matt Dethlefson made it 2-0 with a single past Benicia shortstop Joey Daini.

“He’s a big reason why we were here,” Bowles said of Eigenhuis. “He was struggling with his landing foot on the mound and he hadn’t pitched in two weeks. He was out of rhythm but he battled. He could have given up a really big inning and he didn’t.”

The Panthers answered with three runs in the top of the third to take the lead. Jared Jackson led off with a single, Alex Osterholt was hit by a pitch and Daini delivered a two-run double to deep left. Steve Urias drove in Daini with a go-ahead single to make it 3-2.

Back came the Broncos, who tied the game in the bottom of the third when Dethlefson doubled home Lucas Palmer. Bella Vista had the bases loaded with one out but Eigenhuis struck out the next two batters to get out of the jam.

The Panthers broke the game open with five runs in the top of the fourth. Xian Covington-Hunt led off with a single and Jackson walked to chase Bella Vista starter Aaron Lee. A one-out single by Makoa Copp scored pinch-runner Josiah Peterson to put Benicia ahead to stay, and Daini came through with a RBI single to make it 5-3. When Steve Urias’s grounder went under the glove of Bella Vista’s third baseman, Copp and Daini scored to make it 7-3. Calhoun later scored on a wild pitch, giving Benicia a commanding five-run lead.

But when Eigenhuis walked the leadoff batter in the bottom of the fourth, Bowles decided it was time to make a change.

“He didn’t want me to take the ball from him and I love that in a kid,” Bowles said.

Enter Pitkin, who promptly retired four of the first five batters he faced. Bella Vista had two runners on in the fifth but Benicia turned a 4-6-3 double play to end that threat. Palmer doubled home Hayden Fitzpatrick to make it 8-4 in the sixth, but Bella Vista stranded two runners in the seventh, Pitkin striking out the final batter looking for Benicia’s fourth SJS baseball title since 2005.

“Riley came in and shut them down.” Bowles said. “He did a great job.”

“I’m just very happy and honored to go out with a win,” Pitkin said. “This is the way I wanted to go. It’s bittersweet because I’m saying goodbye to a lot of friends, but I’ll carry this with me throughout my life and enjoy it.”

Copp and Daini, both sophomores, combined to go 3-for-8 with four runs and four RBIs.

“The two sophomores at the top of our lineup had some really big at-bats and played great defense,” Bowles said. “They didn’t play like sophomores during the second half of the year.”

Benicia won 16 of its final 20 games, finished the season on an eight-game winning streak and went 4-0 in the postseason.