BETHLEHEM — The best championship games don’t just crown a winner. They reveal why both teams earned the chance to play for one.

Sunday evening, Franklin Township and Lehigh Blue showed exactly that.

For seven innings, two of the Junior Connie Mack League’s premier programs traded momentum, answered every rally and delivered the kind of baseball worthy of deciding a championship before Lehigh Blue earned a 7-6 victory.

One team celebrated a championship.

The other walked away having affirmed everything it had become.

Together, the clubs entered the title game with a combined 35-3-1 regular-season record, outscoring opponents 424-111 while navigating a rugged 21-team Junior Connie Mack League.

Franklin’s postseason journey only added to the stage.

After dropping regular-season games to North Parkland, Freemansburg and Lehigh Blue, FT eliminated North Parkland in the quarterfinals and Freemansburg in the semifinals, leaving only one challenge remaining — the unbeaten Lehigh Blue club that had handed Franklin a 10-1 defeat on May 19.

Nearly two months later, Franklin returned looking every bit like the championship contender it had become.

“They fought to the very last inning,” Franklin manager Ben Moyer said. “There’s nothing more you could ask as a coach than for your team to not give up and just keep fighting.

“Even in the last inning, we had runners in scoring position. The heart they showed, especially the last three playoff games, was tremendous. It just speaks to the character of every one of those kids.”

Lehigh Blue struck first.

Jackson Ondria dropped down a sacrifice bunt to move two runners into scoring position before Coltin Brozino lined a two-run single to left, giving Lehigh a 2-0 lead in the opening inning.

Franklin answered.

Alex Kish doubled with one out in the second before Myles Meek reached on an error that allowed Kish to score, trimming the deficit to one.

An inning later, Miles Mann singled to start the third, Jakoby Andrews reached on an error and Roman White sacrificed the runners to second and third before Carter Spotts walked to load the bases. Brian Mriss ripped a two-out, two-run single to center, putting Franklin in front, 3-2.

Lehigh answered.

An error tied the game before Noah Robinson followed with a two-run single, restoring a 5-3 advantage.

Franklin answered again.

Three Lehigh Blue errors opened the door in the fourth. Landan Steigerwalt scored on the third error of the frame to cut the deficit to 5-4 before Andrews grounded out to tie the game at 5-5. White then lined a go-ahead RBI single down the right-field line, giving Franklin a 6-5 lead.

The advantage lasted only moments.

Paxton Pavlish answered with an RBI single in the bottom of the inning, knotting the score at 6-6 and setting up a tense finish.

Neither team blinked.

Miles Mann relieved Meek in the fifth and escaped a jam to keep the game tied.

Lehigh Blue answered with perhaps the biggest defensive play of the night one inning later.

After Brody Hunsicker drew a leadoff walk in the sixth, Chase Baran raced in to make a running catch in center before recording a double play at first, erasing what looked like the beginning of another Franklin rally.

“I think that took the wind out of their sails,” Lehigh Blue manager Mike Ondria said. “That was massive.”

Lehigh manufactured the winning run in the bottom of the sixth.

Brandon Gillner walked, stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch before Jayden Brujan delivered a two-out single to left, scoring Gillner with the go-ahead run.

Franklin had one final opportunity.

Owen Moyer worked a two-out walk before Mriss singled to put the tying run in scoring position, but Baran settled under a fly ball in center to end the game.

For Ondria, Sunday’s game looked nothing like most of Lehigh Blue’s season.

The champions finished 19-0-1 after outscoring opponents 236-51, but they were pushed to the limit by a Franklin team that closed 17-4 after scoring 201 runs while allowing just 73.

“That’s the kind of championship game you want,” Ondria said. “Franklin’s always a tough program. We knew they were going to give us a fight. To see them give us a challenge and see our boys meet that challenge and overcome it, as a coach, those are the games you want to play.”

Moyer saw much the same thing.

“The first time we played them, they pretty much steamrolled us,” he said. “We tried to prepare the kids that if we weren’t aggressive in the batter’s box, it was going to happen again. We attacked the baseball this time, and it worked. It put us in the game.”

The mutual respect between the dugouts never wavered.

“Iron sharpens iron,” Ondria said. “They’re coming down here giving us competition that we’re not used to seeing, and we’re doing the same thing for them. I think it helps develop all the programs.”

After the game, Moyer’s message to his players was equally simple.

“They need to hold their heads high,” Moyer said. “The future’s bright for Franklin baseball.”

In many ways, the two coaches were saying the same thing.

Lehigh Blue finished exactly as it hoped — unbeaten champions.

Franklin Township completed a postseason journey that transformed a 10-1 defeat in May into a championship game decided by the final out.

On a warm July evening, two heavyweight programs spent seven innings making each other better.

OFFENSIVE OUTPUT ... Mriss finished 3-for-4 with two RBIs to lead Franklin offensively. White drove in a run, Kish doubled, Mann had a hit and scored twice and Andrews added an RBI. Brozino and Robinson each drove in two runs for Lehigh Blue, while Pavlish and Brujan added RBIs. Pavlish and Brujan each finished with two hits.

FUNDAMENTALLY SOUND ... Behind the plate, Mriss also threw out runners attempting to steal in the first and fourth innings. In the sixth, after Lehigh Blue scored the go-ahead run, Mriss quickly fired to first to initiate a rundown that retired Jayden Brujan, another example of the catcher’s awareness and instincts. “Brian’s a great leader for us, high baseball IQ,” Moyer said. “We have a team full of kids with high baseball IQ. They know what to do in situations, and that’s what makes us successful.”

Franklin Twp. 012 300 0 - 6 6 2

Lehigh Blue 203 101 x - 7 9 5

Meek, Mann (5) and Mriss; Brozino, Rivas (6) and Pavlish. W - Rivas. L - Mann.