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The best team in the regular season proved that it was tops, too, when everything was on the line.

After emphatically winning the opener of the Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League championship series against Westhampton, the Shelter Island Bucks punctuated their run to the top with a trademark performance in Game 2. The top seed in the playoffs piled up double-digit runs once again and got a strong performance from starter Spencer Bunting (Marist) in rolling to its first-ever league championship, trouncing the Aviators 12-5.

Shelter Island had reached the league semifinals in 2012 and the championship series last summer only to fall to Southampton. This season, however, the Bucks were not to be denied.

They weren’t big on drama either, jumping on Westhampton from the outset in both games in the series. In Shelter Island’s 10-3 victory Friday at Fiske Field, all 10 runs came in the first five innings while starter Zack Bahm (Columbia) silenced Aviator bats. On Saturday, the Bucks didn’t even wait that long, pushing across five runs in the first inning. The first two came on a Westhampton error, one of five in the two championship series games. Jonathan Moroney (Texas A&M) then doubled home two more runs to put the Bucks ahead 4-0. For the series, Moroney went 5 for 8 with a home run and five RBI to take home Championship Series Most Valuable Player honors.

A single by Ryan Sabo (Southern Illinois) plated another run in the first, and the Bucks weren’t done. Chris Hess (Rhode Island) ripped a solo home run in the third, and Shelter Island tacked on two more in the fourth to take a commanding 8-0 lead.

Bunting did his part with a sensational start to his outing, holding the Aviators hitless for the first four innings. They did come to life in the fifth, however, halving the deficit thanks to a two-run double by Tyler Piccolo (Dowling) and the first of two triples on the afternoon for Jamie Galazin (St. John’s), which drove in another two. They looked for more in the sixth, putting two runners on with no outs against Bucks reliever Tyler Brandon (Maryland), but Brandon struck out Jack Massa (Canisius) and induced a Piccolo groundout to end the threat, pumping his fist as he returned to a raucous dugout.

The Bucks put the game away in the latter innings, scoring four times in innings seven, eight and nine. Merritt Huber (Wofford) cruised through the ninth to set off a frenzy near the mound in celebration of Shelter Island’s first HCBL title.