A week after winning their second Section 9 championship in four years, the Newburgh Free Academy Goldbacks ran into a buzzsaw.

The defending state champion and Section 1 champion R.C. Ketcham Storm put up 14 runs in the second inning and handed the Goldbacks a 15-2 loss in Saturday’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class AAA regional championship game at SUNY Purchase.

The game was called after five innings due to the 10-run rule.

“They’re the state champs,” Newburgh coach Scott Seabury said. “To be the man, you’ve got to beat the man. Today wasn’t our day.”

Chase Rounds was the Goldbacks’ hero in the Section 9 tournament, throwing two complete-game shutouts, but the Storm knocked him around starting in the second inning.

Nick Mondesando and Jason Duey hit back-to-back doubles to get the Storm on the board and then after Rounds walked Ryan Mealy to put runners on first and second, a sacrifice bunt by Evan Kelly moved up the runners with a sacrifice bunt.

After Rounds induced a pop-up from Riley Weatherwax, it looked that Rounds had a path through the inning with only one run getting across. An intentional walk to Owen Paino and a walk to Luke Picone pushed the second run across.

Then two-run singles by Connor Durkin and Tyler Durkin widened the lead to 6-0. Mondesando chased home a run with a double and a two-run home run by Duey chased Rounds with the Indians leading 9-0.

Connor Hollenbeck didn’t fare much better, hitting the first two batters and walked the third to load the bases. Two more errors and a booming triple led to five more runs, giving the Storm a 14-0 lead.

Mondesando came to the plate three times in the inning and made the final out when he flied to D.J. Clifford in center field.

“It got out of hand real quick,” Seabury said. “They were hitting the ball. We made a couple of mistakes and it just avalanched. We just couldn’t get the final out. “

Pinch hitter Finn Gaklik hit a solo home run in the fourth.

Weatherwax threw three scoreless innings, allowed one hit and struck out six. D.J. Clifford had the only hit off Weatherwax, a single in the third inning.

“He’s one of the (best pitchers) we’ve seen,” Seabury said. “He won the state championship game for them last year. We had a pretty good scouting report on him. We knew what we were going to expect.”

The Goldbacks got two runs in the top of the fifth on a sacrifice fly by Jake Cross and an RBI single by Clifford. Daniel Decker doubled in the fifth.

“We were still trying to battle, and I’m proud of them,” Seabury said.

“They didn’t want to fold up shop.

They went up there swinging the bat.”

Despite the loss, it was a successful season for the Goldbacks, who outlasted their Orange County Interscholastic Athletic Association Division I competition, finishing second and then winning the sectional title.

Most of the team will be back. Decker is the only senior.

“We came in looking to compete and looking to play,” Seabury said.

“They can’t take away the Section 9 championship. They’re going to have a target on their backs next year.

But we’re going to learn from this.

(Most) of this team is coming back next year, and if we want to get to the highest level – the state championship – we’ve got to go through teams like this. So, let it sting, and learn from it and take it into next year.”