IRVINE - Northwood's baseball team didn't want to share the Pacific Coast League title with Beckman.

Designated hitter Matt Arakaki made sure they didn't have to Thursday afternoon.

Arakaki delivered a single with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning to lift the Timberwolves to a 2-1 PCL victory over Irvine in the regular season finale at Northwood.

The victory helped Northwood secure its first league title since it shared the PCL crown with Corona del Mar and Calvary Chapel in 2006. It's Northwood's first outright title.

The Timberwolves (18-8, 12-3) also snapped Beckman's streak of four consecutive PCL titles. The Patriots finished second in the league.

Despite the loss, Irvine (7-8, 12-14) wound up in third place and advances to the CIF playoffs for the first time in Coach Keith Szczudlak's nine year stint.

"It's unfair what we've done with our pitchers this year through not scoring runs, but the harder you work, the luckier you get," said Northwood Coach Rob Stuart. "It wasn't the perfect scrip, but it had the perfect ending."

In the bottom of the seventh inning, pinch-hitter Matt Locklear singled with one out. Then Kevin Okuda delivered a pinch-hit single to put runners on first and second with two outs.

Arakaki followed by swinging at the first pitch and singling to right center off Irvine starter Ian Proehl for the game winner.

"It means a lot to us, it means it's our first time being outright champions in the PCL," Arakaki said. "It was a huge game for me on my senior night, so I knew I had to do something special and had to make this memorable. "I was looking for a fastball inside. He beat me with a fastball inside the last at bat and I knew he was going to come back with it."

Senior Jack Pabich (3-0) got the victory, scattering nine hits and striking out eight. "We always seem to win at the end, I would rather get our runs in the beginning and go from there, but we always seem to surprise the fans," Pabich said.

Evan Dossett belted his fourth home run of the season with two outs in the first inning to put the Vaqueros ahead, 1-0.

But Pabich blanked the Vaqueros the rest of the way. Northwood's Luke Poirier made a diving catch in left field to take away at least a double by A.B. Blanchet in the fourth inning to keep the Timberwolves within a run.

In the bottom of the fourth inning, Austin Vonblasingame walked and Brett Denamur singled to put runners on first and third.

Poirier then delivered a sacrifice fly to tie it, 1-1.

Irvine had runners in scoring position in two of the last three innings but could not score. Proehl allowed six hits and struck out three.

"Ian pitched his butt off, those were the first two earned runs in the last 17 innings out of that kid; we can't really ask much more of him," said Szczudlak. "We had a couple misplays but we stayed in this game, which was good.

"The last three games, we've scored four runs in the last 21 innings, it makes it really tough to win ball games."

Mikey Filia led Irvine going 3 for 3 with a stolen base. Tanner Moore was 2 for 4.