HALTON Jaguars won an 11-7 thriller against second-placed Sheffield Bladerunners at Halton Field on Sunday to take the BBF Division One North title for the first time.

Pitcher Chris Taggart won his first complete game in senior baseball to help Jags come of age.

They will now head for London on September 3 to take on the best the south of England can offer in the BBF Final Four.

Sheffield had scored two in the top of the first and, although Ben Sultana singled and scored, impulsive hitting resulted in two fly outs and a first strikeout to give Sheffield's Tommy Booth an early lead.

Taggart found his groove in the second, retiring the Bladerunners in order, including two strikeouts.

In return, Jags third baseman Jonathan Pauls singled and was batted in by first baseman Chris Pittard's single to make it 2-2 and, in the third, Halton took a lead they were not to relinquish.

The fourth was another scoreless inning for Sheffield, with both Christenson brothers caught stealing.

Halton's offence swung into action in the bottom of the fourth, starting with a Harry Mills double.

Pittard and Pauls were dismissed but a timely single to right fielder Colin Walton scored Mills.

Walton scored on Ben Sultana's double while Sultana was likewise batted in by Nick Bustin's double, making it 6-2.

With one out in the top of the fifth, Sheffield third baseman Andy Beacon singled and advanced to third on two wild pitches.

Beacon scored but Mike Taylor walked and stole second.

A hard hit to second was collected by Jags' Kevin Cuddy, who dismissed Jim Ellis.

With Taylor already off his base, Cuddy completed the double play to end the inning.

A Mills single, batting in Taggart, kept Jags ticking over.

At the end of the sixth it was 10-4 to Halton and the seventh gave Sheffield one run more.

But by this time Jags felt confident - perhaps over-optimistic as Bladerunners' defensive rally kept Jags scoreless.

The top of the eighth, however, was also scoreless, with two more Taggart strikeouts and a flyball to centrefield.

Jags put one more on the board in the bottom of that inning as Nick Bustin doubled and scored on Kevin Cuddy's base hit.

At 11-5 a single to Alex Avyerinopoulos started the Bladerunners' last chance to rally.

Taylor scored on Bjon Christensen's hard-hit double and the Halton lead seemed to be frittering away!

Igor Christensen hit a soaring fly-ball to centre field which looked as if it was heading for home-run glory but Bustin plucked the ball from the air right on the fence to deny Sheffield.