St. Ambrose left no doubt about who the best team is in the CCAC.

It took a second game in the championship round, but the Bees defeated Saint Xavier 6-4 in the CCAC Tournament Finals to add the tournament championship to the outright regular-season crown SAU won last week.

The Bees will now advance to the NAIA National Championship Opening Round for the first time since 2017.

SAU got there after SXU forced a winner-take-all game with a 6-3 win Saturday afternoon.

A strong start from Brandon Cusack and a four-run third inning powered the Bees in the tournament finale Saturday night.

Cusack struck out four while allowing just one earned run over five innings.

He was given a lead when Quinn Flanagan and Filip Milatovic had run-scoring singles in the third. They both scored on Michael Stupavsky's two-run double for a 4-0 advantage.

Matthew McBrien drove in a run on a groundout in the fifth and singled in Milatovic in the seventh to extend the lead to 6-1.

Michael Moise followed Cusack and struck out two over two scoreless frames. Jake Kerpan retired the side in order in the eighth.

Then things got interesting in the ninth.

Kerpan struck out two but also walked two so the Bees turned to Dominic Guzman, who opened the tournament for SAU Thursday by striking out 11 in a complete-game 2-1 win over Judson.

Guzman issued a walk, a bases-clearing double and an infield single to put the potential game-tying runs on the corners. But he closed it out there, getting a comebacker to the mound to give the Bees their second CCAC Tournament crown.

Jake Pauley and Bryce Vorwald also had hits in the victory.

SAU's only blemish in the double-elimination tournament came earlier Saturday when SXU forced the final game with a 6-3 win.

St. Ambrose (32-20) totaled just four hits, two coming off the bat of Pauley. Vorwald and Eric Gonzalez had the others.

Four Bee errors led to four unearned runs.

Connor Bird was the hard-luck loser, allowing just one earned run over seven innings. He struck out five. Aidan Stratton gave up one earned run over the last two innings.

But Cusack immediately stole back momentum, retiring the side in order in the bottom of the first and working around a leadoff single in the second before SAU struck in the top of the third.

The NAIA National Championship Opening Round will be May 11-14.