MORAGA — For the first time in nearly three decades, Liberty has reached the North Coast Section mountain top.

The top-seeded Lions captured their first section title since 1997 after beating No. 3 Casa Grande 4-0 in the NCS Division I final on Friday at Saint Mary’s College. Liberty snapped a 28-year section title drought as Brandi Macias won her first NCS championship in her third year as coach.

“This is the epitome of teamwork and belief in one another and I’m just so proud of them,” Macias said. “We knew that the support we have within the community has been something they have just been wanting so badly, and so there was that underlying pressure for them. But these girls wanted to give that to Liberty High School. We knew how big this game was, but we really came in just wanting to play our game and stay as consistent as we could.”

Two days after striking out 11 in the NCS semifinals against Foothill, Illinois State-bound junior Kate Skinner fanned 13 and allowed two hits in a complete-game shutout to lead Liberty to a Division I crown.

The victory Friday was a full circle moment for Liberty as the Lions’ last loss was to Casa Grande in April at the Livermore Stampede Tournament. Since then, the Brentwood school has won 15 straight games.

“We wanted revenge and we wanted to win,” Skinner said. “We wanted to come out and just battle. We were just hungry to play. We wanted to do everything in our power to win.”

Liberty scored the first run when Kaitlyn Macias drove in Taylor Jennings in the bottom of the first inning on a line-drive single down the left-field line.

The run alone was a huge confidence booster for Liberty after it was shutout in its first meeting with Casa Grande.

“When I hit that, I said, ‘We can do this, guys,’” Kaitlyn said.

Skinner’s dominance started early as she retired the side through the first three innings.

Casa Grande had its best chance to put runs on the board in the fourth inning when the Gauchos loaded the bases with one out. But Skinner came up huge, striking out two consecutive batters to get out of the inning unscathed.

“I was just trusting my coaches and what pitches they were calling,” Skinner said about escaping the fourth-inning jam. “I know I’m good and I know what I’m doing.”

After Liberty went up 2-0 after five innings, the Lions put the game away for good in the sixth.

Liberty opened the inning with three consecutive singles, extending their lead to three after Kaylee Bunch scored from third on a Casa Grande error. In the next at-bat, junior Madison Tuttle knocked in Savannah Page on a single up the middle that gave Liberty a commanding 4-0 advantage.

Facing the bottom of Casa Grande’s order in the top of the seventh, Skinner needed just six pitches to retire the side. As shortstop Kelsie Skaggs caught the final out to end the game, the celebration was on.