STATE COLLEGE – Soak it in, Southern Fulton. Your Indians are PIAA State Champions for the first time in program history.

The Indians took down Eden Christian 14-3 to bring home some hardware behind a great start from Owen Oakman and two hits a piece from Colt Mann, Jett Burger and Brooks Norris.

In the top of the first, Eden Christian’s Noah Emswiler retired the first two hitters that he faced, but Southern Fulton would not go down quietly. Paul Hendershot doubled, and Jett Burger ripped a triple over the right fielder’s head to put Southern Fulton on the board.

Eden Christian had an answer and then some in the bottom of the inning.

They got a Jacob Janicki single (4/4 on the day) and then a Brett Feldman walk to start the inning off of Southern Fulton starter Owen Oakman. They both came around to score when Emswiler helped himself out with a two-run triple into the left center field gap to give Eden Christian their first lead.

That made Josh Tilden’s job easy as his single up the middle scored Emswiler to make it a 3-1 lead.

It was the last run that Eden Christian would score in this game.

It looked like Eden Christian had taken command of this game. Both teams were held off the board as Oakman and Emswiler settled in, but the top of the fourth turned this one upside down.

Austin Mann reached on an error to begin the inning for Southern Fulton, and back-to-back walks following a strikeout loaded the bases with one out. This was a pivotal moment in the game, and Head Coach Kent Hendershot decided to get aggressive.

It worked.

Joel Fitz laid down a squeeze bunt that would have scored one run regardless, but the ball was thrown down the left field line which cleared the bases and scored Brooks Norris and Cam Cain as well.

Just like that it was 4-3 Southern Fulton.

“All year long, we really really work on small ball,” said Hendershot. “We lost in the final four a couple of years ago to a team that was very opportunistic like we were today and there’s something to that. We committed to ourselves from day one and prided ourselves in being successful on bunts whether it was to move people up or to score, and today it was flawless and kudos to my kids because they did a great job today.”

They weren’t done with the bunting quite yet, however, as Colt Mann laid one down the next at bat and reached base, scoring Fitz and making it 5-3. Later in the inning, Austin Mann, who reached on an error to start the inning, reached again with an RBI single to make it 6-3.

After another shutdown inning from Oakman, who was really stellar after that first inning, the Indians would add on more. Brooks Norris singled with one out and then after advancing to second on a ground out, came into score on Colt Mann’s opposite field single.

Owen Oakman’s first inning may have been uncharacteristic, but the rest of his outing looked familiar to the Indians faithful.

“Owen has been our dog all year long, coming into the game he had only given up one run in 50+ innings and I think that first inning he had to do a little self check and change some things,” said Coach Hendershot. “On his 100th pitch he hit his highest velocity of the game at 89 and just shows what a competitor and digger he is. He pitched a phenomenal game, especially after that first inning it could have been rough. He settled down and let the game come to him, he started paying more attention to spots and to details and started getting outs and the game got easier for us.”

While the lead was fairly comfortable for Southern Fulton leading 7-3 going into the final frame, the Indians put seven more on the board to put the icing on the cake.

That included a couple of wild pitches, including one where Jett Burger showed off the wheels as he scored all the way from second base.

Owen Oakman ended the day going 5.2 inning with ten hits allowed, three earned runs and nine strikeouts. After that first inning he did a great job at stranding base runners.

Joel Fitz was next on to pitch for Southern Fulton, and he retired the seventh in order to wrap up the first ever state title for the Indians and their passionate fan base that traveled very well from Warfordsburg, which is about two hours south of State College and is just a few miles away from being Maryland.

“We live in a small community and for our community to get this, it’s as much theirs as it is ours,” said Hendershot. “Hats off to Eden as well, they had a great year and they are a great team, they played a lot better than the final score showed and we beat a really good pitcher.”

Photo: Southern Fulton Head Coach Kent Hendershot embracing senior Jett Burger after their 1A state title win over Eden Christian