STATE COLLEGE – The bases were loaded with Montoursville runners and no outs, but Mark Collinger didn’t care.

The Indiana reliever saw that tying run standing 90 feet away from home plate in the top of the seventh and didn’t let him get any further than that, retiring the next three hitters to give Indiana a 5-4 win for their first PIAA State Championship in program history.

For a while, it looked like it would be much easier than it was. Indiana led 4-0 after scoring four in the second, but for anyone that has followed this Indiana run which featured a seventeen inning state semifinal, it was obvious it would be much harder than that.

Indiana got the bases loaded in the bottom of the second with one out to start their rally, but after Rocco Cosentino popped out, it was up to Chase Force to deliver.

He came through in a massive way, ripping a base hit to right field to score his brother Caden and also Mark Collinger to put the Indians ahead 2-0.

Indiana decided that they liked the two-out, two-run single so much that they ought to try it again. In the next at bat, Tim Birch gave the Indians faithful some deja vu as he added another single to score Brady Oakes and Chase Force and just like, that a 0-0 game went to 4-0 with two swings.

“That was huge to get four in the second like that, we are not a team that typically puts a ton of runs on the board but we knew with the pitching that we have that if we get 3-4 that we usually have a shot to win any games,” said Indiana Head Coach Dan Petroff. “We had some clutch hits from Chase Force and Tim Birch so that was big for us, I think that helped some of the kids settle the nerves down.”

This was a bit of a rare occasion where both teams threw bullpen games here. In the top of the third, Montoursville got a walk from Michael Reeder and a single from Royce Bowes and that prompted Petroff to take out Sully Vanhoose and put in Ryan Okopal.

Okopal was welcomed into the game with a bit of a bizarre play as Montoursville attempted a first to third steal, Indiana fired back to third and the ball got away which scored Reeder, but then Bowes was thrown out trying to stretch it to third base.

Either way, the Indiana lead was cut to 4-1. At this point, Jimmy Mussina had come in relief for Logan Kirby. He fired a nice 1-2-3 inning to keep the score the same.

Montoursville again put the pressure on in the fourth. Noah Kirby singled to lead off the inning and Brody Aldenderfer walked. Jimmy Mussina hit into a fielder’s choice which put runners on the corner, and Jonah Heddings was hit by a pitch with two outs to load the bases.

It was gut check time Ryan Okopal, and he delivered the biggest pitch of the game to date when he painted the outside corner to retire Brayden McCourt with the the third out of the inning to get the Indians out of the inning unharmed.

Jimmy Mussina again tossed a 1-2-3 inning for Montoursville, and his offense was ready to pay him back for that in the top of the fifth.

Royce Bowes reached on a throwing error and the Warriors were ready to make Indiana pay. Next up was Kane Moore, who worked a walk. Noah Kirby cut the lead to 4-2 with a single that hugged the left field line, and a Brody Aldenderfer hit by pitch knocked Okopal out of the game and brought in Texas Tech recruit Greg Minnick for Indiana.

Minnick had thrown in Indiana’s 17 inning thriller over East Pennsboro in the semis on Tuesday, so we knew that he would throw a bit in this one but not too much as they wanted to save his bullets for the biggest spots. Head Coach Dan Petroff was going to have him ready for a big spot.

There was no spot bigger than this, and Minnick delivered.

With the bases loaded and one out, Minnick struck out Jimmy Mussina looking to get the second out. After a dramatic at bat that got all the way to 3-2, Minnick got Zack Neill swinging on a 90 MPH fastball to pull a houdini act and get out of the inning with zero runs allowed.

Indiana carried that momentum with them into the bottom of the fifth where they got that run back. Carter Putt’s sac fly scored Chase Force, who reached on an error to begin the inning to get the lead back to three at 5-2.

Greg Minnick would face some control issues in the top of the sixth that allowed Montoursville to get some action on the bases. He walked Brayden McCourt and hit Michael Reeder with a pitch to put runners on first and second with one out, and then with two outs, plunked Kane Moore in the back to again load the bases.

Noah Kirby made him pay.

Kirby delivered in the clutch with his third hit of the day, a two-run single into left field to score Reeder and McCourt and cut the Indiana lead to 5-4.

Indians failed to add any insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth despite having the bases loaded and one out, highlighted by Noah Kirby back-picking Cayden Force at third.

Montoursville had three outs to work with and needed just one run to tie it up off of Greg Minnick. Jimmy Mussina got that goal started on the right foot with a base hit up the middle to lead off the inning.

That goal looked even better after Messina advanced all the way to third base when Minnick tried to pick him off and the throw got up the right field line, making the tying run just 90 feet away.

Next up was Zack Neill, who became the third hit batter of the day for Minnick, putting runners on first and third with no outs and ending the day for Minnick and causing Dan Petroff to turn to Mark Collinger to close it out.

After courtesy runner Elijah Eck stole second, Jonah Heddings attempted a squeeze bunt which worked in the sense that he got a single, but no runs were scored in the process which loaded the bases with no outs.

The first part of Collinger’s escape act was to get Brayden McCourt to fly out to left field, not deep enough to feel good about sending Mussina so that was out number one.

Next up was Michael Reeder, and his dribbler back to the pitcher was thrown home for out number two but that was it as they weren’t able to get the out at first base.

That put all the pressure on Royce Bowes who swung at the first pitch, grounding out to Chase Force at shortstop to pull off the improbable seventh inning escape and put Indiana in the history books with title number one.

“I couldn’t be more proud of these guys, that game just showed the resilience they have,” said Petroff. “They never gave up all year, I swear to God our last nine games have all been like this. We probably had no business winning that game to be honest with you but they kept going. It was a tough situation, a lot of kids would just melt in that spot but they never did.”

Indiana knew that today was going to be tough in terms of pitching just based on how many innings they have had to play lately.

The Indians played a whopping 70 innings in their last seven games, highlighted by that seventeen inning semifinal.

“I think our guys were just feeling a bit fatigued after the craziness that we have had, mostly in their legs,” said Petroff. It’s kind of why we didn’t run anybody out there for more than 2-3 innings. It wasn’t just a rabbit out of the hat, it was a game plan.”

The Indians came all the way to the state title last year and lost 6-5 to Holy Ghost. To be able to set the goal to come all the way back was a dream for Petroff and Indiana.

“It’s like a storybook, if you could pick the way to do it with last year coming in second this year first that’s just unbelievable,” said Petroff. “Unbelievable for our town, I think it adds to the story that we were runner ups last year and we were able to come through this time.”

Photo: Indiana Head Coach Dan Petroff placing a medal on senior Rocco Cosentino after Indiana’s 5-4 win over Montoursville in the 4A State Championship