UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — WPIAL teams won two titles at the 2025 PIAA baseball championships.
A day after a Hare tossed a gem to lead Riverside to its sixth title, Mark Collinger pulled a rabbit out of his hat to lift Indiana to its first crown.
Collinger and his teammates were magicians, escaping a bases-loaded jam with no outs in the seventh to help WPIAL champion Indiana hold on for a 5-4 win against District 4 champion Montoursville in the PIAA Class 4A championship at Penn State’s Medlar Field at Lubrano Park.
In a season in which Indiana turned 2s into 1s, the Indians (26-1) claimed their first PIAA title two weeks after earning their first WPIAL championship. A season ago, the Indians finished as the WPIAL and PIAA runners-up after coughing up a three-run lead in a 6-5 loss in the PIAA championship.
“It feels like a dream come true to go out there and get that win, especially after what happened last year,” said Collinger, a senior third baseman-pitcher and Mercyhurst recruit.
Indiana jumped to a 4-0 second-inning advantage, but as Montoursville (20-5) chipped away at that lead, it looked as if it might be turning into a case of deja vu for the Indians. Montoursville scored a run in the fifth and two more in the sixth, leaving the bases loaded in both innings. Indiana took a 5-4 lead to the seventh with Texas Tech recruit Greg Minnick on the mound. Minnick entered in the fifth as Indiana’s third pitcher of the game.
But Minnick ran into major trouble in the seventh. Jimmy Mussina led off with a single and advanced to second on an errant pick-off throw. Mussina is a nephew of Hall of Famer Mike Mussina, a Montoursville graduate and an assistant coach for the Warriors. Minnick then plunked Zack Neill to give the Warriors two runners on base, causing Indiana coach Dan Petroff to move Collinger from third base to pitcher.
“A lot of players in that situation would fold or be nervous, but I went out and Mark said, ‘I got this. There’s no way I’m losing this game.’ And I believed him. I could tell in his eyes,” Petroff said.
A tense situation became even more suspenseful when Elijah Eck, who was running for Neill, stole second base. Collinger then gave up an infield single to Jonah Heddings that loaded the bases. That’s when Collinger transformed into Houdini, retiring the next three batters to close out the win. Brayden McCourt hit a ball to shallow left field hauled in by Tim Birch, but Montoursville chose not to test Birch’s arm and instead held Mussina at third. Michael Reeder followed by hitting a ball right back to Collinger, who tossed it home for a force out. Down to one out, Royce Bowes hit a ground ball to shortstop Will Olsen, who fired a dart to first base to beat Bowes and end Montoursville’s final rally.
“The guys behind me made good plays, and I made a play. They got it done for us,” Collinger said.
Added Birch, “I had complete trust that Mark Collinger was going to finish it out there. Even with a man on third with no outs. We’ve put trust in our pitchers all year and they came through, and they did again.”
Indiana might have had the best and deepest pitching staff in the WPIAL this season, but that depth was tested in the postseason as the Indians played games that lasted nine, 11, 12 and a PIAA postseason-record 17 innings. The Indians used four pitchers Friday. Junior Sully VanHoose drew the start and got the win, going 2⅓ innings. He was followed by Ryan Okopal, Minnick and then Collinger. The group combined to give up seven hits and five walks, and struck out five. Minnick hit three batters in his 1⅔ innings of work.
“The plan was three or four guys to go two or three innings max,” Petroff said.
Indiana pitchers had the luxury of working with the lead for much of the game after the Indians used a big second inning to take a 4-0 lead. With the bases loaded and two outs, Chace Force delivered a two-run single and Birch followed with a two-run single. Both hits came with two outs and with 0-2 counts.
“Chace did a great job on a curveball, sat back and drove it opposite field. I tried to do the same. It worked out and we got the runs,” said Birch, one of Indiana’s five senior starters and a Seton Hill recruit.
Montoursville cut the deficit to 4-2 after scoring on a throwing error in the third and on Noah Kirby’s RBI single in the fifth. But Indiana got one back in the bottom of the fifth via Carter Putt’s sacrifice that made it 5-2.
An inning later, though, it was Kirby who hurt Indiana again, this time hitting a two-out, two-run single to pull Montoursville within one.
That set the stage for what was a nerve-wracking, yet fulfilling, seventh inning for Indiana.
“I’m still trying to process it all,” Petroff said. “I think the last couple weeks of games that we had, all of our games have been like that. It might not have been fun during the game, but it really prepared us even more for situations like this.”
Indiana had only five hits, with Birch and Caden Force collecting two apiece, but the Indians got the timely hits when they most needed them.
And because of that, along with the magic act, Indiana is not only WPIAL champions, but also PIAA champions — both for the very first time.
“It came down really close, but we knew we’d pull through and we did,” Birch said. “It’s an amazing feeling.”
Brad is a sports writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at beverett@unionprogress.com.