Scoring six unanswered runs after falling behind 3-0 in the third inning, Souderton beat Central Bucks South 6-3 on June 14, at Penn State’s Medlar Field.
According to senior Conlan Wall, the thing that separated their team from everybody else was their culture.
“Everybody gelled and got along together on the team, we were like brothers,” Wall said.
For head coach Mike Childs, he did not want the season to come to an end.
“If you came to our games it was insane,” Childs said. “Whenever we scored we would bang the gong and the crowd would scream.”
For Childs, this was his second trip to the state championship, having lost in 2007.
“Having the experience of being there before, I was a lot calmer than last time,” Childs said. “When we went down 3-0, I was actually pretty calm, thinking ‘we’ve got this, they just need to get rid of their nerves.”
According to alumni Moses Clemens, the team’s work ethic propelled them to win.
“I think we just wanted it more than anyone else, we put in the time,” Clemens said. “We would get together as a team some nights without any coaches and practice. We knew what it took to win.”
After losing once in the playoffs, Souderton would be eliminated if they lost again. Coach Childs gathered his team for practice on Monday of Memorial Day Weekend.
“I said, ‘Alright boys, are we going to worry about graduation, Senior Week and stuff like that, or are we going to go for this?’ They said ‘Coach, we are going to go for this.’ And then they won six straight,” Childs said.
The self-proclaimed “Bench Squad” and the gong were important members to the team according to Childs. The “Bench Squad” was made up of all the players on the bench, who all cheered their teammates on. The gong would be rung by the team every time they scored a run.
According to Childs, he asked opposing pitchers from other teams about the gong. They said ‘when you see it, it is no big deal. But when they score and they ring it and you hear the gong and celebration, it gets intimidating.’
“The ‘Bench Squad’ and gong were definitely a huge part of our success,” Childs said.
According to Wall, after the final out, it was “the happiest I have ever been.” For Clemens, it did not kick in got him at first.
“It seemed like something that was too good to be true,” Clemens said. “Knowing that I was a part of something so big.”
“The speech I gave before the championship game wasn’t about baseball , it was about legacy,” Childs said. “When you come back twenty years from now and you bring your sons or daughters and you look in that case, you’ll see; the pictures, the medals, the trophy, the news articles. You’ll look at that and smile because you were apart of that. That is what I want for you guys.”
“I’m not a crier at all,” Childs said. “My teams have only ever seen me cry twice. Once in 2007 when we lost, and when I gave that speech. My assistant, Coach Klaus, who is a young guy, said ‘Aw man, can’t we just play baseball?”