ORWIGSBURG - Now Williams Valley has won everything.
Division championships? Check.
District championships? Ditto.
A state title? Yep, the Vikes even have won one of those, too.
Yet until Saturday night, Williams Valley had never won a Schuylkill League softball championship. Neither had Pottsville, at least since the league playoffs resumed in 2009.
So for eight tense innings they slugged it out at Patton Field. When Williams Valley needed it most, seniors Kylie Doyle and Cassidy Pinchorski stepped up with clutch hits to lift the Vikes to a 5-3 victory over the Crimson Tide.
"It means the world," Doyle said. "The state title last year was great, but we wanted to do something that our school's never done last year - or any other year.
"This is more important,'' she added. "And this is the first goal. The next goal is districts, and then states.''
With the game tied at 3, Doyle started the top of the eighth with a hot shot past the third baseman for a leadoff single. With Pinchorski at the plate, Doyle took second on a passed ball.
Pinchorski then lined a 2-0 pitch to left field that looked like an RBI single. When the ball got past the outfielder and rolled to the fence, Pinchorski circled the bases, sliding home, leaping to her feet and rushing into the arms of her waiting teammates.
"She got down in the count, so I was expecting a good pitch, which I didn't really get any all night,'' Pinchorski said. "She threw it right down the middle, and I hit it to left field.
"When I got to first, it just felt incredible,'' she added. "I knew my team wanted it. I gave up those runs, and I had to get them back.''
Pottsville (15-6) got a runner to second base with two outs in the bottom of the eighth, but Pinchorski got a comebacker and made the play to trigger a huge, red, white and blue group hug near the pitching circle.
At last, Williams Valley (22-0) had its Schuylkill League title.
"It's the best feeling in the world because it's never been done in our school,'' Pinchorski said.
Early on, it looked like the undefeated Vikings might comfortably club their way past the Tide.
In the second inning, Tianna Yanoscak roped an RBI single to right-center to give the Vikes a 1-0 lead.
In the third, Rayanne Hawk and Doyle smashed back-to-back doubles to double the lead. One out later, Katie Whelski laced an RBI single to left for a 3-0 lead.
That lead didn't last long. Pottsville bunched three hits, two stolen bases and one costly Williams Valley error for a rally that tied the game at 3.
Senior shortstop Morgan Alisauckas, who finished 3-for-3, scorched a line single back through the box to drive in a pair of runs. After taking third on Caitlyn Herndon's infield single, Alisauckas scored the tying run on Julie Bulino's groundout.
"This was probably one of the toughest games of our season,'' Doyle said. "They're a great team. They're solid all the way through their lineup.''
Williams Valley, which has won 10 games by the 15- or 10-run rule, found itself in a battle.
"I knew they'd come to play,'' Williams Valley coach Lee Reiser said. "(Pottsville) wanted to put their names in the (record) books. I knew with six seniors, they were gonna play hard and they were gonna give us all we could handle.''
After a shaky start, Pottsville pitcher Sara Tobin settled in. She held Williams Valley scoreless on just three hits over the next four innings.
That gave the Tide time to mount more threats.
In the fifth inning, Pottsville put runners at second and third with one out. After two failed bunt attempts, Pinchorski recorded one of her seven strikeouts. She hit the next batter, but got a popout to escape trouble and leave the bases loaded.
In the sixth, Pottsville put runners on first and second with one out. Kyra Bulino then hit a humpback liner to second that Whelski caught and fired to first base for a double play.
And in the seventh, Alisauckas led off with an infield single but was erased on a double play.
"The kids fought back, came back and tied the score,'' Pottsville coach Chuck Rinaldo said. "We had opportunities. ... Overall, I'm really proud of the effort the kids put in.''