STATE COLLEGE - Ryan to Melochick to Woodford.
Countless repetitions of that cutoff sequence from Little League to junior high finally to the end of their high school careers.
A two-out single to left field scooped up by Alyse Ryan, who quickly makes her cutoff throw to shortstop Reighly Melochick.
The shortstop notices the baserunner - not even halfway down the third-base line - and fires a strike to catcher Morgen Woodford, awaiting the throw at the top of the batter's box to tag the runner out.
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Game over in fitting fashion. Torch officially passed to a promising group of youngsters - exactly the way it was passed to the current group of seven Minersville seniors three years before.
With the relay throw of Melochick cutting down Claysburg-Kimmel's Christina Wannyn for the final out, Minersville captured the ninth state softball championship in program history with a 4-1 victory over the Bulldogs in the PIAA Class A state final at Penn State University's Nittany Lion Softball Park on Friday afternoon.
"Senior to senior to senior. That's the way the game ends," Minersville coach Dave Homa said. "That's exactly how it should end for that class."
That's the way it ends for a two-time state championship class and begins for a freshman class with similarly high expectations that accepted gold medals in nearly the same spot as this year's seniors did in 2011.
"Program progresses," Homa said. "They keep going on and on and on. We'll have another group of seniors, who for four years waited for this. Every six years we have a senior class win a state title. This is the senior class that broke that tradition, or that jinx.
"The seniors - they have two state titles, three trips to states, three district titles - you can't ask more."
Just about the entire roster contributed to a postseason run during which the Big Blue Machine (24-3) scored 39 runs and dominated just about every opponent in its path.
Those three seniors ended it, second baseman Leah Leshko contributed in the field and at the plate, and pitcher Riley Gerenda largely dominated the Bulldogs (22-5) from the circle.
Underclassmen like freshmen Adrienne Kroznuskie, Maura Bentz and Emily Mealey, along with juniors Lindsay Snyder and Rachel Sterner, now take the torch.
"Our program probably starts from Little League and builds up through All-Stars. Throughout junior high, and as soon as you're a freshman, you are the core," Woodford said. "That's who you run off of, the freshmen, the new meat. Passing the torch off to them, I think they'll handle it. Especially this junior class coming in, they have good bats and Adrienne and Emily Mealey - they'll fill in the shoes fine."
The freshmen have been shown the Minersville way, just like these seniors were guided.
"We had some senior leaders that had been there like Laykin (Hughes), Jenna (Strubhar), Gabby (Tobin) and Sonia (Bernetskie) that taught us that when you're up, the whole team's going to be up," Woodford said. "We just had to lead as best as we can."
The seniors led and finished it exactly the way Minersville hopes - no, expects - to finish it ... as state champions.
So Ryan scooped up the sharply hit ball to left field by Madison Ickes, sees the third-base coach wave on Wannyn and throws to her cutoff, Melochick.
"Actually I didn't see her waving her on. I just knew I had to get it in at least," Ryan said. "I couldn't let it get behind me because it would've cost. It would've hurt in the end. I just got it to our cutoff, which is Reighly, and Reighly threw it home. What do you expect? She got an out."
Melochick wheeled, thinking about throwing the ball to second to prevent the runner from advancing from first. Instead â¦
"The plan was to get it into second, which I was going to do, but Alyse got it in a lot quicker than I expected her to, which is typical Alyse," Melochick said. "I was just going to go to second, but as soon as I got the relay throw, I saw that she was far up the line and I could have a chance to throw her out. I didn't want the runners to advance another base, but that's why we practice relay throws."
And Woodford, heeding the advice of assistant coach Marty Brophy, moved up in the batter's box to accept the throw ahead from Melochick.
"I saw their third-base coach and they were just waving her on. I saw that ball come in from Reighly," Woodford said. "Mr. Brophy was just like 'you get up there as far in that batter's box as they'll let you,' and that's what I did. I made sure the umpire saw that I had the ball.
"I heard Bird (Gerenda) right away. That's probably the first thing I did. I saw the umpire and I just screamed."
Then the seniors passed the torch to the next group.
"Of course, I expect especially big things from them," Ryan said. "They're a great group of kids, and they'll definitely work their butt off to earn another one. I could see it happening."