RALPH WILSON/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Williamsport's Brenna Beck crosses the plate to score the winning run during the PIAA Class 6A playoff game against South Western on Monday at Millionaire Mountain. Williamsport won 6-5 in nine innings.

As Williamsport players ran off the field and met their teammates and coaches just outside the dugout, a sense of calm washed over them.

Sure, South Western had just scored a ninth inning run which put Williamsport three outs from its season ending, but seemingly nothing rattles this team. The Millionaires did not say the exact words, but right there they understood the phrase ‘been there, done that.’

And they did it again.

In a season defined by resilient comebacks, Williamsport produced its most dramatic one, considering the circumstances. After erasing a two-run sixth inning deficit to force extra innings, Williamsport won Monday’s 6A state tournament opener at Millionaire Mountain, 6-5 in nine innings as Payton Pennycoff hit a walk-off sacrifice fly which scored Brenna Beck.

Now the Comeback Kids take their act on the road, playing Owen J Roberts in Thursday’s quarterfinals at North Schuylkill High School.

“When we came in here and circled around before our last at-bat, that’s what we all talked about. They weren’t going to go out this way,” Williamsport coach Scott Stugart said. “They’ve done it all year long, so they were going to try and do it again.”

This was not Williamsport’s first rodeo. It has made fighting back its calling card the last few seasons, but especially this year, so they never doubted they could lasso another victory. The Millionaires have won five games in their final at-bat and Monday was its third walk-off win.

So, even though the difficulty level increased, Williamsport never stopped believing. Right on cue, Kinsley Cannode ignited the game-winning rally with a lead-off single before Beck singled. Both runners advanced on the throw to third and Ashlyn Robinson tied with a sharp hit grounder.

Pennycoff, like Cannode and Beck, then delivered with two strikes, lofting her flyball into the perfect spot down the right field line. Beck sprinted home and Williamsport celebrated the program’s first state tournament win since 2022.

“It’s very good to know that we never give up,” Cannode said after also hitting a game-tying, two-run, sixth inning triple. “That’s something that’s really special about this team.”

The seeds for a special season were immediately planted when Williamsport edged Loyalsock and Mifflin County in walk-off fashion to start the season. Loyalsock had scored twice in the top of the seventh in the opener, but Williamsport did not flinch. Before and out was recorded, Williamsport won, 6-5 when Kate Solomon ripped a walk-off single.

Two days later, Mifflin County seemed on its way to a blowout win, leading 6-0 in the fourth. Again, Williamsport stayed poised, kept working and fought back, tying the game before Mifflin County went up, 7-6. In the top of the seventh, Mifflin County scored, but Williamsport immediately tied it and Isabella Reddy won it two innings later, belting a walk-off single.

“Throughout the whole year, if we get down, we already know we can get back up,” Beck said after going 3 for 5 with an RBI against South Western. “Everybody has that mindset on our team that even if we’re down, we can score runs any inning; hit any type of pitch. We can really come back from anything.”

Williamsport proved it again at midseason when Danville stormed back from its own large deficit and took an 11-8 lead into the top of the seventh. Instead of worrying about a lead which was lost, Williamsport focused on what it could do and roared back. Emma Vollman went 4 for 4; the Millionaires scored six seventh inning runs, then held off one last Danville push and won, 14-13.

Even when undefeated state quarterfinalist Mifflinburg handed Williamsport its first loss, the Millionaires went down fighting. Mifflinburg led 6-0 in the fifth inning but the Millionaires rallied and tied it in the sixth. Only a fabulous Mifflinburg play on a Robinson rocket prevented Williamsport from winning before the Wildcats prevailed, 8-7.

“I know I say it over and over again and it’s a broken record, but they never give up. You know that they are never out of it because of their resiliency,” Stugart said. “Just the determination they have, you know they’re going to come back.”

They believe it, too. Because they have done it. Time after time.

Senior starters Beck, Reddy, Robinson and Vollman have been part of teams which have displayed this tenacity the past four years. Others like freshmen Pennycoff and Brielle Thornton are new to it. But like Stugart likes to stay when it comes to hitting, believing is contagious as well and all caught that bug early on.

Obviously, Williamsport would rather be playing from ahead, but experience has taught it can fight back and win.

“Even at the beginning of our season, we came back from more than one run to win,” Pennycoff said. “This (Monday) was only one run. We’ve come back from down six, so it was something we’re used to.”

“You don’t see anyone get uptight on this team. Even at this point in the season, you can see it rubbing off on the younger players that they’ve been through it themselves and they see how the older girls handle it,” Stugart said. “What a benefit for the program having four seniors who will demonstrate the leadership and how to approach the game.”

Williamsport leaned on that experience against South Western. Some missed opportunities had the Millionaires down 4-2, but the concentration was upon what could happen, not what already had. It was a next pitch, next at-bat mentality and it paid huge dividends again.

Solomon led off the sixth inning with a single; Vollman singled two batters and later and Cannode tied with a long two-run triple. Robinson pitched great from there, while Vollman, Beck and Zaelana Minor also made sensational defensive plays. Pitching and defense translated to offense and Williamsport booked its Elite 8 reservations.

“The regular season definitely helped make this game feel so much better because we’ve been in this position so many times that we knew we could come back and win,” Cannode said. “That’s what we’ve learned from those regular season games. That was a spark for us.”

Time will tell how far this spark carries Williamsport but look how far it has come already. So many times, opponents had this team down, but the Millionaires kept climbing back up. That is a reason it has scaled some lofty heights and become one of the state’s eight best 6A teams.

And more than the wins, it will be how Williamsport won so often which will long make this season special for all those who have participated.

“You always want to look for something that they can look back on years down the road,” Stugart said. “They’re young now and everything is in the moment but this is really going to mean something when it’s all said and done.”