Fast-forward to 2021; a lot has changed. Due to COVID, there isn’t a state tournament. And five Falconer seniors graduated a couple hours after their Section VI Class C championship game against Portville on Thursday.

But, oh, what a day. The top-seeded Golden Falcons blasted 20 hits in a 13-3 championship win over No. 2 Portville.

“I wish this group got that run (in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association spring championships), for sure,” said Stuart.

“But, at the same time, it’s a nice, clean ending,” Stuart added. “It’s something that they should be proud of forever. I told them that this is not something everybody gets in their softball careers; this year, this team, this situation, not everybody gets that feeling.”

Falconer won its first sectional title since 2011 on Thursday with a 13-3 championship game win over Portville at Falconer. P-J photo by Jon Sitler

It was clear it meant something more — after shortstop Tess Spangenburg fired the ball to first baseman Emily Melquist for the final out — when the team converged on pitcher Ashton Beckerink in the pitching circle.

“We’re a unit,” Falconer senior Macy Youngberg said after the game, fighting back tears. “Everyone does everything that they can for the team.”

Including hit the ball hard.

Falconer (14-2) was the top seed entering sectionals, and came into the championship game riding the high of a comeback win on Tuesday over Westfield. The Falcons strung four straight hits together to defeat Westfield 4-3 in the bottom of the seventh.

The bats kept rolling two days later.

Golden Falcons senior Courtnee Peterson holds up the championship plaque. P-J photo by Jon Sitler

Portville (16-2) — riding a 16-game winning streak — scored first when senior captain Felecia Capito blasted a line shot to the left-center field gap for an inside-the-park home run.

With no outfield fence at Ernie Strickland Field, outfielders were running all over the place.

Kayla Lynn’s two-out, two-run double put Falconer on the board in the second inning. Macy Youngberg and Spangenburg added hard RBI singles and the Falcons led 4-1.

Portville’s Faith Capito and Mia Hlasnick started the top of the third with back-to-back line-drive home runs in the left-center field gap.

Trailing 4-3, a Brook DeYoe single chased Lynn, Falconer’s starting pitcher. With Beckerink in relief, a line-drive double play to Melquist at first got Falconer out of trouble. An inning before, the Panthers had the bases loaded and no outs when they hit into a double play groundout from Nicole Youngberg at third to catcher Beckerink to Melquist at first.

Falconer put six on the board in the bottom of the third on seven hits, capped by Spangenburg’s three-run homer. Melquist homered in a three-run sixth for icing on the cake.

Beckerink scattered four hits over the final five innings, and after a shaky start, Falconer’s defense was sparkling. Portville didn’t strike out in the game, but two double plays, a diving catch in center by Courtnee Peterson, and line drives snagged by Lynn and Melquist highlighted the glove work.

Offensively, Falconer struck out just once. Macy Youngberg had four hits; Peterson and Ashley Pierce three each; and Lynn, Nicole Youngberg, Spangenburg and Melquist had two hits apiece.

“I was told coming in that they were a great group, and they proved to be an even better group than I was told … as people,” said Stuart. “I knew that they had talent, but they came together as human beings and as friends. Because of COVID and everything, one of our first practices was exactly two months ago, and I didn’t know some of their names. I had them running drills and I had them say their names before they went. We have grown so much from the end of April to the last few days. It’s all because of who they are as people, and I could not ask for any more than that.”

NOTES: Thursday’s championship was the 10th in school history for Falconer, and first since 2013. The first four came in Class C and the five most recent came in Class B.