Gowanda head coach Tim Smith and the Panthers won 10 of their final 12 games en route to a Section VI Class C championship this season. Photo courtesy of Gowanda Athletics

Tim Smith was well aware of just how young his Gowanda team was heading into this season.

The Panthers featured no seniors, four juniors, eight sophomores and an eighth-grader.

That inexperience was compounded by the fact that no New York state teams played a season last year due to COVID-19.

But that didn’t stop Smith from creating a grueling schedule for his team.

Within the first week of the season, Gowanda had lost four games to Class B2 Akron, Class B2 Fredonia, Class AA Frontier and Class A1 Hamburg by a combined score of 34-12.

The Panthers finally got in the win column with a nonleague victory over Class B1 Springville before losing their Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association Division 2 East opener to Randolph.

Then, after another nonleague loss to Class AA Orchard Park, Gowanda went on a roll.

The Panthers won seven of their next eight games, the only loss coming to nonleague Dunkirk. In the process, Gowanda wrapped up the CCAA Division 2 East championship before losing a playoff tuneup against undefeated Portville.

As the No. 4 seed for the Section VI Class C playoffs, the Panthers beat No. 5 Randolph 15-8 in the quarterfinals.

Two days later, Smith’s team went on the road to upset previously undefeated Clymer/Sherman/Panama — the No. 1 seed — by a score of 4-1 as sophomore Cole Herman threw a six-hit gem with 10 strikeouts and just one walk.

The teams were tied 1-1 entering the sixth inning before sophomore John Ondus hit a solo home run to give Gowanda a 2-1 lead. The Panthers tacked on two more runs in the seventh before Herman closed out the game.

Three days later, Gowanda capped its championship season with a 4-2 win over No. 2 Portville — again previously undefeated on the season.

On the mound, Ondus struck out 11 and walked three in 5 2/3 innings while both of his runs allowed were unearned.

This time, junior Gavin Phillips closed out the game, striking out three while allowing two hits and two walks.

Offensively, Ondus had three hits with a double and drove in a pair of runs to help the Panthers clinch their first sectional crown since 2014 and just the fourth in program history.

Phillips was named the league’s Player of the Year after hitting .357 with four triples, two doubles, eight RBIs and 25 runs scored on the season. The right-hander also went 4-0 with a 1.99 earned run average, including a complete-game shutout and a save.

Smuda and Ondus were named First-Team All-Stars in the league.

Smuda hit .286 with four doubles, two triples and a home run to go along with 14 RBIs and 18 runs scored, and also went 1-1 with a 1.75 ERA in 10 relief appearances on the mound.

Ondus hit .442 with six doubles, four triples and two home runs to go along with 17 RBIs and 19 runs scored. He went 3-3 in nine appearances on the mound, including five starts.

Eighth-grade catcher Blake Herman, junior infielder Maddox Browning and Cole Herman were all named league Second-Team All-Stars.

Sophomore Tyler Smith was named a league Honorable-Mention All-Star choice.

And the man steering the ship was Tim Smith, the 2021 Post-Journal/OBSERVER Baseball Coach of the Year.