MILLBURY, Ohio — UPDATE:
The Lake Flyers baseball team fell to Heath in the state championship game on Sunday afternoon.
The final score was 3-1.
The team finishes the season as the Division III state runner up.
On Saturday morning, the team beat the Minford Falcons in the semifinals by a score of 4-0 to advance to the final game.
After winning the regional championship last weekend, the Lake High School baseball team is now returning to the state final four, a goal over 20 years in the making.
Head coach Casey Witt is a Flyer baseball alum himself and said that the player's trust and commitment to the process has allowed for a long postseason run.
"We felt that our kids kind of had a grasp of what we thought they could do, so we didn't want to talk about it and put additional pressure on it," Witt said. "We knew we had a squad that we thought could be really competitive in our league, competitive in our district, but to give ourselves the chance to get here was awesome. But it also speaks volumes of our kids and how they really relished the moment and competed and got us here."
In each of the program's state appearances, it has fallen in the semifinals. Winning the title is the goal, but simply making the title game would make history.
"I hope that no matter what they take out of it, that they enjoy the experience. I've told them that we've got two goals when we go there," Witt said. "We want to enjoy every minute of it because this is rare, but we're going there Saturday with the goal of going back Sunday and playing for a state title."
First-team All-Ohio pitcher Drew Tajblik has been an integral part of the Flyers' success. He said he recognizes the importance of this program's tradition and looks forward to the opportunity to compete on Saturday.
"It's amazing to do all these great accomplishments here at Lake. To continue that tradition is awesome for us and we're just a great team, great chemistry overall," he said. "Just have fun. Just enjoy it while we have it. It's only 4 years, don't take anything for granted. Just play hard and have fun."
Since placing first in the Northern Buckeye Conference and claiming the district and regional title, the team plans on sticking to what they've done all season on Saturday.
"The mindset is, 'this is a really big deal,' but at the same time you're still playing the same game you guys have played since you were 3, 4, 5 years old with your buddies," Witt said. "So I told them, we've done it one way for 31 games, the only thing that changes is where we're playing. And that's the mindset that I want them to take in and hopefully we can foster this week in practice."
The Flyers will take on Minford in the Division III state semifinal on Saturday at 10 a.m. at Canal Park in Akron.