BENTON -- An historic inning helped the Marion Patriots cap an historic season.
Marion scored seven runs in the first inning on the way to an 11-6 win over defending state champion Van Buren on Saturday afternoon in the Class 5A baseball state championship game at Everett Field at the Benton Athletic Complex.
The win marked the first state baseball title for Marion (29-5), which was playing in its second championship game.
"It's big for these guys. It's big for our town," Marion Coach Pete Prater said. "These seniors, they were the first group I had when I was hired when they were eighth-graders. That was the first year we got a junior high team going. Every one of them that's here except for one has stuck through it for five years now."
Marion opened the game with seven runs in the top of the first inning, marking the sixth time in the 66-year history of the baseball state championship game that a team scored seven or more runs in the first inning, joining Parkers Chapel (11 in 2011), Batesville (9 in 1995), Sylvan Hills (9 in 2003), Horatio (8 in 1997), and Watson Chapel (8 in 1988), all in victories.
Six of Marion's seven runs were unearned.
"We feel like we're the best team no matter who we line up against if we just go out and play," Van Buren Coach Luke Weatherford said. "That was very uncharacteristic of us. We didn't play defense there early, and it got away from us."
Marion's Gage Watson reached on an error to open the game and scored on a balk for a 1-0 lead after Payton Voyles walked and Chase Armstrong singled to center to load the bases.
Conner Taylor added a run-scoring fielder's choice, and a sacrifice bunt by Matthew Kearney scored another.
Kaleb Catt, the last hitter in Marion's lineup, provided the big hit of the inning with a triple that scored Luke Bullins and Connor Brinkley for a 6-0 lead.
Watson added a single that scored Catt for a 7-0 cushion.
"I told them at the beginning that we are prepared," Prater said. "They've been here and we haven't, but we're prepared."
Van Buren (26-6) scored three unearned runs in the bottom half of the inning on an error, three walks and a single by Breckin Waters that drove in two runs.
Marion scored four more in the second inning on singles by Dylan Kight, Chase Armstrong, Taylor and Brinkley for an 11-3 lead.
Van Buren also scored in its half of the second inning, adding two runs on a titanic homer by Eli Gilreath over the 15-foot wall in center field.
"Our guys did a good job of staying with it," Prater said. "Their guys did a good job of battling."
The first two innings took an hour and 15 minutes.
From there, though, Marion's Ben Gerrard and Van Buren's Connor Brady settled both offenses down after entering in relief roles.
Gerrard earned the game's Most Valuable Player award and earned the win on the mound, allowing a single run in the fourth inning on a double by Gilreath that scored Malachi Henry.
Gerrard has been a conference starter and made just his second relief appearance of the season. He finished with 99 pitches after coming in for Armstrong with two outs in the second inning.
"That's been the plan all week to come in if he [Armstrong] got into any kind of trouble," Gerrard said. "It was almost like starting a game. I've got 110 pitches, why not use them."
That was it, though, for the Pointers with Gerrard coaxing an inning-ending double play in the second.
"Our defense has been solid," Prater said. "We needed something like that to kind of settle us down. We got out of some jams."
Gerrard threw a 1-2-3 inning in the third. He also pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the fifth inning with a called third strike to end Van Buren's final threat.
"The curveball was really going well on the outside part of the plate," Gerrard said. "That's where I live. It was working today, too."
Armstrong, Taylor and Catt each had two hits for Marion.
Gilreath and Brady had two hits for Van Buren.