Montoursville seniors achieved a legacy | News, Sports, Jobs

MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette Correspondent
Montoursville’s Royce Bowes slides home during the District 4 Class AAAA playoffs vs. Athens. Bowes is one of four seniors who have achieved a legacy at Montoursville.

Each year, Montoursville, like many schools, hangs senior photos outside the fence at high school baseball and softball fields.

Michael Reeder, Jimmy Mussina, Brayden McCourt and Royce Bowes have seen their photos at Giles Field whenever they walk toward the dugout the last few weeks. Those pictures will soon come down, but what that quartet has helped Montoursville achieve will provide it a legacy the program always remembers.

The four seniors have helped Montoursville reach its first state championship since 2006. They will play their last game Friday at Penn State when the Warriors (20-4) face Indiana for the state crown.

Talk about leaving on a high.

“To make a mark on program history, means the world. Coach Eck asked for years, ‘How do we want to leave a mark?’” McCourt said. Do you want to be able to come back here and show your kids one day the banners and plaques and say I was on that team and a part of something special, or be on a team that no one remembers? So, to be able to be apart of a state championship team means the world to me and I know it means a lot to the guys as well.”

It also has provided the four seniors retribution. Ironically, this was a group that was labeled as not winning the big games entering this season. Eck gathered those seniors and reminded them of that earlier this year.

They were freshmen and watched Montoursville win its previous district championship in 2022 before joining the varsity team a year later and being part of consecutive district runners-up. Montoursville also lost heart-breakers the last two years against Williamsport at the Backyard Brawl, including in this year’s final before dropping another close one against 3A state finalist Mount Carmel in what was a de facto HAC-II title game.

The postseason offered the seniors one last opportunity. And they placed all their chips on the table and have cashed in like master poker players. The past is gone and what they have achieved this year is what will define those four players well after they play their final game Friday.

“I challenged them a couple weeks ago and told them they are a good group of balls players, but have never gotten over that hump,” Eck said. “They are throwing that back in my face. They have proven everyone wrong, including me.”

“Spring sports are the final sports for our senior year, so it was up to us to get back in the district championship for another game, to get that chance against Danville and win it this time,” Bowes said. “To beat Danville and get that gold and keep winning in states feels really good.”

All four seniors have been really good this postseason as well. All have started every game this season and all have played their best at the perfect time. They went a combined 7 for 12 with four runs and two RBIs in Monday’s 6-0 semifinal win against Pope John II and all have repeatedly come up big offensively and defensively in critical moments.

Reeder ignited a game-changing, two-out, five-run rally against Fleetwood in the quarterfinals. Bowes followed with an RBI double and Mussina hit a go-ahead two-run double as Montoursville rallied to win, 6-4. McCourt started the fire against Pope John II, bashing a double off the right field wall and sparking another five-run rally.

“We were also the class of 2025 that was known to never get anything done. Winning a district title and now we’re going to the state championship … that’s pretty special to me as a senior,” Bowes said. “I told the guys it’s going to go by quickly because it really did for me. It felt like just yesterday I was watching (2022 graduate) Maddix Dalena. I really looked up to him as a leader. Watching him play and now going farther than what they did then, that’s pretty cool.”

Eck often tells the seniors that their final season is about seeing if they can step and perform in big moments. The 2025 Montoursville seniors have emphatically answered, yes. Over and over again.

Once upon a time this quartet was bigger, featuring nine players when they began their high school journeys as freshmen. These were the Fab 4 who stuck it out, kept grinding and kept improving.

The journey was filled with twists and turns but look where it has led this group. The pictures will soon be gone, but Reeder, Mussina, McCourt and Bowes have made sure their names will be remembered.

“It’s pretty crazy that we started out with nine seniors and now we’re down to the final four here,” Bowes said. “It’s pretty cool for us to get a chance to play at Penn State in our final game of high school baseball.”