Before exiting the Cleveland Harley Park lockerroom this past Saturday following a 2-hour, 11-minute weather delay, Gilbert head baseball coach Ashley Burnett passed along a message to his players.

“Alright boys, rent’s due today,” said Burnett, paraphrasing a quote from NFL All-Pro defensive lineman JJ Watt.

The Indians proceeded to make “payment” on their goal of winning the SC High School League Class 3A title. Leading West-Oak 6-3 in the deciding game of the Best-of-3 series when play was stopped after 3 innings due to approaching lighting-filled storm, Gilbert doubled its run total and pulled away for the 12-3 victory over the Warriors.

The victory clinched the program’s 1st state championship since 2012. It was also the 4th won under Burnett and 5th overall.

Gilbert’s road to the championship saw it go 7-1 in the post-season and make 2 trips totalling over 200 miles to the Upstate. After rolling 14-4 in Game 1 at home on June 1, the Indians were held to 2 hits by Austin Stephens in a 6-0 shutout loss at West-Oak 2 nights later.

For Game 3, Gilbert turned the tables by jumping out to a 6-0 lead. After a leadoff single by Preston Price, senior catcher Ashby Vining got things rolling with a 2-run homer which travelled well over the 398-foot centerfield marker.

“It’s 402 out there, it cleared pretty good,” Vining said. “That one to center was the furthest I’ve ever hit in my life.”

Austin Waters followed with an RBI bunt single. With the bases loaded, Aaron Sox drove home a run with an infield fielder’s choice and Cooper Burkett added a 2-run single.

The Warriors answered back with 3 runs in the bottom 3rd inning off starter Edwin Amerson. The Coker College signee held them scoreless the rest of the way and had no qualms about returning to pitch after the delay.

“(The coaches) were checking on me the whole time, like every 5 minutes,” he said. “They were checking me like ‘feeling good?’ and all that. I was like ‘Yeah. I got this. I can get out there and keep doing what I’m doing.”

After play resumed, Vining got Gilbert’s offense rolling again with a double. It led to an RBI single by Dylan Massey who was driven home on a hit by Joey Parker to make it 8-3.

The Indians added 3 more runs in the top 6th. Price singled home Aaron Sox and scored on Nathan Reynolds’ sacrifice fly and Vining belted his 2nd home run over the leftfield wall for his 3rd RBI to make it 11-3.

Chance Jennings closed out the scoring in the 7th as he doubled and scored after advancing to 3rd base and homeplate off wild pitches. West-Oak (20-10) put 2 baserunners on with 2 outs before Amerson got Stephens to ground out to Massey at 3rd base to set off the celebration.

“I think all of the seniors wanted to win for last year’s team,” said Amerson, referring to the group whose season was cut short due to the pandemic. “That was a good group. I feel like we would have made it to the state championship. So I went out and won it for them.”

Following the victory, Gilbert residents held a ceremony at the school for the returning champions. They were also honored at Wednesday’s Lexington County Blowfish game.