‘Why not us?’

“Why not us?”

That’s how the Indians have been breaking down their huddles through the postseason.

That mindset has carried them through the sectional, past the Midwest Athletic Conference teams in the district and helped them defeat a 20-win team in the regional.

Now, they are just two wins away from bringing the first baseball state title back to the village.

That just leaves the question, what’s stopping the Indians from winning it all?

The Fort Recovery High School baseball team will make its fourth appearance at the state tournament this weekend when it squares off with the Hillsdale Falcons out of Jeromesville, Ohio, in the OHSAA Division IV state tournament opener at 4 p.m. on Saturday at Canal Park in Akron.

This is Fort Recovery’s first state appearance since it lost to Newark Catholic in back-to-back years in 2016 and 2015. It will be fighting for its first appearance in the final since 1953, when it fell to Beavercreak.

“We feel great,” said Fort Recovery coach Kevin Eyink. “Everybody’s excited and has that feeling of ‘we made it. We got there.’ Now we’ve got to stay focused and try to finish here. …

“We can’t settle on that. We can’t just be comfortable with that. We have to remain focused and hopefully we can get game one and attack game two.”

The Indians (15-12) and the Falcons (19-11) are playing for a spot in Sunday’s final at 7 p.m. The winner will face off against either No. 1 Berlin Hiland or No. 4 Russia. FRHS previously dropped a double header to Russia in early May 15-0, 2-1.

The “Why not us?” breakdown started after facing Fort Recovery’s first big challenge in second-seeded Crestview, in the sectional final.

“We won that first tournament game and (assistant coach Ben Homan) and I told them ‘There’s no reason we can’t keep it going,’” Eyink said. “‘No reason we can’t make a run here. We’ve got a pretty good path and some teams we could compete with pretty well. So why can’t we make a little run here?’

“They’ve carried that on.”

The Indians proceeded to topple Crestview in a close game, saw their bats come alive against a pair of MAC teams in the district and finished off both regional opponents with strong pitching. Now they get to make the trip to Akron to make history.

The Indians will go with a similar strategy as they did in the regional tournament, putting senior ace Alex Dues out on the mound against Hillsdale. Eyink then plans to use Caden Grisez in the title game as long as he isn’t needed against the Falcons. The duo has only given up a total of five earned runs over 33 innings pitched to combine for a postseason ERA of 1.91.

The toughest outing came against eighth-seeded Parkway in the district championship, when Dues surrendered eight runs (three of which were earned). No other team has scored more than four runs off of the Indians.

Four-year catcher Riggs Tobe will be tasked with managing the two of them and any other pitchers to grace the mound this weekend.

“The first inning is going to be nerve wracking,” Tobe said. “My jitters are going to be high and I’m going to be really hyped. I just gotta figure how to cool myself down, cool my pitcher, ‘Duesy’, down and figure it out from there. …

“We can’t try and dictate the game. We have to let the game flow to you and recognize what’s going on.”

Eyink is hoping his team’s bats will stay hot for the state tournament. In the postseason, the Indians have outscored their opponents 49-19 and have reached double digits three times.

While Fort Recovery hasn’t made the state tournament for nearly a decade, they bring some state experience through assistant coaches that played on the team and seniors like Gavin Faller and Troy Homan who were bat boys for the 2016 team.

“We’ve got to stay focused because it gets loud on that diamond,” Faller said. “On that bus ride when we were bat boys, (those guys) kept it intense, but the music was loud and they just had a blast with it, so they were all loose and ready to play. I think that’s what it’s going to take – stay focused but stay loose and act like it’s just a normal game.”

The Indians have the pitching staff to win games. Their offense has been clicking late in the season. Their roster features players that have four years of varsity experience and players that understand the kind of atmosphere they are walking into.

So their recent motto rings true. Why can’t they win it all? Even more so, they now have their sights set on the title, and are looking to finally claim it for themselves.

“Only four teams have done this in Fort Recovery baseball history,” Homan said. “To be one of them and especially to be a senior on the team means a lot.

“Now we have a chance to make more history. No Fort Recovery baseball team has won it before, so we’re going to go to Akron with that intention. We’re not just going with the purpose of ‘oh we get to play in state.’ We’re going with the purpose of ‘we’re going to win two more games and (be) the first Fort Recovery team ever to win it.’”