EUGENE — Walking into Jane Sanders Stadium on the University of Oregon campus is a bit more intimidating than any high school softball field. So, before taking on Lebanon in the Class 5A title game, the Bend High softball team vowed that they would try to keep their routines and pregame superstitions as close to normal as possible.

That included each player giving shout-outs: random shout-outs to random celebrities.

As she always does, senior third baseman Jet Hovey shouted out Shemar Moore of “Criminal Minds.” Junior shortstop Isabella Lauerman gave a shout-out to the “High Musical” character Troy Bolton for helping her get her head in the game. Senior pitcher Addisen Fisher not only shouted out Bolton, but also the source of her biggest fears and deepest, darkest secret — Herobrine of the video game “Minecraft.”

Now it’s time to give the Lava Bears a shout-out. After a 2-1 come-from-behind win over No. 4 Lebanon Saturday afternoon with sophomore catcher Mackenzie Shaughnessy delivering the winning hit, they can call themselves state champions for the first time in program history.

“We felt that sting the last two years and we swore we would never feel that again,” Fisher said.

Instead of feeling the pain of defeat, the second-seeded Lava Bears felt the joy and satisfaction (and perhaps relief?) of making the jump from a team worthy of being champions, to THE champions.

“Our goal from the beginning was to win state and not just get here,” said Shaughnessy, who was named Player of the Game. “That is what we knew we wanted and we had to fight for what we wanted. We scratched and clawed to get it.”

Trailing 1-0 with two outs and the bases loaded in the fifth inning, Shaughnessy delivered what proved to be the game-winning hit with a single to drive home two runs.

“I was really fired up going into the at bat,” Shaughnessy said. “It feels amazing to have that part of it be true, that I got the RBI to win it. But before that we had someone get on base, we had someone move the runners over.”

Despite having the nation’s top-ranked high school softball player, the Lava Bears felt as though outside observers did not take the team as a serious threat to claim the title. Especially with two freshmen and a sophomore in the starting lineup paired with missing major contributors from the previous year’s teams.

“We started saying that this is our year because everyone was saying it wasn’t our year,” Fisher said.

But to claim the softball crown, the Lava Bears (24-6 overall) had to beat the team that had bounced them from the playoffs the previous year. Saturday’s title game was the second time in as many years that the Warriors and the Lava Bears met late in the postseason. Last spring, it was Lebanon (22-8) that denied Bend a chance to play for a state title in a 4-3 win on Lava Bear’s home turf.

The Warriors again struck first in Saturday’s title game. In the third inning, when designated hitter Makayla Padilla walked to lead off the inning. With two outs and Padilla on third, third baseman Alexis Mulligan slapped a ball up the first base line with some wild english on it, and the Lava Bears weren’t able to field the ball. Mulligan was safe at first, and Padilla came home to break the scoreless tie.

With the way Lebanon’s Tatum Cole was pitching through the first four innings — she finished with nine strikeouts, six hits and two earned runs — it looked like a single run could be the difference.

But in the fifth inning, the Lava Bears finally broke through, thanks to the Lauerman sisters. Freshman left fielder Emily Lauerman started the inning off with a single. Two batters later, older sister Isabella Lauerman singles to put two runners on with one out. Both Lauermans came around and scored on Shaughnessy’s single.

“Me and my sister are best friends,” Isabella Lauerman said. “Getting to be on the bases together is so fun. Then getting to celebrate together and score together is such a special experience.”

With how Fisher was pitching, and how the Lava Bears’ defense was playing, a one-run lead was all that was needed.

Saturday was the game for Fisher. It was the two-time Oregon Gatorade Player of the Year and UCLA softball signee’s final game in the circle. Fisher allowed just three hits, one unearned run and struck out three batters. But coming into the game, she was not expecting to strike out a lot of Warrior batters.

“I knew I wasn’t going to get a ton of strikeouts,” Fisher said. “I just knew that my defense had my back.”

Ground balls hit to Hovey at the hot corner — and there were plenty of them — were as good as automatic outs. And in the sixth inning, when Lebanon put two runners on with base hits, the Lava Bears used two second-reaction plays to get out of the jam.

“I feel like as soon as we got in the playoffs we were locked in,” Hovey said. “Everyone in the infield communicates extremely well. That is what helps us.”

In two instances it looked as though the Warriors were going to be able to put more runners on with infield singles. But after the initial defensive plays broke down, the Lava Bears were able to catch the overaggressive Warrior baserunners away from the initial play for outs.

“That was the biggest change that we have made from the beginning to the end of the season,” Isabella Lauerman said. “Once we realized that things are still going on once you make an error and you can do so much with that. There were two outs that were on running errors by the other players, and we caught them.”

Finally the moment came to win a championship. There were two quick outs in the top of the seventh inning and the Lava Bears began to feel that they were the moment they had been denied of having the previous two years and worked all season to reach, had finally arrived.

“I saw (senior Bryanna Schaefer) in center field smiling super huge,” Fisher said. “That’s when it sunk in.”

With a 0-2 count, the crowd on the Bend side of the stadium rose to its feet waiting for what could be the final out.

Fisher delivered a perfect strike to Shaughnessy’s glove to freeze the batter and win the title.