BENTON --- Time after time, the 2025 Marion Patriots came through when the chips were down. So it only made sense that Marion came through one more time over the weekend. MHS won three games in three days last week at this season's Class 5A state baseball tournament at Benton, topping Lake Hamilton on Thursday and Van Buren on Friday by identical 7-5 scores, and the Pats punched their ticket to the third state final in school history on Saturday afternoon, besting Beebe in a 3-2 outcome. Marion will play defending Class 5A state champion and outright 5A East conference champion Valley View at 7 p.m. Thursday night at Bear Stadium on the campus of the University of Central Arkansas with the winner earning the 2025 Class 5A state championship. Marion's (19-12 overall) list of heroes over the weekend is long. The Patriots got a strong start against Lake Hamilton from senior right-hander Cohen “Jimmy” Bumbaugh, who twirled five innings at the Wolves, striking out 7 batters and surrendering just one hit and three runs. Max Molloy navigated the sixth inning before handing off to Coleman Barnett for the seventh, and the junior logged the save. Marion scored the first seven runs of the opening-round contest against Lake Hamilton and won with just four hits as Molloy (1-4 with two RBI and a run), Carson Catt (1-4 with two RBI), Hudson McKewen (1-3 with two runs) and Brody Byrd (1-4 with a run), while Robert Hall, Barnett, and Myles Holt each drove in runs. In the quarterfinals, Marion again scored first, picking up four runs in the bottom of the second, before watching the Pointers rally to within 4-3. That's when the Pats picked up an insurance run in the home half of the fifth and two more in the sixth before Van Buren scored twice in the top of the seventh, and had the tying run at second base in the seventh when Molloy recorded the final out via strikeout to catapult MHS into the Class 5A final four. Barnett earned the victory one day after logging the save by spinning 5.2 innings at the Pointers, striking out five batters, and giving up just six hits and three runs. Molloy notched the save by working the final 1.1 innings, striking out two and giving up a single hit and an earned run. Molloy came up big at the plate, as well, as the sophomore went 2-4 at the plate with four RBI. Catt (1-2 against Van Buren with a walk and a run), Bumbaugh (1-3 with an RBI and a walk), McKewen (1-3 with an RBI and a walk), Hall (1-3), Barnett (1-3 with a run and an RBI), and Holt (1-2 with two runs, an RBI and a walk), also produced at the plate, while Byrd and Ladd Langley each walked and scored on the afternoon. Marion trailed for the first time at the state tournament in Saturday's semifinal against Beebe, as the Badgers scored once in the top of the first, but the Pats responded with three runs of their own in the home half of the first, and sophomore Ben Bateman made it stand up by throwing the final 6.1 innings out of the bullpen, allowing just two hits, and giving up a single run. Catt (2-3 against Beebe with a run), Bumbaugh (2-3 with two RBI and a run scored), McKewen (1-3), Langley (1-3 with an RBI), Bateman (1-2), Barnett (1-2), and Holt (1-2) combined to come up with Marion's nine hits against Beebe, while Molloy walked and scored a run. Marion took control of the Lake Hamilton (22-6 final record) game with a five-run top of the second inning that began with a McKewen single before Langley walked with one out. Hall plated the game's first run when he reached on an error to score McKewen for a 1-0 Marion advantage. With two outs, Holt was hit by a pitch to load the bases, leading to Molloy cracking a ground-rule double to left-center field that delivered Langley and Hall as the Marion lead hit 3-0. The Marion onslaught continued with the following at bat when Catt hit a line shot off of the third baseman's glove that allowed Holt and Molloy to score and the Pats enjoyed a 5-0 lead after two innings. MHS was back at it in the third inning when McKewen led the frame off by reaching on a hit by pitch, followed by a Byrd base hit. With one out, Hall was hit by a pitch to load the bases for Marion, leading to Barnett and Holt accepting walks to plate a pair of runs for a 7-0 advantage. That score held until the bottom of the fifth when Lake Hamilton got one back, and the Wolves scored four times in the bottom of the sixth before recording an out, before Marion got the last three Lake Hamilton batters in order to squash the threat. The first two Wolves reached in the bottom of the seventh, but Barnett got the final three outs to send Marion to the quarterfinals. Friday's quarterfinal against Van Buren marked the third postseason meeting with the Pointers in five seasons. Van Buren topped Marion 5-3 in the 2021 quarters, while the Patriots repaid Van Buren with an 11-6 decision in the 2022 Class 5A state title game. Marion's winning inning on Friday afternoon was the bottom of the second, when the Pats erupted for four runs. The uprising began when Byrd and Langley walked, leading off the frame, and Barnett delivered the game's first run with a solid single into centerfield. Holt pushed the lead to 2-0 with an infield single that delivered Langley, and a Molloy double plated Barnett and Holt with a timely double for a 4-0 bulge after two frames. The Pointers scored twice in the top of the fourth, and they got one more back in the fifth to work within 4-3. Marion rallied for a run in the fifth when Catt doubled and scored on a Bumbaugh two-base hit as the Pats took a 5-3 lead into the sixth. The Pats pushed ahead 7-3 in the bottom of the sixth when Hall singled and Holt walked ahead of another Molloy two-run double, and the four-run cushion carried to the seventh. The first two Pointers reached in the seventh, and the bases were loaded with one out. Van Buren got a pair of runs on a throwing error to get within 7-5, with runners on second and third, and the go-ahead run at the plate, when Molloy froze Hudson Stewart with on a 2-2 count to close out the Pointers and send Marion into the semifinals for the fifth time in school history. Beebe put four runners on in the top of the first inning of the Saturday semifinal game, and the Badgers scored first on a bases-loaded walk, leading to Bateman entering and getting a groundout to vanquish the threat. Marion struck immediately in the home half of the first as Molloy walked leading off the frame, followed by a Catt single, and when Bumbaugh cracked a double to score Molloy and Catt, the Pats were in front 2-1. A Langley single delivered Bumbaugh for a 3-1 lead, which doubled as the score to open the second stanza. That tally held until the fourth when the Badgers got one back to move within 3-2. Bateman seemed intent on making it stand up as the lanky sophomore retired 12 of the final 14 batters that he faced, including the last eight in order. WHAT'S NEXT? Marion will play the Valley View Blazers at 7 p.m. Thursday evening at UCA's Bear Stadium. You can watch the Marion-Valley View Class 5A state final for free on MyArkansasPBS.com. MPAN will provide an audio-only broadcast of the state final, as well. SWEET HOME BENTON Marion baseball has won seven of its past eight postseason games hosted by Benton. The run began with the 2014 Patriots, who dispatched Pine Bluff, Jonesboro, and El Dorado over three days to make the first state final in program history. The 2022 Patriots vanquished Van Buren 11-6 in that season's state championship game, and this year's Patriots made themselves at home in Saline County, beating Lake Hamilton in Bryant before returning to Benton to top Van Buren and Beebe. Marion's only postseason loss hosted by Benton in that stretch was a 10-7 loss against Benton in 2019. SENIOR CELEBRATION Senior baseball players Jimmy Bumbaugh, Carson Catt, and Hudson McKewen, and senior manager Logan Shelton missed Marion's graduation ceremony on Saturday morning, but those four were recognized by the Benton School District on the field prior to first pitch of the Beebe game on Saturday afternoon.