When you think of Plant City, the first thing that comes to mind is the town’s annual Strawberry Festival, an event drawing people from all over the country.

Or maybe it’s the Parkesdale Market, a landmark for more than 50 years, known for their legendary strawberry milkshakes.

Now this town of more than thirty-five thousand people has something else to be remembered by.

A state baseball championship.

"The fact that we had never done anything as a program since 1972, since the school was founded, never won anything.  To be able to do that for the school's first time in history is a big deal," explained Plant City senior infielder Cade Shissler.

"I felt like we were underdogs all year because no matter what we did people were still writing us off and for us to capitalize and win at the end was to just to prove everyone wrong," said Plant City senior pitcher Grant Gifford.

Mission accomplished for the Raiders and now they have the medals too prove it, after a school-record 30 wins and a national top-20 ranking, Plant City baseball’s wait for a state championship is over.

"You win it, and then you want to keep on winning but listen, I love it, it’s a great experience, maybe it will only happen once in my lifetime, I don’t know, but that’s what it’s all about is keep on winning," said Raiders baseball Head Coach Mike Fryrear.

For five Plant City seniors, one lifetime experience came at the expense of another. The 8A state championship game took place on their graduation day.

"We didn’t know until right before we started playoffs that our graduation night was on the same night, so whenever we were told that, we kind of put it to our minds that we weren’t going to be walking across the stage," said Raiders senior Casey Mawhinney.

Plant City waited 97 years to etch their name in the state record book but waiting on that final historic out, felt even longer.

"It was in slow motion that ball going into our third baseman’s Cole’s glove and then I kind of blacked out,"  admitted Mawhinney.

"My heart, I didn't know what I was feeling.  I didn't know what to do, I just tried to stay calm," Shissler remembered.

"When he threw that last pitch and I got my six-foot-six third baseman over there and he caught it, it was a dream come true," Fryrear said.

Now Plant City will always be remembered for just a little more than being the world's strawberry capital.