The Fox Chapel Black team recently claimed the Guyasuta League Colt Division championship.
FC Black swept rival Aspinwall in a best-of-three series.
The clinching win was a 3-2 victory on July 27. Chad Bartlett went the distance on the mound to earn the win.
Aspinwall's Eddie Hartman also went the distance and turned in a solid performance.
"The teams played very well defensively, were closely matched, and it came down to getting a few early runs on a timely hit and some good base-running and, then, just hanging on," said Lane Dively, head coach of the FC Black team.
Dively's squad won the first game of the series on July 25, 9-5.
FC Black also defeated teams from Morningside and Deer Lakes as part of its playoff run.
Deer Lakes entered the playoffs as the top seed.
"Summertime now offers so many things for high school-aged boys to be doing, that it's a challenge nearly every game to put enough players on the field to play," Dively said. "But the boys showed up, played hard, had a great time, and came together for a successful run in the last half of the season.
"Hopefully, they also improved their baseball skills or, at least, kept them sharp for next year, while having fun playing baseball."
The team was one of two sponsored by the Fox Chapel Baseball Association, which also placed two Pony Division teams in the league.
The winning team included players from the Fox Chapel Area School District and from the Shady Side Academy baseball program, which made its field available for the team to use as its home field.
The Guyasuta League hosts local communities' teams that play at the Pony level, ages 13 and 14, and Colt level, ages 15 to 17, in a season that begins at about the time school teams are completing theirs and extends through the first half of summer.
If anyone is interested in entering a team from their community into the league next season, contact Mickey McGrane for Pony teams at 412-681-5353 or send an email to mcgranesport@verizon.net.
