State champion Knoch traces success to players backing up teammates
To Knoch sophomore center fielder Dom Bucko, his decision to dive for Tyler Ksiazek's line drive in the bottom of the fourth inning of the PIAA Class AAA championship game wasn't much of a risk.
“I knew (Logan) Hickey had my back,” said Bucko, referring to the Knights' sophomore left fielder. “He was backing me up. I was pretty close to it, so I knew if I dove, he would have it if I missed it.”
The ball did elude Bucko's grasp, allowing two runs to score and Abington Heights to tie the score. But just as Bucko knew, Hickey was in the proper place to make sure the damage wasn't more.
“Hickey can fly like the wind, too, and he knows anything that's out there, (Bucko is) going to dive,” Knoch coach George Bradley said. “(Hickey) has instructions that if he doesn't get it, then you get it and throw it in. Had he not done that, (Ksiazek) would have come all the way around and scored.”
Instead of trailing, 6-5, and having the momentum all on the side of Abington Heights, Knoch got out of the inning with a 5-5 tie. The Knights went on to win their first PIAA championship in school history by winning, 7-5.
Bucko had a key moment later in the game, tripling with two outs in the sixth inning and scoring the eventual winning run on Chris Law's single.
But the earlier Bucko play, and Hickey's heads-up defense behind him, was emblematic of Knoch's historic postseason run: When one Knights player faltered, another backed him up.
It happened in the WPIAL quarterfinals, when Alex Stobert's two-run double in the sixth inning enabled Knoch to rally from a 4-3 deficit and beat Blackhawk, 5-4.
It continued in the WPIAL championship game against West Allegheny, when the Knights committed three errors in the seventh inning to allow the tying run to come to the plate before pitcher Cole Shinsky recorded the final out.
And Stobert helped the Knights overcome some fielding and baserunning miscues by pitching a two-hitter in a 1-0 victory over Punxsutawney in the first round of the PIAA playoffs.
Without teammates picking each other up, Knoch's run may have ended a lot sooner.
“That belief system, it's amazing what the mind can do,” Bradley said. “They all pulled together.”
In describing the team, Bradley referenced a quote from a plaque former President Ronald Reagan kept on his desk: “There is no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he does not mind who gets the credit.”
“That's how these guys feel,” Bradley said. “It's just the team credit. Let's get this team victory.”
It seemed appropriate Friday's championship was, as Shinsky described, “a team victory.”
Shinsky, the team's ace throughout the season, didn't have his best outing on the mound. He loaded the bases in the first inning, allowed two runs in the second and three more in the third.
But Knoch's junior left-hander also saved his best pitching for the end of the game, as he held Abington Heights scoreless over the final three innings and struck out three batters.
Shinsky also helped his own cause at the plate by driving in two runs.
“Any way I can help my team, I'm going to obviously try my best,” Shinsky said. “I just threw the bat out there, had some clutch hits and that's the way it went. Normally I'm pitching better than that, so I just came in clutch at the plate today.”
For much of the season, Knoch relied heavily on defense and pitching. In the Knights' PIAA semifinal victory over Donegal and the championship win over Abington Heights, their defense, pitching and hitting came through.
Again, a team victory.
“You see that oftentimes in these games. It's a battle to the end, and I'm glad it was won that way,” Bradley said. “I thought it was a well-played ball game, like two boxers slugging it out.”
Doug Gulasy is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. Reach him at dgulasy@tribweb.com or via Twitter @dgulasy_Trib.
