Knoch wins 1st PIAA baseball championship
UNIVERSITY PARK — For once, Knights will wear a crown.
Knoch put the finishing touches on a historic season, winning the first state title in school history with a 7-5 victory over Abington Heights in the PIAA Class AAA baseball championship Friday at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park.
“This entire season has been history in the making,” senior Chris Law said. “We have a (heck) of a team, and we knew it. We're No. 1 in the state right now. For years to come, I think our tradition is to win the state championship.”
Coming into the season, Knoch had one postseason victory in 25 years as a program. The Knights won eight playoff games this season, not to mention their first WPIAL and PIAA championships.
It is Knoch's first state team championship in any sport.
“It's just unbelievable, an unbelievable experience,” sophomore center fielder Dom Bucko said. “We knew we could do this, and we did it. We kept fighting.”
In keeping with Knoch's season, the Knights (23-2) overcame adversity to become the first WPIAL team to win a state Class AAA title since Pine-Richland in 2006.
Knoch fell behind early, rallied to take the lead and saw Abington Heights (18-4) tie the score before scoring the winning runs with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning on run-scoring singles by Law and Cole Shinsky.
“It's a tribute to those guys,” Knoch coach George Bradley said. “They never quit. It sounds trite, it sounds cliché, but it's really true. You could just see they weren't going to be denied, they were going to find a way.”
Facing Abington Heights ace Tyler Ksiazek (9-1), who was pitching in relief, Bucko tripled to the wall in right field with two outs. Law followed with a single up the middle to score Bucko and give Knoch the lead for good.
“I hit it solid, so it went right through,” Law said. “Even if the shortstop got it, I was beating it out no matter what. I knew as soon as I hit the ball, we had to score.”
Law stole second and then broke for third as Ksiazek delivered a pitch to Shinsky, who bounced a single through the left side to score Law.
Shinsky, also Knoch's starting pitcher, finished with two RBIs to offset an uncharacteristic pitching performance. He allowed five runs — two earned — and eight hits in seven innings, walking three and striking out three.
“I'm a little disappointed by the way I pitched, but that was definitely a team victory,” Shinsky said. “We had a lot of hits in the championship game. That was clutch.”
After Shinsky escaped a bases-loaded jam in the first inning, Abington Heights scored two runs in the second on Zach Spangenberg's bases-loaded single with two outs.
Knoch took the lead with four runs in the bottom of the second off Abington Heights starter Zach Manasek.
Asa Adams and Garrett Traggiai sandwiched singles around a walk by Alex Stobert to load the bases with no outs. Addis Crouch reached on an error to score the first run. Bucko drew a bases-loaded walk, Law drove in a run with a fielder's choice and Shinsky made it 4-2 with a two-out single.
Traggiai singled in Adams in the third inning, but Abington Heights tied the score in the fourth on a run-scoring single by Zach Campbell and Ksiazek's two-run triple past a diving Bucko.
A 23-minute rain delay before the top of the sixth allowed Knoch to regroup. Shinsky (10-0) pitched a scoreless sixth, and the Knights' offense came through.
“I think (the rain delay) got us even more motivated,” Bucko said. “That gave us a break. I think that relaxed us, and we came out strong.”
Shinsky hit Colin McCreary with a pitch with two outs in the seventh, but Sam Arnold popped to Knoch first baseman Alex Stobert in foul territory to end the game. The Knights sealed their dream season with a dog pile in the infield.
“I started tearing up right here because we went through a lot as a team the entire year,” Bradley said. “It made these kids stronger. They're champions for life, state champions. Nobody can ever take that away from them. That's, in my opinion, what high school sports is all about.”
Staff writer Kevin Gorman contributed. Doug Gulasy is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. Reach him at dgulasy@tribweb.com or via Twitter @dgulasy_Trib.
