Eden Christian Academy and Sewickley Academy clinched berths in the WPIAL baseball playoffs in Section 3-A this season.
Eden Christian, Serra Catholic and Bishop Canevin tied for the top spot in the section with 8-2 records while Sewickley finished in fourth place.
“We have focused all year on one pitch at a time,” Eden coach Mark Feldman said. “We will continue that into the playoffs. We will not focus on results but rather on effort and attitude.
“I am encouraged by our practices. Our practices have been much better the second half of the season. As a staff, we try to have very competitive practices. We believe that the harder you make practice, the easier the games are.”
Eden has been sparked by a potent offense as the Warriors were averaging a WPIAL-best 11 runs per game in the final week of the regular season. The Warriors boasted a .351 team batting average.
A trio of juniors, Brady Hull (.571), Brett Feldman (.519) and Noah Emswiler (.511), led the club in hitting, followed by sophomore Noah Wicks (.400), junior Christian Watkins (.395) and senior Jacob Janicki (.375).
Hull also led the team in slugging percentage (.898), RBIs (32), hits (28) and doubles (10) while Feldman paced the club in runs (36), hits (28) and stolen bases (21). Emswiler was first in on-base percentage (.623) and triples (3) and second in OBP (.600), RBIs (26), slugging percentage (.894) and doubles (9).
The squad’s leading contributors also included junior Christian Watkins (17 RBIs), Emswiler (24 hits, 20 runs), Janicki (11 stolen bases), Feldman (.667 slugging percentage) and junior Josh Tilden (.986 fielding percentage).
On the mound, Janicki owned a 1.11 ERA, followed by Emswiler (2.14) and Hull (2.64). The Warriors’ pitching corps overall had compiled a 3.15 ERA.
Eden began the season with six consecutive victories, then tacked on a seven-game winning streak in the second half of the season to go to 12-2.
The pitching staff was supported by the Warriors’ 176 runs scored through 16 games, leading to a 13-3 overall record.
Eden was scheduled to host Burrell on May 7 in a nonsection game. The Warriors’ only two seniors, Janicki and outfielder Chan Kim, were slated to be honored prior to the game.
“We might see the sun; that is a pleasant surprise,” coach Feldman said.
For Sewickley Academy, seven players were batting .300 or better including four .400 hitters in senior Nolan Donnelly (.433), junior Billy Pietragallo (.422) and sophomores Jacob Stanislaw (.419) and David Young (.409).
Austin Fritz (.320), a freshman, and seniors Karan Kad (.317) and Andrews Colletti (.317) were .300 hitters. The Panthers were batting .350 as a team.
Pietragallo led the club in several offensive categories including slugging percentage (.600), runs (15), hits (19), home runs (2) and stolen bases (12). He also held a sparkling 1.000 fielding percentage.
Donnelly (.541), sophomore Alex Sanfilippo (.529) and freshman Charlie Scully (.511) were the leaders in on-base percentage. Donnelly and Stanislaw had .567 and .512 slugging percentages; Donnelly was No. 1 in RBIs with 10. Stanislaw had punched out 18 hits.
Kad and Fritz ranked second and third in runs scored with 12 and 11.