Not having top pitcher West Virginia commit Blake Krushinski wasn’t ideal for the Fox Chapel baseball program heading into the WPIAL Class 5A playoffs. The margin between success and an early exit from the district playoffs is narrow.

Fox Chapel, which had to scratch and claw to reach the postseason, ran out of luck in a 4-1 loss in the first round of the playoffs to No. 2 Penn-Trafford.

“Penn-Trafford is a good program and we knew that,” Foxes coach Jim Hastings said. “We still thought we had a chance to win. We had a lot of close games during the season where if we could have won, we may have gotten a higher seed. We had an OK year, not a great one.”

The Warriors didn’t overpower Fox Chapel in the playoffs. Penn-Trafford made the pitches it was able to put into play count on the scoreboard.

The Foxes and Warriors each finished with six hits.

“In the playoffs, you are going to make mistakes and they capitalized,” Hastings said. “They were able to get hits in key spots with guys on base, and we didn’t get the big hit.”

The Foxes finished 12-9 overall and 4-6 in section.

Fox Chapel’s best stretch of results came when the Foxes won five in a row during a break in section play in late April.

During the last few weeks, Krushinski wasn’t able to pitch.

“Blake had an injury where he couldn’t pitch for the last few weeks of the season,” Hastings said. “It was bad timing.”

Fox Chapel senior Tyler Golembiewski made a big leap from last season. He hit nearly .340 and had a pair of hits in the playoffs.

“We had a resilient group that showed a lot of improvement,” Hastings said. “They kept bouncing back.”

Drew Moyer stepped up and made the start on the mound in the playoff game. Junior Tristan Blum, a Kent State commit, ws also a key contributor on the mound.

Junior pitcher Noah Hughes and junior catcher/infielder Elias George will be among the key contributors returning.

Hastings said Fox Chapel will focus on being more consistent.

“We hit well at times, but we weren’t as consistent as we could have been,” Hastings said. “But we played good defense and we pitched well.”