Tim Vickers is retiring as a teacher in the Steel Valley School District, and he and his wife have already purchased a house in Florida where they will be moving this summer.
His high school baseball coaching days are also concluding, but his Thomas Jefferson team just earned him two more days.
Not ready to send their coach south just yet, the Jaguars rallied with two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to knock off Bethel Park, 3-2, in a WPIAL Class 5A quarterfinal Tuesday at West Mifflin.
It is the second walk-off victory for third-seeded TJ, which defeated Mars in the first round by the same 3-2 score.
Thomas Jefferson also extracted some revenge on Bethel Park after the Black Hawks picked up a walk-off win in eight innings over the Jaguars exactly one year ago in the 2025 Class 5A quarterfinals, 5-4.
“This is such a different TJ group,” Vickers said. “We just talked about how we are a faceless team. There are some guys who get a little recognition, but for the most part, this has been a team all year that has grinded through things. We’re a little different than most TJ teams that we’re always relying on extra base hits all the time.”
The two starting pitchers, Matthew Hughes of BP and Colin Pearson of TJ, are friends off the field and both left-handers were strong when they needed to be.
The Jaguars scored in the bottom of the first inning when Andy Brnusak walked, advanced on a John Chalovich single, then both moved up a base on a wild pitch. Eli Graff grounded out to first base, but Brnusak scored to make it 1-0.
Bethel Park tied the game in the top of the third inning with an unearned run.
With one out, Caden Stokes reached second base on a throwing error, Mike Bruckner was intentionally walked and Michael Hladio delivered an RBI single to tie the game.
The Black Hawks had chances for more, but they left the bases loaded in the second, fourth and seventh innings.
“Anytime you do that, you provide the other team with motivation in getting out of the jam,” Bethel Park coach Patrick Zehnder said. “If we come through in just one of those spots, things maybe work out differently.”
Thomas Jefferson also had opportunities missed through the first six innings.
In the bottom of the third, Justin Berberich led off with a double for the Jaguars and went to third on a passed ball.
Brnusak lofted a fly ball to right field that was caught by Stokes, who then made a perfect throw home to BP catcher Eric Miehl who applied the tag for the out on a huge 9-2 double play.
“Caden’s throw to the plate was amazing,” Zehnder said. “It shows the high-level defender that he is. He has a great future ahead of him on this team and beyond.”
Hughes pitched 4⅓ innings for Bethel Park, allowing one earned run on three hits with three walks and four strikeouts. Mike Bruckner was brought in to relieve and he got out of a jam in the bottom of the fifth inning.
“I thought Matt was very good on the mound,” Zehnder said. “He was going pitch for pitch with his buddy (Pearson), who also had a great game on the mound.”
Pearson threw 6⅓ innings, giving up two runs, one of which was earned, and allowing only two hits, but he walked five, two intentionally, and he hit three batters.
“Outstanding when his team needed it,” Vickers said of Pearson. “He’s had a little bit of command issues coming in, but we worked with him (Monday) on location. We went to a cutter on a couple of pitches and he got some outs on it, so I’m sure I’m going to hear that later.”
Pearson was pulled with one out in the seventh inning after hitting two batters sandwiching another intentional walk to Mike Bruckner.
With the bases loaded and Noah Sear into the game to pitch for TJ, Nick Rillo rolled a ground ball slowly to first baseman Nate Passanante, whose only play was to come home. Stokes beat the throw to put the Black Hawks up, 2-1.
Sear, though, got Chase White to pop up to first base and then struck out Miehl to keep the Jaguars within one run.
The roof caved in on Akron commit Michael Bruckner and Bethel Park in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Chase Barnes was hit by a pitch, then back-to-back sacrifice bunts by Berberich and Brnusak were fielded by Bruckner, who then threw high to first on the first play and wide on the second, leaving the bases loaded with no outs.
“Having the lead in the final inning and losing is not something we have experienced,” Zehnder said. “But we were not able to make the routine plays when we needed to and TJ was able to put balls in play in big spots where we struck out. They came through in the big situations and deserved to win.”
A Chalovich sacrifice fly to left tied the game, and then Berberich scored on a Graff base hit to left field.
The loss not only ends Bethel Park’s season at 13-9, it also ended an impressive five-year run of the Black Hawks reaching the district Class 5A semifinals.
Thomas Jefferson moves on to play in the semifinals Thursday.
The Jaguars are two wins from doing something they have never done: win a WPIAL baseball championship.
“This is emotional,” Vickers said. “Let’s just enjoy this one and get back to practice (Wednesday) and see who wins this one and get after them.”