The past week has seen Butler baseball coach Josh Forbes experience a few firsts.
Last Friday, his wife, Holly, gave birth to the couple’s first child, Roman Isaiah Forbes.
“It’s the first time I’ve ever been a dad,” Josh said. “It was a surreal experience.”
Fast forward to Wednesday, and Forbes celebrated something else for the first time.
Butler’s first WPIAL baseball championship.
Aces Nolan Stefaniak and Kyle Casteel were strong on the mound and Mavrik Clement knocked in the winning run with a fifth-inning double to propel No. 1 Butler to a 4-2 win over No. 3 North Allegheny in the Class 6A final at EQT Park.
“It means everything,” said Stefaniak, whose team upped their win streak to 13 games. “Just to leave a legacy at Butler, it’s awesome. I’m living in the moment right now.”
Afterwards, Forbes celebrated with not only his players and assistants, but also with his wife and newborn son, each of whom was in attendance. Holly is Butler’s athletic trainer.
“It’s just so cool to share this moment with him,” Forbes said. “He’s not going to remember it, but we’re going to have pictures 15, 20 years from now that he’s going to be able to say, ‘That was pretty cool.’”
Butler (20-3) advanced to the PIAA playoffs and will take on District 6 champion Mifflin County (14-6) in a first-round game Monday. North Allegheny finished 14-9.
The section rivals were tied 2-2 in the bottom of the fifth when the Golden Tornado began to storm to the win. Jett Cuffman reached second on a throwing error to begin the frame, and, two batters later, Clement ripped a run-scoring double to left-center that put Butler ahead.
“I think I went down early in the count, then I just had to fight my way through and just try to make contact and stay alive. And then I got my pitch, and it just went,” said Clement, a senior catcher and Pitt recruit.
Two batters later, Butler added an insurance run when Stefaniak singled in Clement to make it 4-2.
It was a particularly special win for Clement, whose father, Matt, is an assistant coach at Butler and lost in the program’s previous championship appearance in 1992 before going on to have a long career in the major leagues.
“It means a lot to me, especially with having two of my older brothers come through this program and getting really close but not getting there. To be here and win it, it means everything to me,” Mavrik said.
It was not the first WPIAL title for the Clements, though, as Matt guided Butler to a WPIAL basketball championship in 2020, a team on which Mavrik’s brothers Mattix and Madden each played.
Butler has arguably the top tandem of pitchers in the WPIAL in seniors Stefaniak, a Penn State recruit, and Casteel, a West Virginia recruit. After Stefaniak was pulled from the game after five innings, Casteel made short work of North Allegheny over the final two, working around a walk to retire the Tigers in the sixth before setting them down in order in the seventh.
“Sometimes starters will neutralize each other. They could come out of the game and it could be a tie ballgame,” Forbes said. “But to be able to bring the next guy in is quite a luxury to have. Because you’re like, ‘Hey, I have somebody that is better than anyone else you’re going to bring out.’”
Stefaniak, who had not given up an earned run entering the game, improved to 7-1 after surrendering two runs and six hits. He struck out nine and did not walk a batter. Casteel then fanned four in a pair of hitless innings.
“I think we’re one of the best (duos) in the WPIAL,” Stefaniak said. “It’s so much fun having him and me competing each and every day against each other to try to get better every day.”
Liam Cooper took the loss for North Allegheny, falling to 6-3 after giving up four runs (two earned) and eight hits in five innings. The Tigers were hoping to add to their record nine titles.
In a matchup of rivals who met three times in the regular season — Butler took two of three in early April — the Golden Tornado seized the lead in the third when Boden Lenyk belted a two-run home run, his second homer in as many games.
“It got in the jet stream and it’s a home run. He was kind of shocked that it went out,” Forbes recalled.
Stefaniak retired the first nine hitters of the game, six by strikeout, but he ran into some trouble in the fourth. Jake Fritz led off with a triple and scored on a passed ball to cut the North Allegheny deficit to 2-1. The Tigers then had runners on first and third with one out when Butler got a fortunate bounce. Stefaniak threw a wild pitch, but the ball bounced directly off the wall to Clement. He threw the ball to Stefaniak, who tagged out Dom Williamson at home. Stefaniak then struck out J.J. Mancuso to end the threat.
An inning later, however, North Allegheny registered the equalizer when Carter Boehm’s single to left scored Gavin Ust to make it 2-2. The Tigers loaded the bases, but Stefaniak got Williamson to ground out to escape the jam.
And after Clement gave Butler the lead, Casteel sealed the deal.
“We were going to ride with Nolan in that inning because we trusted that he was going to be able to get that last out that he needed just because we have so much faith in him,” Forbes said. “The odds are in our favor for them being able to string two or three hits together against them. That doesn’t happen often.”
Neither does Butler winning a WPIAL title, but that’s exactly what happened Wednesday as Forbes steered the Golden Tornado to the historic win with his newborn son there to see it.
“I don’t know where we’re going to be in 18 years. The world’s crazy,” Forbes added. “But hopefully he’s winning a championship of some sort 18 years from now.”