STATE COLLEGE – Neshaminy Baseball had waited for the entire history of their program to win a state title, so a three hour rain delay was no big deal.
The Skins emerged victorious late into the State College night as they defeated Butler by a 7-3 final. Neshaminy was the #8 seed in their own district tournament, and they end the season as state champions.
“It feels fantastic, we’ve been chasing this for a long time,” said Head Coach Dan Toner. “Nine years for me, I think my Dad (Jess Toner) and Coach Strick (Jim Strickler) have been in this league for 40 years and have coached everywhere and this is what they’ve been chasing for a long time so to see them as happy as they are is one of the best feelings ever.”
Chase Bonner took the mound for Neshaminy, and tossed a 1-2-3 inning right out of the gate. He would then help himself out in the bottom of the first with an RBI groundout, scoring Michael Sassano who walked to start the inning off of Butler starter Nolan Stefaniak.
Sassano created that run himself as he stole second and advanced to third on an errant throw on the attempt.
The second inning did not go quite as smoothly for Bonner, despite retiring the first two hitters. He would walk the next four batters, tying the game up at 1-1. Bonner would get a huge pop out to strand the bases loaded and limit the damage.
Nolan Stefaniak then went out and fired a 1-2-3 shutdown inning with three ground outs for Butler to keep the game scoreless. Two of those ground outs came right back to him on the mound, and the Penn State recruits fastball was up to a whopping 97 MPH.
Neshaminy again threatened in the bottom of the third after an error and a walk, but Stefaniak came up big with a fly out to left to keep the game tied at 1-1.
After another quiet inning for the Butler offense, Neshaminy once again threatened in the bottom of the fourth. A single from Brandon Lall put a runner on base, and Matthew Gryn’s bunt was thrown away, putting runners on second and third with just one out.
The Butler defense, who at this point in the game had three errors, came up clutch to keep this game tied. A soft grounder was hit to first base and first baseman Ryan Rattigan fielded on his backhand and fired a strike home to catcher Mavrik Clement to get Lall out at the plate. It took a perfect play and it did, and Stefaniak followed that up by getting a groundout to strand two runners again.
This time in the top of the fifth, it was Butler’s time to threaten. They got two runners on base on two walks, which knocked starter Chase Bonner out of the game.
Bonner ended the day without letting up any hits in 4.1 innings, but walked six in the process and allowed just an earned run.
“Chase was a little bit uncharacteristic in terms of accuracy, but I thought that he did what he needed to do,” said Toner. “He still hadn’t allowed any hits when we took him out.”
Matthew Gryn was then called in relief. Gryn only needed to face one better, as he picked up a strikeout and his catcher Sam Hitchen backpicked a runner on first base to get out of the jam.
Neshaminy would use the momentum and take back the lead in their half of the fifth, and then some.
Michael Welsh, who had just entered the game in the inning before, singled to start the inning. An errant pickoff throw allowed him to get to second, and a fly ball deep enough to advance him allowed him to get to third.
That extra 90 feet paid dividends, as he was able to come into score on a base hit by Daniel Marable to put the Skins ahead 2-1.
Neshaminy was just getting started, as they would go on to add on three more runs in the inning. Noah Wallace’s RBI single added another on to make it 3-1, and then the Skins added two more runs in one at bat as Brandon Lall scored on a wild pitch, and Matthew Gryn helped himself out with an RBI single to score Wallace and make it 5-1.
Stefaniak did what he could to help the offense get jumpstarted, as he smashed a double off the left field wall for the first Butler hit of the game. A single from Ryan Rattigan cut that Neshaminy lead down to 5-2, but that’s all that the Golden Tornado were able to get in their half of the sixth.
Neshaminy was looking for some insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth and they got just that, when Daniel Marable added a second RBI single on the day to score Michael Sassano and extend the lead to 6-2. They capped off the day with a seventh run on a first and third steal.
Butler made a little bit of noise in the seventh after a triple from Nash Cuffman and an RBI single by Mavrik Clement, but that’s as close as they would get as Matthew Gryn picked up a strikeout to end the first state championship in Neshaminy Baseball history.
“We’ve had some state semis, some years that we thought we could do it, and we finally got here and took care of business,” said Toner. “This was the expectation, we competed for all three championships and the other top team in the state (Pennsbury) was in with us and they got us for the first two and we got them here.”
Matthew Gryn was stellar in relief for Neshaminy after pitching on Monday.
“Matt only needed to throw 75 pitches on Monday, which was huge to be able to have him in this one,” said Toner. “We felt really good in the end with him in there because he does not get affected by emotions and he just attacks and he did that today.”
A huge congratulations to Butler Head Coach Josh Forbes and his team for an unbelievable season. Nolan Stefaniak and Kyle Casteel were a legendary 1-2 combo, and although that run ended short of their goal, they have so much to be proud of.
But tonight belongs to Neshaminy.
Photo: Neshaminy Head Coach Dan Toner and second baseman Michael Sassano
