The Keystone Oaks baseball team’s quest for a state championship is decades in the making, and for the first time in the program’s 48-year-long history, the team’s path seems clear.
The 2013 AAA Section 3 Champion Golden Eagles defeated the West Allegheny Indians 1-0 on Tuesday in a consolation round of the WPIAL AAA playoffs, and—for the first time ever—are headed to the state championship playoffs next week.
"It's been a long journey, but it's been worth it," said Keystone Oaks baseball coach Scott Crimone. "Especially to see how happy they all [the team] were after that last game."
Crimone, himself a Keystone Oaks graduate, said that when he became the baseball coach six years ago there was a lot of rebuilding to do.
"We kind of had to start from scratch. KO baseball had fallen off the map," he said. "If you look at our record, we weren't great in the beginning, but then we started to accumulate talent. Now we have the one of the most winning records this season in school history."
Crimone shared a recap of Tuesday's game in a Wednesday morning email blast:
Our Golden Eagles defeated the West Allegheny Indians last night by a score of 1-0 on a walkoff triple by freshman Nick Riggle scoring junior Taylor Lehman from first base. Senior Jared Skolnicki was dominant again going 7 innings, surrendering only 3 hits and striking out 5. The Golden Eagles finished the WPIAL season with a school record 18-5 and earned 3rd place out of 32 teams in AAA.
Crimone said he largely credits a talented group of senior players for working the past four years to get to this point.
"I remember seeing them as our first summer baseball camps, seeing the talent and knowing that class was really going to make an impact," he said. "Four of them started as sophomores and two started as freshmen."
The team is relaxed and ready for playoffs, Crimone said, but he's been researching their next opponent—Slippery Rock High School—and said the teams look evenly matched.
"Our guys, they don’t seem to let pressure get to them," Crimone said. "They’re so excited about Monday, so excited to be the first team to ever do this. They just keep adding to this list of accomplishments. They want to make sure we’re the best team that’s ever worn this jersey."
The next game is Monday against Slippery Rock High School. Crimone said the time and location of the game are not known yet.
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UPDATE (May 30, 11:17 a.m.): Keystone Oaks will play Slippery Rock on Monday, June 3rd at 3:30 p.m. at Jerry Uht Park in Erie, Pa. This is the home of the Erie Seawolves, a minor league baseball team. Ticket prices for the game are $6 for adults and $3 for students.
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