UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Brady Hull said he and his Eden Christian teammates had faith they would knock off the state’s lone undefeated team to claim the school’s first PIAA title Friday, the belief perhaps being the strongest when the Warriors held a fifth-inning lead.
“We all believed in each other. We had each other’s backs the whole year,” Hull said.
Unfortunately for Eden Christian, an imperfect inning allowed the school with Faith in its name to rally for the win to achieve perfection.
District 1 champion Faith Christian scored all four of its runs in the bottom of the fifth inning and went on to capture its first title by defeating Eden Christian, 4-1, in the PIAA Class 1A championship at Penn State’s Medlar Field at Lubrano Park.
It was the second PIAA championship loss in four seasons for Eden Christian (20-6), which fell to Halifax, 9-1, in the final in 2021. It was also the second championship loss for the Warriors this season, as they also came up short against Bishop Canevin in the WPIAL championship.
“They’ve competed for each other all year round,” Eden Christian first-year coach Mark Feldman said. “When we lost in the WPIAL championship game, we could have packed it in. We could have been done.”
But Eden Christian wasn’t done. In fact, the Warriors scored a run in their first at-bat (Noah Emswiler scored on an error) and carried the 1-0 lead all the way to the fifth inning, this against a team that had dominated foes all season. Faith Christian (23-0) had beaten all but one of its opponents by at least three runs and all but three of them by at least seven runs.
Hull, a sophomore right-hander, made just his third start of the season. He entered the game having thrown only 16⅓ innings all spring, five of them coming when he drew the start against Avella in the quarterfinals. Against Faith Christian, Hull gave up only one hit over the first four innings, and when he got Dillon Roberts to ground out to start the fifth, it marked the eighth consecutive hitter he had retired.
Hull, though, began to struggle with his command. After walking Cayden Celone, Hull fell behind Dillon Roberts 2-0, which made Feldman choose to make a pitching change.
“I felt good,” Hull said. “I couldn’t find a ball that I really liked. I mean, no excuses. I should have kept throwing strikes. But the balls kept getting hit out, hit off the cement, off the ground. I didn’t throw that much, so I was getting a little tired, a little hot. A lot of people here. Big atmosphere, just got to me a little bit. But I should have kept working through it like I did the inning before.”
In came Emswiler, who started off by throwing two balls, completing Roberts’ four-pitch, two-pitcher walk. Reid Miller followed with a single to load the bases, and Emswiler was then called for a balk, allowing Faith Christian to tie the score, 1-1. Freshman Jagger Verbit then came through with the game’s biggest hit, smacking a two-run single to right to give the Lions a 3-1 lead. Following a walk, Feldman removed Emswiler and inserted Enzo Natale, who, after striking out the first batter he faced, allowed a run-scoring single to Brandon Labs that stretched the Faith Christian advantage to 4-1.
Rallying back from a three-run deficit turned out to be too big of a hill to climb for Eden Christian, as Miller pitched a gem for Faith Christian. Miller, a junior right-hander, improved to 8-0 after giving up one unearned run and four hits in the complete-game win. Miller struck out eight and walked one, and allowed only two Eden Christian batters to reach base after the second inning.
“The kid was the best arm we saw all year. He was fantastic,” Feldman said.
Added Hull, “He was throwing hard. He had some good stuff. We could have hit him. We could have done a lot better. We just didn’t have our best stuff today.”
Jacob Janicki, the team’s No. 8 hitter, collected two of Eden Christian’s four hits, while Emswiler and Brett Feldman had the others. Emswiler and Feldman are sophomores and Janicki a junior.
While Eden Christian’s championship game ended with the same result as the previous one, its coach said his team has nothing to hang their heads about.
“I’m so happy for them to experience this and I’m so proud of them for the way they played,” Feldman said. “It’s baseball. It was a good ballgame. I don’t think we disappointed anybody. Were they 22-0 coming in? Probably haven’t been challenged much. Hopefully we made them sweat a little bit.”
Brad is a sports writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at beverett@unionprogress.com.