Vincentian Academy wins 2nd PIAA baseball title in 3 years

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, June 15, 2018 | 2:06 PM

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UNIVERSITY PARK — Vincentian Academy shortstop Kyler Fedko drew fist pumps and hearty high fives for a slick running catch in Friday's fifth inning.

It was clear that after 10-run ruling teams for weeks, the Royals were feeling the emotions that come with a tight game — and enjoying them.

“You've got that intensity, you're fired up, fist pumping, and he makes a heck of a play to get us out of a jam,” Vincentian starter Stephen Turzai said. “It's a lot of fun — and so are all games — but the intensity makes it a whole bunch different.”

Vincentian handled the pressure and celebrated its second state title in three years Friday with a 5-3 victory over Southern Fulton in the PIAA Class A final at Penn State's Medlar Field. The Royals (22-4) had outscored their previous six postseason opponents 50-1, but this one came down to the final out.

Southern Fulton (22-5) had two on in the seventh when Vincentian reliever Aidan Thomson forced a game-ending flyball.

“Those dominating games still felt good,” Fedko said, “but I'd rather win a close game than a blowout.

Vincentian held leads of 1-0, 3-0 and 5-1. But that was reasonably close considering the team's PIAA first-round, quarterfinal and semifinal wins were halted after five innings with leads of 10 runs or more.

Turzai allowed only three hits and two runs in 6 ¹⁄₃ innings while Fedko, Mark Yakim and Danny Morgano all tripled for the WPIAL champions. Yakim went 2 for 3 and scored twice, Fedko was 2 for 2 with two runs and an RBI, and Morgano drove in two runs.

Turzai escaped jams in the fifth and sixth inning with help from his defense.

In the fifth, Southern Fulton had already scored once and had two runners on base when Fedko chased down a soft line drive for the final out.

With two on in the sixth, Turzai forced a popup and a flyball to escape.

Southern Fulton left eight runners on base.

Vincentian won its first state title in 2016 with a 5-2 win over Meyersdale in the Class A final. This was the first state title as head coach for Bradley Bestic, who was a Royals assistant.

“This was the goal,” Bestic said. “Never for a minute did we expect we wouldn't achieve it.”

Chris Harlan is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at charlan@tribweb.com or via Twitter @CHarlan_Trib.