Shaler’s other ace holds Bethel Park at bay in Class 5A quarterfinal showdown

By: Don Rebel
Thursday, June 5, 2025 | 9:31 PM

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Shaler senior Colby Weber is the perfect ace of a pitching staff.

The East Carolina recruit stands 6-foot-7 with an electric arm, and he’s 9-0 with a 0.38 ERA.

But the Titans have a dynamic duo atop their pitching chart, and if the Caped Crusader is awesome, the 5-10 Boy Wonder is pretty darn good as well.

Shaler senior Dante DeLeonibus allowed three runs on eight hits in going the distance as the WPIAL Class 5A champions advanced to the state semifinals with a 6-3 victory over Bethel Park on Thursday at Gateway.

“All year it’s been Colby this and Colby that and everyone said you are Robin to Colby’s Batman,” DeLeonibus said with a laugh. “I feel like I put myself out there in the Peters game (WPIAL semifinals) and the WPIAL championship game, so this one is just to get us closer to a state championship.”

The showdown between the two district teams that have combined for three PIAA 5A titles this decade had a strange start, as if the Joker was playing a dastardly prank on the Black Hawks.

Bethel Park starting pitcher Dylan Paul walked three of the first five batters he faced as Shaler loaded the bases with two outs in the top of the first inning.

Titans designated hitter Max Suban lofted a fly ball to right field that the Black Hawks’ Joey Levis had a beat on, but in a game played under overcast skies, a rare ray of sunshine seemed to affect Levis late as the ball hit off his glove and rolled for a three-base error, allowing Shaler to go up early, 3-0.

“All year, I’ve trusted this entire team on defense and offense,” DeLeonibus said. “That lead helped me lock in and throw strikes and get them out quick.”

He did just that, holding Bethel Park to only two hits and three baserunners in the first three innings.

In the top of the fourth inning, Shaler added on to its lead against reliever Matt Hughes as Saban let off with a double and Landon Schiffhauer reached on a perfect bunt single, then both scored on a Kaleb Jokel two-run single to put the Titans up, 5-0.

“We talk about scoring first and having a big inning and we did that,” Shaler coach Brian Junker said. “Then we want to extend the lead and we did that. It was huge.”

The one and only time Bethel Park was able to have consistent success against DeLeonibus came in the bottom of the fourth inning on back-to-back singles by Noah LeJeune and Mike Bruckner, then consecutive doubles by Nick Rillo and Jack Bruckner to cut the deficit to 5-3.

“We truly believe that after the first inning, we were playing better baseball and we always say, stay in the fight and continue to chip away at the dam and it’s going to break,” Bethel Park coach Patrick Zehnder said. “We thought we had them, but credit to Dante DeLeonibus and their team for continuing to play good fundamentally sound baseball.”

In the final three innings, the Black Hawks only got two more baserunners as DeLeonibus finished strong after the shaky fourth inning.

“Everything was working,” DeLeonibus said. “I got ahead with my slider and they couldn’t get on it. Starting throwing a changeup in there halfway through the game to keep them really off balance, and I hit my spots with it.”

DeLeonibus was pounding the strike zone with only one walk and eight strikeouts.

“We’ve been running him because we felt like he was out of shape during the regular season and it cost him a couple of times,” Junker said. “Now he looked just as strong in the seventh as he did in the first.”

The final run of the game came in the top of the seventh inning when, with two on and nobody out, Troy Leas laid down a bunt that the Black Hawks’ third pitcher, Mike Bruckner, fielded and threw wide of third base, allowing pinch-hitter Brendon Fitzgerald to score.

“The guys who made those mistakes are two of our fundamentally sound and dependable players,” Zehnder said. “I hope they know they are far from the reason for the end result.”

Before his career officially ended, Bethel Park senior and Duquesne football commit Ryan Petras added another school record to his resume. With a single in the third and another in the fifth inning, he tied, and then broke, the all-time school record for career hits with 113, beating the mark of 112 held since the late 1980s by Chris Buzzi.

Petras also has the single-season stolen bases and career stolen bases records at Bethel Park, which ends its season with a mark of 20-6.

The 2023 PIAA champions improved to 19-6.

Shaler will face District 3 champion Lampeter-Strasburg in the state semifinals Monday.

“I don’t know a lot about them,” Junker said. “I know they whooped our butts in 2019 after we won a WPIAL championship, so we’re going to treat them like the New York Yankees and give it our best shot.”

Tags: Bethel Park, Shaler