BUTLERTWP — Dave Florie missed coaching. Butler High School baseball missed winning.

Now neither is missing anything.

Florie, 65, has taken a Golden Tornado baseball program that went 12 years without a winning season to the brink of the WPIALplayoffs.

If Butler defeats Seneca Valley today at Highfield Park, the Tornado go to the playoffs. If Butler loses and Fox Chapel defeats Shaler, the Tornado's season ends with its exhibition game Thursday at New Castle.

"It's a successful season either way,"Florie said. "Just the way it went, the way everyone came together. The big thing is we've been playing good baseball."

Butler enters today's game with a 10-8 overall record, 7-4 in section play. That's as many total wins and section wins as the 12 seniors in the program experienced the previous three seasons combined.

But how did it get to this point so quickly?

The Tornado finished 3-16 last year and Florie had not coached since 2000, his final year at Seneca Valley. He had guided the Raiders to the state championship in 1995 and the WPIALcrown in 1994.

While he was out of baseball, Florie never forgot about baseball.

"My wife and I have been baby-sitting our grandchildren the past few years," he said. "That's been enjoyable, but something was still missing.

"I still went to a lot of games, just to watch. Some buddies from Zelienople and myself go on major league road trips every year. We've been to Yankee Stadium, Boston, Milwaukee, Chicago, lots of places.

"But it wasn't coaching. And my wife noticed I still had the passion to coach,"Florie added.

So when then-Butler athletic director Tim O'Malley called Florie to ask him to consider the Butler coaching position, it didn't take him long to answer.

"I did some investigating, talked to people I knew in Butler and decided to take it on,"Florie said. "I viewed it as a challenge."

O'Malley gave Florie a list of coaching candidates to call and Florie used that list to fill out his varsity, junior varsity and freshman coaching staff.

He hired George Bradley to work with varsity hitters, Frank Pinto to work with the pitchers, and Chris Rock to work with the outfielders and the strength and conditioning program.

"That diversity of duties has helped,"Pinto said. "Coach Florie and I share the same philosophy that pitching is 90 percent of the game and we've paid attention to that aspect of the game from Day 1"

Bradley has been an American Legion baseball coach at Mars for 10 years and was a longtime assistant at Shaler before joining Florie's staff.

Bradley had applied for the head coaching position at Butler himself.

"I knew the baseball talent in Butler from coaching against it at Mars every summer,"Bradley said. "I felt like all that high school program needed was a commitment from the kids.

"Once I didn't get the job, I wasn't interested in joining the program as an assistant. I was already an assistant with a good Shaler program. But when I heard Dave Florie got the job ... he was a legend at Seneca Valley and I became intrigued about working with him."

Since taking the job in September, Florie began instituting fundamentals and discipline.

"He made the kids accountable and they like that,"Rock said. "Coach Florie brought back old-style baseball. We practice bunting for a half-hour every day. We move runners over. The players know the importance of keeping the glove down, bending the knees when fielding a ground ball. This has become a very fundamental team."

Bradley agreed.

"It's even changed how they watch major league games,"Bradley said. "They'll notice the Pirates lost because they didn't get a bunt down or somebody missed the cut-off man. Dave has them seeing the game a different way."

Butler dropped a pair of one-run games within the past week — 11-10 at North Allegheny, 5-4 at North Hills — where a win either time would have clinched a playoff berth.

Last month, however, the Tornado won a pair of one-run section games back to back — 9-8 over North Hills and 3-2 over Seneca Valley.

"That's how this game works,"Florie said. "Sometimes it gets you. We're playing smart baseball. We played a very good game at North Hills Monday and lost it."

"Coach Florie has brought team discipline," Pinto said. "These guys work together for the good of the team. They've seen the positive reinforcement and the seniors have passed that on to the underclassmen.

"That's why, win or lose, this has been a successful season."

Bradley likens this season to a major league pennant race.

"We're down to the final game and we're still in the hunt,"he said. "That'd be like the Pirates being in the pennant race until the final week. Everybody's excited about Butler baseball again.

"I hope we get in (the playoffs). Even if we don't, the kids won't forget this feeling."

Butler won its section opener at Shaler, a 4-2 decision, back on April 4.

"That's when it started to come around,"Rock said. "A couple of kids really believed we could win. Then that number multiplied by four and before you knew it, we had a confident team on the field."

They've always had a confident coach in the dugout.

And an appreciative one, now that he's back in the game.

"I get out here early every day, to check the grass, check the dirt, just walk around the field,"Florie said. "I love being on a baseball field."

Florie has no plans to step down anytime soon.

"As long as my health holds up,"he said, smiling. "And right now, I'm feeling pretty good."