PIAA baseball playoffs 2026: Butler vs Chambersburg 6A quarterfinal top players, key to the game
The PIAA tournaments start this week and two champions from Butler County are hoping to extend their seasons another few days.
Here’s what to know about Butler’s (21-3) quarterfinal matchup against Chambersburg on Thursday:
Livestream: Some games will be livestreamed on the NFHS Network ($13.99 for a monthly subscription) or broadcast by local or regional media outlets. The state championship will be broadcast and livestreamed on PCN. A digital subscription to PCN costs $14.99 for one month.
Tickets: According to the PIAA, tickets can be purchased for $9 in advance on hometownticketing.com and for $10 at the door
Site/time: Mt. Aloysius College, 4 p.m. Thursday
Up next: Winner of 1-2 Owen J. Roberts vs. 3-1 Muhlenberg
Golden Tornado’s key player: Everyone knows the aces going for the WPIAL champions — Nolan Stefaniak will get the start this time — and Boden Lenyk has come up big the last few games at the plate, but senior catcher Mavrik Clement has been both an expert handler of his star-studded staff and solid with the bat all season and in the postseason. He’s hitting .288 this season with 10 RBIs and eight runs scored. He’s 2-for-7 the last two games with a clutch homer against Mifflin County in the first round of states.
Trojans’ key player: Junior Brady Truett is Chambersburg’s top hitter, batting .386 (his brother, Ceagan, is second with a .302) with 18 RBIs, 11 runs scored and two home runs. And he’ll likely get the ball on the mound after staff ace Ryne Mills pitched nearly the whole game in the first round. Truett is 4-2 with a 1.19 ERA but has only struck out 26 in 35.1 innings and suffered the loss in relief against Muhlenberg in the District 3 playoffs, giving up four runs in 1.1 innings.
Butler wins if ... Stefaniak does his job and rebounds after a rough (by his nearly perfect standards) WPIAL final performance and the offense continues to produce against a second straight Mid-Penn Conference Commonwealth Division opponent. This matchup lines up pretty well for the Tornado, with a co-ace facing an opposing starter who was beat up his last time out and doesn’t strike out a lot of batters. Butler has more pop (10 homers to Chambersburg’s four) and a better batting average (.272 to .252).
