How Butler’s appearance PIAA baseball championship game left impact on next generation in the stands
UNIVERSITY PARK — A little after 4:30 p.m. Thursday, about three-and-a-half hours before the PIAA Class 6A title game’s first pitch was thrown, a group of six children assembled at the net beside the away bullpen at Penn State University’s Medlar Field.
Three wore gold Butler youth baseball shirts with blue surnames and numbers of their own printed on the back. The half-dozen Class of the 2030s members called out to Golden Tornado varsity baseball players scattered in foul territory on the third-base side — some warming up and others talking among themselves — pleading for balls, but settling for high-fives.
One of the elementary schoolers shared a prediction with senior shortstop and lead-off hitter Boden Lenyk. Butler, he said, was going to beat the team wearing red over in right field.
“I like how you think,” Lenyk said.
While the forecast proved mistaken — the Golden Tornado lost 7-3 to Neshaminy — the impact this Butler team had on its followers was stamped well before the game was.
“It’s just special, especially when your community travels out almost three hours to come and sit at the bullpen and just talk to you,” senior ace Nolan Stefaniak said. “We just brought a community together, and it’s special no matter how this ended.”
Look up, smile and remember you’re playing a baseball game, Golden Tornado coach Josh Forbes reminded his players before they took the diamond. Even considering the stakes, it was a task that was tough not to carry through, especially with the wide-eyed youngsters watching on.
A group of at least a dozen of them rooted their role models on all the way through the last out from behind the dugout.
“That’s really how you start building programs, is you get your youth involved,” Forbes said. “You get your youth wanting to play in these games. You get your youth traveling out, cheering on these guys and really wanting to emulate what these guys are doing on the field.”
The Golden Tornado were powered this season by three Division I commits — Stefaniak (Penn State), Kyle Casteel (West Virginia) and Mavrik Clement (Pitt). Another, Boden Lenyk, will play at Division II South Carolina-Aiken. That quartet and its supporting cast provided plenty of special moments before even arriving in the Central Pennsylvania ridge, winning their section, claiming their first WPIAL crown and punching their first ticket to the state final.
“Hopefully there’s more of those down the road in the near future so we can play in more state games,” Forbes said of the district crown. “It’s a little bit less pressure for us.”
Butler returns home with a PIAA runner-up trophy, but also a legacy that will stand the test of time.
“I can’t be more happy than just getting to spend these last couple days with them because we got to control our last practice, we got to control our last game,” Forbes said.
“People just rally around winning, and we’ve never done something (like this) in Butler history,” Stefaniak said. “So it’s just awesome to have that and forever, we’ll have that moment. We just brought people together. People just talked about it. You never met someone, and they knew you.”
BUTLER 010 001 1 — 3 4 5
NESHAMINY 100 042 X — 7 7 1
Scoring
B1 — Chase Bonner grounds out to first base, Mike Sassano scores.
T2 — Nash Cuffman walks, Jacob Szbalskie scores.
B5 — Dan Marable singles to center field, Michael Welsh scores.
B5 — Noah Wallace singles to left field, Marable scores.
B5 — Brandon Lall scores on wild pitch.
B5 — Matthew Gryn singles to shortstop, Noah Wallace scores.
T6 — Ryan Rattigan singles to left field, Nolan Stefaniak scores.
B6 — Marable singles to right field, Sassano scores.
B6 — Bonner picked off at first base, Marable steals home.
T7 — Mavrik Clement singles to left field, Nash Cuffman scores.
Butler (h-r-ab-rbi) — Boden Lenyk 4-0-0-0, Mavrik Clement 3-0-1-1, Trent Best 2-0-0-0, Nolan Stefaniak 4-1-1-0, Toby Geibel 0-0-0-0, Blake Scott 3-0-0-0, Ryan Rattigan 2-1-1-1, Karsten Lenyk 2-0-0-0, Jacob Szbalskie 2-0-0-0, Nash Cuffman 1-1-1-1. Totals: 23-3-4-3.
Neshaminy (h-r-ab-rbi) — Mike Sassano 3-2-0-0, Dan Marable 3-2-2-2, Chase Bonner 4-0-1-1, Brandon Lall 2-1-1-0, Noah Wallace 3-1-1-1, Matthew Gryn 3-0-1-1, Sam Hitchen 3-0-0-0, Nick Sassano 2-0-0-0, Dylan Cloud 1-0-0-0, Michael Welsh 1-1-1-0. Totals: 25-7-7-5.
3B — Butler (Cuffman); 2B — Butler (Stefaniak); SB — Neshaminy (M. Sassano 2, Marable 2).
Butler pitching — Nolan Stefaniak (L) 5.2 IP, 7 H, 7 R, 6 ER, 3 BB, 3 K; Trent Best 0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K. Neshaminy pitching — Chase Bonner 4.1 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 6 BB, 8 K; Matthew Gryn (W) 2.1 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K.
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Butler's Mavrik Clement, right, gets a hug from head coach Jacob Forbes after losing to Neshaminy 7-3 in the PIAA Class 6A baseball championship game Thursday, June 11, 2026, at Penn State’s Medlar Field. Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle
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Butler's Mavrik Clement takes a moment in the dugout after losing to Neshaminy 7-3 in the PIAA Class 6A baseball championship game Thursday, June 11, 2026, at Penn State’s Medlar Field. Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle
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Butler's Mavrik Clement takes a moment in the dugout after losing to Neshaminy 7-3 in the PIAA Class 6A baseball championship game Thursday, June 11, 2026, at Penn State’s Medlar Field. Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle
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Butler players hug after losing to Neshaminy 7-3 in the PIAA Class 6A baseball championship game Thursday, June 11, 2026, at Penn State’s Medlar Field. Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle
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Butler's Trent Best looks off in the distance in distance after losing to 7-3 against Neshaminy in the PIAA Class 6A baseball championship game Thursday, June 11, 2026, at Penn State’s Medlar Field. Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle
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Butler head coach Josh Forbes with son Roman and wife Holly Bachman-Forbes after losing to Neshaminy 7-3 in the PIAA Class 6A baseball championship game Thursday, June 11, 2026, at Penn State’s Medlar Field. Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle
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Butler's Nolan Stefaniak (14) loses his bat swinging at a pitch that ended up as a pop-out against Neshaminy in the PIAA Class 6A baseball championship game Thursday, June 11, 2026, at Penn State’s Medlar Field. Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle
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Butler players celebrate after Ryan Rattigan scores on a bases-load walk against Neshaminy in the PIAA Class 6A baseball championship game Thursday, June 11, 2026, at Penn State’s Medlar Field. Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle
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Butler pitcher Nolan Stefaniak puts his head down after giving up a run against Neshaminy in the PIAA Class 6A baseball championship game Thursday, June 11, 2026, at Penn State’s Medlar Field. Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle
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Butler's Trent Best (19) makes a nice catch against Neshaminy in the PIAA Class 6A baseball championship game Thursday, June 11, 2026, at Penn State’s Medlar Field. Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle
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Butler's Karsten Lenyk (6) bobbles the ball in the PIAA Class 6A baseball championship game against Neshaminy on Thursday, June 11, 2026, at Penn State’s Medlar Field. Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle
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Butler's Blake Scott just misses the tag on Neshaminy's Daniel Marable (23) in the PIAA Class 6A baseball championship game Thursday, June 11, 2026, at Penn State’s Medlar Field. Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle
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Butler's Nolan Stefaniak delivers a pitch to a Neshaminy batter in the PIAA Class 6A baseball championship game Thursday, June 11, 2026, at Penn State’s Medlar Field. Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle
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Butler's Mavrik Clement is tagged out by Neshaminy's Noah Wallace (22) in the PIAA Class 6A baseball championship game Thursday, June 11, 2026, at Penn State’s Medlar Field. Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle
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Butler players show their disappointment after going three-and-out in the first inning against Neshaminy in the PIAA Class 6A baseball championship game Thursday, June 11, 2026, at Penn State’s Medlar Field. Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle
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Butler's Jack Szbalskie (12) shouts in celebration after getting walked in the second inning against Neshaminy in the PIAA Class 6A baseball championship game Thursday, June 11, 2026, at Penn State’s Medlar Field. Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle
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Butler's Ryan Rattigan (34) slides back to first base safely, beating the tag by Neshaminy's Noah Wallace (22), in the PIAA Class 6A baseball championship game Thursday, June 11, 2026, at Penn State’s Medlar Field. Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle
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Butler’s dugout celebrates a run against Neshaminy in the PIAA Class 6A baseball championship game Thursday, June 11, 2026, at Penn State’s Medlar Field. Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle
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Butler players leave the field during a rain delay against Neshaminy in the PIAA Class 6A baseball championship game Thursday, June 11, 2026, at Penn State’s Medlar Field. Justin Guido/Special to the Eagle
