JEFFERSON TWP — “Definitely the best thing I’ve done in my entire life.”

Such are the words of Knoch graduate and Seton Hill University freshman Chris Law when he looks back on the Knights’ run to the WPIAL and PIAA Class AAA baseball championships last spring.

The Butler Eagle sports staff has selected that achievement as the top Butler County sports story of 2015.

Knoch baseball had never won a state tournament game before last season. The Knights finished 8-9 in 2014.

Last spring, they put together a 23-2 campaign.

“Crazy ... That’s how I would describe it,” Law, the team’s shortstop, said. “It’s unreal, thinking we could accomplish something like that.

“A lot of people didn’t even think we could win our section.”

The Knights culminated their season with a 7-5 victory over Abington Heights in the state championship game. Cole Shinsky, a senior this year, struck out seven in a complete-game effort to win the state title contest.

“We reached our expectations, but if you look at what we did last year and what we did the years before, it’s pretty much a miracle,” Shinsky said after the game. “We came out one year and had a Cinderella team and Cinderella story.”

Law said his fondest memory of the season was collecting the game-winning hit in the bottom of the sixth inning of the state final — the final at bat of his high school career.

“Dom Bucko tripled with two outs that inning and I remember telling him he was going to do that — and I was going to knock him in,” Law said.

Law singled up the middle to fulfill that prophecy.

Knoch coach George Bradley juggled ace pitchers Shinsky and Alex Stobert throughout the postseason. The Knights had eight players collect either a hit or RBI in the state title game.

“In our first (WPIAL) playoff game with Belle Vernon, Cole was pitching pretty well and I pulled him out for Alex,” Bradley said. “Cole wasn’t happy, but he understood.

“One of my favorite quotes is that it’s amazing what you can accomplish when nobody cares who got the credit. That’s what I saw with these kids.”

Bradley emphasized that the players themselves wouldn’t hesitate to call each other out if they saw something wrong.

“One of our players wasn’t particularly hustling coming out of the batter’s box one time and failed to take second base after an outfield bobble,” Bradley said. “When that kid returned to the dugout, Tyler Grossman called him on it. He said he should have been standing on second base there.

“I was on my way back to the dugout to address the hustling issue with the player myself. When I heard Tyler say that, and the kid respond with ‘You’re right, that won’t happen again’ ... I knew we had something special here.

“That is so tough for high school kids to do, calling each other out like that. There’s so much peer pressure,” Bradley added.

Knoch had its share of standout individual players. Shinsky will pitch for Ohio University next year. Stobert will do the same for Tallahassee (Fla.) next season. Bucko was walking on at Kent State, Law is at Seton Hill, Asa Adams at Baldwin-Wallace, Jordan Kowalski at Waynesburg.

But the 2015 Knoch baseball team had a different hero almost every game.

“Dustin Montgomery hit a walk-off home run down at Kelly Automotive Park one day,” Bradley said. “He had been injured last year and playing time didn’t work out for him.

“But there’s a kid who never quit. He was a hero that day and he has a championship ring now. Every kid on that team was a leader.”

Knoch’s 2016 baseball team will begin winter conditioning in early January. Law plans to be there to talk to the players.

“I want to give them tips on what it takes as a team to do what we did ... because these guys can take another run at it,” Law said.

Knoch’s baseball team was asked to take part in the Saxonburg light-up parade recently. Bradley doesn’t think that will be the last time they’ll be together.

Knoch’s baseball championship marked the first state title in any sport in school history.

“That group is a part of community history now,” he said. “They may be brought back together a few times, maybe even years from now.

“That’s a good thing because those kids are good for each other.”