Sewickley Herald notebook: Hard-hitting Eden Christian baseball ready for postseason

By: Ray Fisher
Sunday, May 18, 2025 | 11:01 AM

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Eden Christian Academy received a first-round bye as the No. 2 seed in the WPIAL Class A baseball playoffs.

“We’re excited to be in the tournament,” Eden coach Mark Feldman said succinctly. “Our lineup will be finalized the day of our game.”

The Warriors weren’t scheduled to play their first playoff game until the quarterfinals May 19 when they were to host the winner of the No. 7 WesternBeaver-No. 10 Avella first-round matchup.

Eden averaged 10.8 runs per game in the regular season and boasts a .351 team batting average.

The Warriors’ leading hitters include juniors Brady Hull (.577, 35 RBIs), Brett Feldman (.483) and Noah Emswiler (.480), along with senior Jacob Janicki (.367) and junior Christian Watkins (.366).

And the team’s pitching staff is brimming with good arms.

Along with their everyday duties in the field, Emswiler, Hull, Janicki, Feldman and Watkins lead the team’s pitching corps and have been complemented by freshman Carson Beck and sophomore Luca Natale. Emswiler, the team’s only left-handed hurler, has 59 strikeouts in 39 1/3 innings and a 2.14 ERA.

“We have focused all year on one pitch at a time,” coach Feldman said. “We will continue that into the playoffs. We will not focus on results but rather on effort and attitude.

“As a staff, we try to have very competitive practices. We believe that the harder you make practice, the easier the games are.”

Eden (14-4, 8-2), which shared the Section 3-A championship with Serra Catholic and Bishop Canevin, was the WPIAL runner-up in 2022 and 2024.

Quakers advance to playoffs

Quaker Valley’s boys lacrosse team entered the WPIAL Class 2A playoffs with a 9-4 record after finishing in a three-way tie for fourth in Section 2.

The Quakers received the No. 10 seed for the playoffs and faced No. 7 Bethel Park in the first round.

“We finished tied for third in a strong section,” QV coach Chip Hansen said. “Our seeding is fair based on our section results and how the other teams in our section were seeded.”

QV tied with Indiana and Shaler in league play — all at 6-4 — behind Mars (10-0), Hampton (9-1) and Sewickley Academy (8-2).

Regular-season leaders in goals and assists for the Quakers consisted of senior attacker Marcus Richey, junior attackers Jacob Keisel and Max Modrovich along with freshman MF Roman Gabriele and junior MF Jace Vasbinder.

Those five were joined in the starting rotation by junior midfielders Hunter Kronk and Logan Benedict, junior LSM Ben McHenry and Colin York, sophomore Dom Anderson, junior Luke Koehler and senior Jack Diemert on defense, and junior goalie Aiden Dillaman.

Finding motivation

Sam Futrovsky is in his third year of coaching the Sewickley Academy boys lacrosse team.

Along with his coaching chores as the team’s field boss, Futrovsky is a bit of an inspirational philosopher for the Panthers, who locked up a WPIAL playoff berth as the No. 5 seed in Class 2A this season.

“Every year we have a mantra,” Futrovsky said. “My first year, it was ‘Believe in what we are building’ and last year, it was ‘Keep Moving Forward.’ We knew in those first two years we needed the guys to learn how to set standards for themselves and play this game at a higher level. Last year, we knew with how young and small our roster was that we would have many challenging moments and setbacks, but we needed to keep going.

“This year our mantra is ‘Hunt.’ It is about that pursuit of excellence and being willing to chase it, knowing you might only catch it for a brief moment, and then you have to do all the work all over again to try to capture it again.”

Futrovsky fervently believes competing in lacrosse should be a growing experience for the athletes both on and off the field.

“We always want to remember why we are doing what we are doing and try to make the experience fun and fulfilling,” he said. “We challenge our guys to bring great energy to everything we do.

“At the end of the day, it’s important to remind them that we are all human and we make mistakes. As young men they are going to make the wrong decision at times, and at other moments make the right decision, but then fail to execute. My job is to help these young men learn and grow from those instances and l love it.”

Thiero named all-state

It is familiar territory for Quaker Valley junior Mimi Thiero, who received 2024-25 all-state recognition in Class 2A girls basketball for the second time in her career.

“I’m very excited about making all-state,” she said. “It’s an honor to receive this title, especially for it to be in all of Pennsylvania.”

Thiero also was closing in on the girls high jump record at QV late in the high school track and field season. She took first place at the Pine-Richland Invitational by clearing a height of 5 feet, 6 inches.

“The Pine-Richland meet was so fun. especially with doing high jump,” Thiero said. “You really see the same girls at almost every meet so I always have a lot of fun talking and hanging out with them.

“Taking first place in a group of that many girls was really exciting and to be on a podium with all of those amazing high jumpers was so much fun. Our school record is 5-7, so I am trying to beat it this year and hopefully get 5-8.”

Westwood, Roig fill the net

Junior Alexa Westwood clicked for five goals and an assist and junior Lucy Roig scored four times to lead No. 7 Quaker Valley to a 12-3 first-round win May 12 over No. 10 Indiana (10-6) in the WPIAL Class 2A girls lacrosse playoffs.

Kate Miller, a freshman midfielder/attack, had a goal and three assists, junior attack Lily Millet added a goal and an assist and senior keeper Emily Reiner made five saves for the Quakers, who improved to 9-4 overall.

QV played No. 2 Seton LaSalle in the quarterfinals.

Board set

WPIAL board members voted May 12 to retain Peters Township athletic director Brian Geyer as president, Mt. Lebanon athletic director John Grogan as vice president, Brentwood principal Jason Olexa as treasurer and Hempfield event coordinator Tom Evans as secretary.

The 2025-26 school year starts July 1.

Did you know?

Did you know that along with winning the past four WPIAL Class 2A team championships in girls track and field, Quaker Valley also won WPIAL girls team titles in three successive seasons from 2001-03?

Tags: Eden Christian, Quaker Valley, Sewickley Academy