Apr 29, 2026 By Jerin Steele 5 min read

In his 38 years as the Fort Cherry baseball coach, Bob Sawhill has never had a team that’s been undefeated this late into the WPIAL season.

Until now.

His Rangers are 15-0 overall and 10-0 in Class 2A Section 1 after sweeping California Monday and Tuesday.

“No, this is the first time,” Sawhill said. “But when I first started there were only two classifications, Single-A and Double-A. Now there’s nine billion classes (six to be exact). But these guys I have are very, very good.”

What makes them so good?

Sawhill listed a few attributes.

“Good parenting. Good food and good grades,” he said.

The last trait he mentioned might be their most important one and that is their competitive nature.

“If a fight breaks out you definitely want these guys on your side,” Sawhill said. “They’re not going to back down. We’re going to fight. We may not win it, but we’ll be there. Every game.”

So far, the Rangers have won them all and are in exclusive company. Freeport and Greensburg Central Catholic are the only two other unbeaten baseball teams in the WPIAL.

Fort Cherry is three wins away from going undefeated in the regular season. The Rangers have a game scheduled at Avella today and their final section series with rival Burgettstown Monday and Tuesday.

Finding a way

The not backing down trait Sawhill mentioned was proven Tuesday.

Fort Cherry was down its final out, trailing 7-6 at California when Ben Demascal belted a home run over the centerfield fence to tie the game.

The Rangers scored five runs in the eighth inning and won 12-7.

It was the 300th win of Sawhill’s career. The Rangers players and coaches all wore grey shirts that had “Saw Ball” on them and a baseball with a mustache.

“It feels great to be on the team that got him No. 300,” Fort Cherry catcher Colton Temple said. “He coached my dad and he’s been here for 38 years, so it just feels really good to do it for him.”

Tuesday’s comeback win at California wasn’t the only time Fort Cherry has needed late heroics to win. Last week the Rangers trailed Chartiers-Houston 2-1 going into the bottom of the sixth, but Tyler Wolfe hit a two-run homer in a 3-2 win.

There have been a few tight wins in nonsection games 6-3 against McGuffey, 15-13 over Keystone Oaks and beat Bishop Canevin, 7-5. Outside of that the Rangers have won every game by five runs or more.

Hitting and pitching

If you compare Fort Cherry’s baseball field on a scale of ones in Major League Baseball, it’s a lot like Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati or the friendly confines of Wrigley Field when the wind blows out in Chicago.

It’s a small hitter-friendly park.

And the Fort Cherry baseball players hear about it, especially since they consistently have high home run totals every year.

“Mickey Mouse field is what we hear all the time,” Demascal said.

One can imagine how satisfying it was for the Rangers to hit three homers on the road in Tuesday’s win at California.

Demascal had his game-tying solo shot and Temple hit a pair of homers, including a two-run shot in the five-run eighth inning.

The Rangers aren’t just slugging homers, however. In two games against California, Fort Cherry had eight doubles and wreaked havoc on the basepaths stealing 16 bases.

“Our home runs are always discounted, but I think we have really good hitters,” Demascal said. “Not in terms of just bombs, but line drives and getting the next guy up is our mentality.”

To be undefeated at the end of April, a team needs to have good pitching too and Dylan Lueck has provided it. He pitched a three-hit shutout Monday. The staff has received a boost with the return of Ryan Huey.

Huey had been limited in his pitching duties with a leg injury but came on in relief Tuesday and struck out eight over three scoreless innings. It was only his second appearance on the mound.

Building a culture

It is clear the talent is there and what’s scary for their opponents is only there’s only one senior starter, first baseman Blake Sweder, and two total on the roster.

The final ingredient was to mesh together as a group. Demascal said the coaches talked to them about building a culture together during a preseason meeting.

“They challenged us all to make an atmosphere and set a standard,” Demascal said. “We all agreed to do that and over the offseason we’ve meshed very well.”

Never did they imagine at the time an orange traffic cone would be a key part of that culture, but that’s the case.

The Rangers took a page from the Pittsburgh Pirates and have a cone in the dugout that they hoist after a good play.

“We kind of figured that we needed something to get everyone going,” Lueck said. “It was a team decision. It gets the dugout involved, because everyone wants to be the one to hold the cone up.”

The hope is to hoist the cone at EQT Park during the WPIAL championships. Fort Cherry has not won a WPIAL baseball title since 1986, but is aiming to end that drought.