Despite covid-19 restrictions, teams in Pittsburgh's NABA league enjoy playoff competition

The Pittsburgh chapter of the National Adult Baseball Association continues with its playoff tournaments this week, and league president Joe Graff said the postseason is an extension of a successful regular season despite the challenges of the covid-19 pandemic.

“Everybody really worked together through everything from the start in June to make sure we would be able to play this summer,” Graff said.

“Managers helped by staying on top of things and communicating with their players about the safety protocols and making sure they were following them. We worked around a few issues and got almost every (regular-season) game played.”

Graff said several games were postponed around the Fourth of July when Allegheny County tightened some restrictions.

The season got rolling the weekend of June 6, and there were games almost every day through the end of the regular season Aug. 3.

Graff said working with the necessary people to obtain field permits, whether it was the City of Pittsburgh’s Department of Public Works, recreation directors or school athletic offices, went smoothly.

“It was probably the fastest everyone has gotten back to us about scheduling games and getting the permits for the fields,” he said.

Jefferson Hills (18-2) captured the regular-season title in the AAA division, while the Hebrew Oilers (14-5) and North Park Senators (12-4-1) did the same in the AA and A divisions, respectively.

Jefferson Hills, which outscored its opponents 159-46 during the regular season, laid claim to the first title of the summer as it won the best-of-three AAA championship series over Ohio Valley in a sweep (5-4 and 7-1) last Saturday and Sunday. It is the Pirates’ second league title. They also won in 2013.

“All things considered, I couldn’t have asked for a better summer with the players on the team,” said Jefferson Hills coach Keith Reynolds, who noted the successful combination of a core of team mainstays with other up-and-coming collegiate players.

“The covid situation did work to our advantage. I know it is very weird to say that. But there were some kids who we’ve coached for a lot of years through travel programs and others who were ticketed to go play in other leagues. Instead, they stayed home and played for us.”

Shortstop Koby Bubash, a 2019 Ringgold graduate and member of the baseball team at Slippery Rock, led Jefferson Hills in batting with a .480 average (24 of 50) and tallied 17 RBIs.

“Koby is a fantastic player and competitor,” Reynolds said. “He was going to play in a South Carolina prospect league, but when everyone was sent home from college, at that point, he stayed home.”

The single-A playoff tournament, which began with quarterfinal games Aug. 5, is down to the final two as the Senators and Moon Area Patriots will meet this weekend in a best-of-three championship series.

The first game is at 12:45 p.m. Saturday, with Game 2 at 12:45 p.m. Sunday. A third game, if necessary, will follow at 3:15. All three games of the series are slated for Whitaker Field in Homestead.

The six-team AA division playoffs start at 8 p.m. Tuesday with quarterfinal games between the South Oakland Ducks and South Hills Devils at Herschel Park in the West End and the South Side Eagles and Bakery Square Bandidos at Spring Hill Field on the Northside.

The Oilers and Cranberry Crusaders are the top two seeds.

The best-of-three championship series will be Aug. 22 and 23.

For more information on the playoffs or the season overall, visit pittsburghnaba.org.

“It’s been a good ride,” Graff said.

“I always call the playoffs bonus baseball. We didn’t do as extensive a playoff system this year to make sure we guaranteed everyone more games. With the single-elimination games (before the finals), there is more risk.”