Monroeville Red Pandas celebrate division title

The Monroeville Red Pandas won just six games in their 2024 Pittsburgh NABA season.

It wasn’t the overall performance manager Donovan Baxter and his team had hoped for.

But the group, made up predominantly of Gateway graduates in their early to mid 20s, regrouped and refocused on this summer’s new opportunity.

Battling through a slow start in late May and early June, Monroeville hit its stride.

The Red Pandas were able to put it all together when it counted the most.

Monroeville claimed the AAA division title Aug. 1-3 by topping the Jefferson Hills Pirates, 2-1, in the best-of-three championship series.

“We knew that we underperformed last year, and that was in the back of our minds a little bit,” Baxter said.

“But at the same time, we came into this season working to not letting that bother us. We didn’t change too much. We did bring in a couple of new arms from (the University of) Mt. Union, and they helped us a lot, but we were able to keep the same approach. We played our game, played within ourselves, and kept positive.”

The Red Pandas finished 19-11 overall, went 6-2 in the playoffs, and were 19-6 overall after a tough 0-5 start.

Monroeville finished 3-3 against Jefferson Hills for the season as they split a pair of regular season games in addition to four postseason contests.

“It was always a good game when we matched up with Jefferson Hills,” Baxter said.

“We knew they would be a competitive team and would be tough to get a win against. Either team wasn’t going to walk over the other. We both had to play our best game.”

The Red Pandas and Jefferson Hills rematched in the finals after the Pirates captured a 7-5 win in the championship-bracket semifinals.

Monroeville collected just two hits in Game 1 of the finals and saw Jefferson Hills win 1-0 with a walk-off sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth.

Brady Hansen surrendered seven hits and four walks while striking out seven over 8 2/3 innings.

“We knew we were going to see good pitchers, and we knew we were going to throw good pitchers in Brady and Jaired (Lehman),” Baxter said

“We were expecting pitchers’ duals, but we weren’t exactly expecting that outcome in Game 1. To get walked off by a sacrifice fly, that is tough to take.

“But we weren’t discouraged. We were coming home for Game 2 and were pumped about getting to play a playoff game at home. We knew we would bounce back.”

Lehman fired a complete-game three-hitter with 10 strikeouts for the Game 2 win. The Pirates’ lone run in the 2-1 Red Pandas victory was unearned.

Jake Osborn and Sonny Comunale drove in Monroeville’s two runs in the bottom of the second for a one-run lead. Neither team scored the rest of the way.

Monroeville’s bats came alive in the championship clincher. The Red Pandas pounded out 16 hits and rallied from a one-run deficit after three innings. A big five-run fourth inning put them on top for good.

“Game 3 was a huge team effort,” Baxter said.

“There weren’t a lot of hero swings. We did have a lot of pass-the-bat singles, we sacrificed and were able to get runners home. There are no egos on this team. That I can say for sure. We were all looking to do what was best for each other.”

The Red Pandas won five of six games heading into the playoffs and secured the No. 3 seed.

“We were very optimistic,” Baxter said of the team’s postseason chances.

“We weren’t expecting anything, but we were rolling and were excited to see what could happen. We were playing really good ball. We knew we could do something special.”

Monroeville won its playoff opener, 3-1, over West End Elliot before falling to Jefferson Hills in the semifinals.

That game was a rough one for Baxter who suffered a broken nose and had to leave the game.

With Baxter limited to just his managerial duties the rest of the way, the rest of the Red Pandas fought off elimination with wins over the 4:12 Warriors, West End Elliot and the Hebrew Oilers in the loser’s bracket.

“After the loss to Jefferson Hills, it was just one game at a time,” Baxter said.

“We couldn’t worry about the future if we didn’t take care of business in the present. We picked each other up and kept battling.”

With the championship-winning game on a Sunday, Baxter said the team members couldn’t go too crazy in celebration, but there was a gathering to toast the triumph.

The team, Baxter said, will get together Saturday with the title trophy to celebrate before some have to head back to college.

“We’ll do the Stanley Cup treatment where everybody will get the trophy for a little bit,” Baxter said.

Baxter said the fan support all season was amazing.

“They came all season to watch us play, home or away, and they showed up rolling deep into the playoffs,” he said.

“We dubbed our supporters ‘The Red Fandas’ because they are a part of the family.”