Construction at Pullman Park forced the Butler Area High School baseball team to play the first half of its season on the road.

After a 5-0 start in section play on the road, Butler might have thought twice about returning home.

The Golden Tornado lost its next three section games but bounced back with wins over Kiski Area and a 13-0 win at North Hills to clinch the first playoff appearance by the Golden Tornado in more than a decade.

That experience playing on the road might come back to help Butler as it prepares for the playoffs.

"Hopefully it will help us. We played well on the road," said Butler coach Dave Florie. "We actually played better on the road than we did at home. A playoff game on the road won't bother our guys."

Senior shortstop Darren Blakley thinks the early adversity of playing on the road helped the team as well.

"It was real tough early on and if anything, it helped us," Blakley said.

"We had to find ways to win and honestly we play better on the road with our backs against the wall. I believe a lot of teams will overlook us in the playoffs."

Butler finished 12-6 overall and 8-4 in Section 1-AAAA tied with North Allegheny for third place behind first-place Seneca Valley (11-1) and Shaler Area (9-3). All four qualified for the playoffs.

"Overall this season, we played well. We played what I call baseball, good defense, pitching and timely hitting for 90 percent of the time," Florie said.

"I was worried a little bit before the season because of the strength of our section. I don't know if these kids ever played against that kind of competition before and that's always a big question mark but they handled it."

Florie expressed concern over the pitching situation heading into this season. A staff of six pitchers stepped up and gave quality innings throughout the year.

Seniors Tim Geibel and Matt McCormick are the two primary starters and have logged the most innings of any Butler pitchers this year. Seniors Zachary Cuffman, Nicolas Rossmiller, Greg Hayes and sophomore Alek Bollinger came on in relief most of the time.

Cuffman got a start against Seneca Valley in the first meeting and kept his team in the game.

"They have pitched very, very well this year," Florie said. "All six of our guys contributed. Tim and Matt pitched the most innings and the other four guys have had their opportunities and they pitched pretty well."

Geibel also leads the team with his bat with an average better than .500 and five doubles. Blakley, the leadoff hitter has drawn 13 walks to give him one of the best on-base percentages on the team.

"It's important for me to be patient at the plate and see as many pitches as I can so I can relay it to my team," Blakley said.

"When I get on base it's like I get a double. I steal second and then someone bumps me over to third and it's almost like an automatic run."

Junior Dustin Uhlman, the cleanup hitter and right fielder, leads the team in RBIs with 11 and was batting .375. Sophomore John Crummy has stepped up this year playing at first base and hitting .382. Senior center fielder Jeff Slater was batting .314.

Junior Dave Schmidt has returned to third base after missing time with a fractured wrist. Senior left fielder Bill Coleman is batting around .300 and Ryan Geibel, Tim's cousin, has done a solid job defensively behind the plate at catcher.

Senior Ryan Armahizer has only made one error all season from second base.

"I think we are ready and we will do OK in the playoffs," Florie said.

"We need to keep pitching like we have been and play defense. I am sure we are going to be facing good pitching. For the most part we can score runs, but pitching is the name of baseball."