Uniforms for the Steel Town Vikings did not have Chico's Bail Bonds as the sponsor's name on the back, but the team had a little bit of the "Bad News Bears" in it this season.

Steel Town was a late edition to the Western Pennsylvania Elite Baseball League's 16-and-under division. It scrambled to raise money and find players, didn't have a home field, didn't practice much and went against some high-powered opponents, but ended up winning the division's playoffs.

In the playoffs, which took place at the end of July, Steel Town defeated the Bulldogs, 7-2, in the semifinals and Pittsburgh Elite, 5-2, in the final at La Roche College. Steel Town finished the season 15-6, proving that clothes don't make the team.

"If Chico's Bail Bonds wanted to help out, we'd have accepted," said Steel Town manager John Rende of West Homestead. "We tried to keep the costs down as much as possible.

"We went out and got vests and then just gold T-shirts for our uniforms and hats that had a Viking on them. We didn't want the players to have to put out a lot of money."

Rende was the freshman coach and a varsity assistant at Central Catholic High School this past school year. He was asked if he could get a team together for the league's under-16 division in February.

"Mike Kosko, who is the manager of the Bulldogs team, called. They had seven teams and wanted to get one more. I told him I could probably get enough players together," Rende said. "I figured it would be a good way to keep some of our [Central Catholic] guys together and playing."

Steel Town had nine players who were either freshmen or sophomores on the Central Catholic squad in the spring, two from West Mifflin Area High School and one from Steel Valley .

Because most of the players were also on other teams and because the team didn't have a home field, Rende said he conducted only one or two practices.

"We'd just go over situations before the games and then went out and played," he said. "Because most of the guys were from Central, they knew what the plays were, and the others had played for me before, so they knew what I wanted."

The Vikings played "small ball," using a team-first concept. Rende kept statistics, but didn't talk about them much. He told players that a bunt and moving a runner over was as important as a hit.

He said the Vikings didn't have any players with gaudy batting averages, but added most of them hit .300 or better.

"We got a lot of timely hits and we had pretty good pitching. That's how you win games," Rende said. "And we got hot at just the right time."

In the final, Nolan Krivijanski, a West Mifflin resident, pitched a gem. He had a shutout going into the late innings before giving up a couple of runs.

Liam Halferty and Dave Durso, both from Morningside, and Danny Laird from Munhall and Steel Valley handled the pitching chores. Third baseman Sean Bogesdorfer and outfielder Kaleb McGuirk are from West Mifflin, as is first baseman Skip Melzer.

David Smyers, who played a variety of positions, is from Shaler and shortstop Ryan Martin hails from Cranberry. Center fielder Shane Yuhas, outfielder/catcher Kaleb McGuirk are from West Mifflin; Johnny Rende, the manager's son, is from West Homestead; and outfielder Jonathan Gardner is from South Fayette.

Rende made sure everyone saw plenty of action. League rules allowed managers to have a batting order of 12 players, which he always used.

"Some guys would use just a nine-player batting order, but if we had 12 guys there, I had them all hit," he said. "You don't turn the lineup over as quickly, but we had contributions from everybody so that didn't matter."

Rende did take the Vikings to a tournament in Ohio. Steel Town went 4-1 there and was more than competitive.

"It had a lot of AAU teams and two divisions," he said. "We ended up playing four AAU teams because they dropped into our division because they wanted to win something.

"There was one team there that had uniforms that looked like Texas'. They had their jerseys all hung up on hooks before they played. I said to one of the umpires that their jerseys probably were worth more than my entire budget. He said that didn't mean that we couldn't beat them."

Rende said what pleased him the most was the way the players bought into what he was selling.

"They players didn't have any egos," he said. "They just went out and played and we had a lot of fun. Of course, it helps if you are winning."

The Steel Town Vikings will probably return next summer and might move into the WPEBL's 18-and-under division.

"I think we could be competitive at that level if we could get a couple of other players from Central," Rende said. "The idea is to keep the kids together and playing."