As a player on the Chartiers Valley basketball and baseball teams, Ryan Landy has experienced both the high expectations that come with playing for a program with the tradition of the Colts basketball team and being on a team under the radar as the school's baseball team.

The basketball team never got a chance to play for a WPIAL title this year after being upset in the Class AAA semifinals, but Landy still has a chance to play on the WPIALs biggest stage. The Colts have put together a basketball-like postseason and reached the WPIAL title game.

Chartiers Valley will play Moon Area at 7:30 p.m.today at Consol Energy Park for the WPIAL Class AAA title. The section rivals split the regular season meetings with Chartiers Valley bouncing back after an 11-3 defeat to Moon to win 4-0 in the second meeting.

"Everyone always expects basketball to be there but at the beginning of the baseball season, we thought we could make it and everyone underestimates us," said Landy, a shooting guard on the basketball court and left fielder on the baseball field.

"It is definitely different than basketball. We know we are always the underdog, but I like being the underdog. We come into games with swagger and then we hit them where it hurts."

The Colts won four of five to close out the regular season and finish 7-5 in Section 3-AAA. In the postseason they defeated Greensburg Salem, 3-0, and upset Blackhawk, 11-5.

"It is exciting especially for the guys," Chartiers Valley coach Jim Jaskowski said.

"It is great for them to experience it. They have worked hard and they deserve it."

In the WPIAL semifinals Chartiers Valley got another shot at Trinity, the team that had eliminated them the previous two seasons. The Colts avenged a quarterfinal loss to Trinity from two years ago and first-round loss last year with a 4-2 semifinal win.

"They are a great program and we faced one of the best pitchers in the WPIAL in Alex Frey. We had to go through him, we knew how good of a pitcher he was, but I felt more confident this year," Jaskowski said.

"I felt we could handle them and win it if it was a close game. It was definitely worthwhile this year to finally conquer that demon."

Trinity was the WPIAL runner-up from a year ago and the No. 2 seed in the postseason. Frey had been undefeated before the semifinal loss.

Chartiers Valley was a third-place team, but any team coming out of the challenging Section 3-AAA is considered a contender. Playing in a section with teams such as West Allegheny, Moon and Hopewell the Colts entered the postseason battled-tested and with knowing how to play from behind. That experience would prove to be important.

Against top-seeded Blackhawk, Chartiers Valley was down, 4-0, but rallied with 11 unanswered runs and against Trinity, the Colts found themselves down two runs early before scoring four in the bottom of the second inning.

"It is extremely difficult, every inning that goes by you have that urgency but playing in our section, you are used to playing from behind," Jaskowski said.

"The section prepares you for everything you are going to be facing in the playoffs. Our kids never panicked."

Dan Colavincenzo was the starting pitcher in the first round and semifinal games for the Colts and Ken Terpack got the start against Blackhawk. Colavincenzo and Landy are two of seven seniors on the roster who joined the program as freshman for Jaskowski's first year as coach.

"The first thing you do when you come in as a new coach is look at the freshman class," Jaskowski said

"You find out what you have in terms of the future and this group of seniors has been with me for four years and they have been the backbone. The leadership of the program is from them and not for one, not for two but for three years they have been the leaders in ever facet. To see them enjoy it and experience it is just thrilling. They deserve it."