Shady Side Academy's baseball team took Nickel, mixed in a swift strike of aluminum, and when meshed together, the finished product turned into a shiny WPIAL gold medal.

Faced with a two-out, two-on situation in a tie game in the bottom of the seventh, Shady Side Academy junior center fielder Brian Nickel drilled a fastball into right field to give the Indians (22-1) a 3-2 victory against North Catholic (17-6) to earn the school's first WPIAL baseball title -- a Class AA crown at Consol Energy Park.

"I was sitting on a first-pitch fastball," said Nickel, whose brother, senior designated hitter Billy, was intentionally walked just before him with first base open.

"My at-bat a few innings before that, I had a pitch just like it, right there where I wanted it, and I popped it up. This time, I told myself to just stay down on it and I got the same pitch and hit it hard."

And when he did hit it hard -- a liner hit on the button to right -- courtesy runner Scott Majesky (running for Bo Stewart who had earlier singled) never hesitated as he charged home from second, setting off the Shady Side celebration.

"You can't do anything but give [Brian Nickel] credit for what he did," North Catholic coach Pat Walsh said.

"We intentionally walk the guy in front of him, which was the right move and the move I had to make and would make again. We just said, 'OK, let's see if you can beat us.' And to his credit, the kid comes up and hammers a pitch, so you tip your cap to him, shake his hand and congratulate him."

Truth is, the Shady Side contingent should also tip its caps to pitcher Tim Giel, who tossed a complete game six-hitter, striking out 12 North Catholic batters as he carried a shutout into the fifth.

"I thought he threw the ball very well for us, but that's what he's been doing all year, that's the kind of competitor he is and the kind of athlete he is," Shady Side coach Bob Grandizio said of Giel, also a standout wrestler.

"He took over when he had to; he made some pitches when he had to."

Even so, North Catholic -- trailing 2-0 -- got to Giel in the top of the sixth and seventh, scoring a run in each inning.

That set the stage for Brian Nickel, one of many men-for-all-seasons on Shady Side's baseball team and a player Grandizio calls, "just a phenomenal pure athlete."

Nickel was a stellar running back for a Shady Side football team that reached the WPIAL semifinals in the fall, running for 1,452 yards and a team-high 28 touchdowns.

This time, he did his punishment not by lowering his shoulder, but with a rapid swing of a baseball bat.

"We let it slip away a little bit, letting them back in the game," Brian Nickel said.

"But we knew that, once they tied it, we needed to come up big at the end. We knew someone needed to come through."

When it counted most, he was that someone.