Every athlete has his own pregame ritual.

Unfortunately Marian's Joe Nahas had no opportunity to stick with his routine Wednesday.Nahas, the Colts' starting pitcher, and teammate Tyler Wackley, were involved in a car accident en route to grabbing the team bus prior Wednesday's Schuylkill League championship against Tamaqua at Pine Grove.Nahas' car was destroyed, but he took the mound anyway. Despite his day being a complete mess, he cleaned up the Raiders and fired a two-hit shutout during a gutsy 3-0 league title-clinching performance."Accidents happen," said Marian head coach Tony Radocha, who picked up his players from the scene of the accident before the game. "That shifted perspective. I think it calmed everyone's nerves when everyone was OK. Their parents trusted me to take them (to the game). They were mentally a little rattled, but physically OK. As soon as I turned the radio up in the car, they started singing and dancing."Once the rest of the Colts saw that their friends were fine, it helped them focus on the game. They wasted no time easing Nahas' nerves by tallying all three of their runs across the first two innings."With all that stuff that happened, by the time we go to the field, we were just so loose and relaxed," explained the Marian coach. "That calmed everyone's nerves. It was like 'let's go win a baseball game now.'"Rob Hinkle smacked the first pitch he saw to drive in Dante Salerno, who reached on a walk, for the game's first run in the initial frame. Hinkle scored on a sacrifice fly later in the inning, but he wasn't done producing for the Colts. He finished a perfect 3-for-3 at the plate during the victory."We were aggressive to start, and when you put three runs up in the first two innings, that's a great recipe," explained Radocha. "Robbie Hinkle was really locked in all day. We were at the school hitting in the cage, and he told me he was ready to go. He was one of the first people off the bus. He told me was in the zone and he wasn't kidding."Although Nahas tossed a gem, Tamaqua had ample opportunities to make an impact in the game."We had opportunities, and we didn't capitalize," explained Tamaqua head coach Jeff Reading. "Nahas threw a great game for them. You can't take anything away from him. But we were put in positions to score, and we couldn't get that timely hit."We've been playing pretty good ball toward the end of the season. Something like this is a downer, but we just need to pick ourselves back and we have a lot of baseball left to play."One of the biggest sequences of Wednesday's game was in the sixth inning.With one out, Thad Zuber clawed through a dozen-pitch at bat and finally reached base by drawing a veteran-like walk to load the bags. Nahas escaped the sequence without a blemish on the scoreboard. He yielded three walks and struck out nine over the duration of the contest."I am happy to bring this championship to Marian," said Radocha. "I want to thank the school, coaches, parents, and all of our supporters and fans. This was goal number one, now, we're going to get back at it for goal number two."BREAKING THE ICE ... Not only was the Schuylkill League title Marian's first in school history, but the Colts became the first Division 3 team to win a league championship."The senior class wanted to be remembered for something and nobody will ever forget that," said Radocha. "Especially since we beat so many quality teams along the way."THANKFUL ..."I am so grateful, humbled, and I am so happy to be able to bring a league championship, the first of its kind, to a school with a rich tradition like Marian," said Radocha.Tamaqua 000 000 0 - 0 2 1Marian 210 000 x - 3 5 3Zuber and Rother; Nahas and Snerr. W - Nahas. L - Zuber.