Regular-season title goes to Wildcats West Penn Elite Baseball League

Every team in the Western Pennsylvania Elite Baseball League had to deal with quite a few moving parts this summer, but the Wildcats were able to have the most players step up, which helped the team clinch the regular-season title.

“One of the guys who has really been hitting the ball well is Robbie Morosetti of Bethel Park, who has been on a three-week tear where all he’s doing is hitting double after double,” Wildcats coach Mark Saghy said.

“Chasen Claus, our catcher, stepped up when the older guys left, and he’s been a big surprise offensively in every game.”

With their regular-season finish, the Wildcats entered the WPEBL playoffs Monday as the No. 1 seed and took on the No. 8 finisher, Steel City Select Navy, in the first round. Finishing with a leaguebest 15-3 record was an accomplishment, especially considering that Claus had to take over behind the plate after two Division I backstops, North Allegheny’s Dan McCauley and Canon-McMillan’s Tanner Plechnick, had to report to Ohio University.

Outlaws

With elite leagues like this, there is always going to be a modicum of travel involved to get to games and play in tournaments.

For the Outlaws, the players should have started accruing frequent flyer miles for all the time they spent on the road.

It wasn’t just the games and the tournaments. The team itself is centered in Canonsburg and has players from as far away as Brook, W.Va., and Toronto, Ohio. Even the participants from WPIAL schools came from as far away as Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, Norwin, Connellsville and Belle Vernon.

“We’re kind of the melting pot, and everyone is within an hour, so we practice Saturday mornings and the only ones that are challenging are the guys from North Huntingdon,” Outlaws coach Joe Smiley said. “If they can’t make it with the team, they go out and hit and practice on their own.”

Despite the logistical difficulties, the team finished 612 and played Spikes 2 in the first round of the playoffs.

“This was a little bit of a down year for us and we haven’t been as successful as we have been in the past,” Smiley said. “There have been a lot of close games and we came out on the short end of the stick.”