Balance has Serra eyeing deep playoff run
Serra Catholic coach Brian Dzurenda raves about his pitching staff.
In 19 games, Serra hurlers have surrendered only 20 runs … and only half of those are earned.
But what’s more impressive: A group of pitchers stifling opponent after opponent or a lineup that has generated a ridiculous 239 runs?
Serra has both, and it’s that wicked combination that has the Eagles perched with an 181 record and eyeing a run at the WPIAL Class 2A title.
Dzurenda is in his 19th season as Serra’s coach and has had some great teams. There have been three WPIAL champions, a PIAA champion and two PIAA runners-up. But this is only the second team Dzurenda has coached that went unbeaten in section play. The other was the 2010 team that won a WPIAL title and reached the PIAA final. The current group went 14-0 in Section 3 and was unbeaten overall until losing Saturday at Class 3A Avonworth.
This is the most explosive offensive team Serra has had since 2010, Dzurenda said. And when you look at the numbers, it’s easy to see why. The top five hitters in the lineup are all batting better than .400. Leadoff hitter Zack Bowen, a senior, is hitting .600, and he’s followed by senior and twin brother Ben Bowen (.458), sophomore Mark Black (.655), senior Nate Piontka (.482) and junior Pat Brennan (.578).
Black is one of the WPIAL’s top sophomores and has already verbally committed to St. John’s. In addition to leading the Eagles in batting, he paces them with five home runs and 39 RBIs, and is second with 42 runs scored.
“He started last season and you could see the flashes of brilliance,” Dzurenda said. “This year he has filled out. He’s an absolute specimen. He works so much in the offseason. He does yoga classes. Very cerebral baseball player. Good command behind the plate. I told him he’s the quarterback back there.”
Piontka and the Bowen twins anchor the pitching staff. Piontka is 6-0 with a 1.35 ERA and has 42 strikeouts in 26 innings. Ben Bowen is 5-0 with a 0.33 ERA and Zack Bowen 4-0 with a 0.57 ERA.
Mars
Mars right-hander Will Bednar is having an exceptional junior season. He has been putting up big numbers on the mound, the most glaring ones recently being 15 and 95.
Bednar, an Ohio State recruit, struck out 15 in consecutive starts. He did it in a 3-1 win against Fox Chapel and once again four days later in a 9-0 triumph against North Hills, which at the time was in first place in Class 5A Section 1.
“He threw the ball well,” said Will’s father, Mars coach Andy Bednar. “It was his first real start in a while against Fox Chapel. He had a whole pregame to warm up. It was a warm day. His velocity was really good that day. Same thing against North Hills. He threw a lot of strikes.”
That’s where the 95 came into play. Bednar said that a major league scout in attendance at the North Hills game clocked his son’s fastball at 95 mph, which is the kind of heat not commonly thrown by a high school player.
“It was a shocker,” Andy Bednar said. “The scout was there to see one of our seniors. He was coming off three days rest and he threw harder in the North Hills game. He was really pumped for that game with North Hills being the first-place team. Last summer he was in the lower 90s a couple of times. It’s just him throwing more and more, the weather breaking, and he really worked hard in the weightroom in the offseason.”
Bednar improved to 6-0 Monday when Mars beat Hampton, 6-0. He struck out 11 to give him 76 in 38 innings for the Planets, who finished tied with Hampton for second place in the section. The Planets were the WPIAL runnerup last season.
Mt. Lebanon
The WPIAL playoffs don’t begin until next week, but Mt. Lebanon played in what pretty much amounted to one last Friday when it hosted Upper St. Clair in the Class 6A Section 3 finale for both teams. It was a must-win game for Mt. Lebanon, which failed on two previous attempts to clinch a playoff berth earlier in the week, dropping one-run decisions to Bethel Park and Peters Township.
This time Mt. Lebanon came out on top, beating Upper St. Clair, 4-0. Senior righthander James Stocker pitched a complete game shutout and gave up only three hits. Mt. Lebanon, Upper St. Clair and Peters Township all finished 6-6 in the section, and all three qualified for the playoffs along with section champion Bethel Park and runner-up Canon-McMillan.
Mt. Lebanon has now qualified for the WPIAL playoffs seven consecutive seasons. The Blue Devils have played in tight game after tight game this spring. Seven of their section games were decided by one run. The Blue Devils went 3-4 in those games. They are 1-2 in one-run games against non-section opponents.