South Fayette’s Pitzer impressive in debut
Tyler Pitzer was expected to make his high school debut in 2020, but that was before the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out the season.
Pitzer finally got his chance last Friday, and he spent it wiping out opposing hitters.
As far as first impressions go, they don’t get much better than the one produced by Pitzer, a sophomore righthander at South Fayette.
Pitzer’s line in a 5-0 non-section win at North Catholic: 7 innings, 0 hits, 17 strikeouts.
Few pitchers will ever be that dominant in a game. And to think, what Pitzer did came in not only his first appearance of the season, but the first of his high school career.
“It was very unexpected I’d say,” Pitzer said.
It’s safe to say that Pitzer’s performance was one of the highlights of the opening weekend of the season. Pitzer was electric, striking out 17 of the 23 batters he faced. He allowed two baserunners, those coming on walks to the first hitter of the game and another in the sixth inning. He threw 90 pitches, which included a brisk nine-pitch seventh. North Catholic’s final hitter struck out swinging.
“After the third I realized it was getting kind of serious and was getting close to a nohitter, so I was just pumping strikes in the zone,” said Pitzer, whom Morgan said consistently throws four pitches for strikes (fastball, curveball, changeup, slider) and has a fastball that has reached the high-80s.
It wasn’t until after the sixth when Morgan realized his sophomore hurdler had yet to surrender a hit. With it being an early-season non-section game, Morgan was planning on taking Pitzer out. That was until pitching coach Jim Kirker alerted him of the no-hitter. That led to a change of heart.
“Oh my gosh. I can’t personally think of a better [debut],” South Fayette coach Ken Morgan said. “That was pretty outstanding. He would have been on the varsity roster last year, so his varsity debut was postponed a year. He took advantage of it and got better.”
Coincidentally, Morgan was on the wrong end of a similar performance in his playing days. As a junior at South Fayette in 2007, Morgan said his team suffered a loss to Derek Law and Seton LaSalle. According to Morgan, Law fired a no-hitter and struck out 17. Law has gone on to do pretty well for himself, pitching in the major leagues from 2016-19. He’s currently in the Twins organization.
“That’s some good company to be in,” Morgan said, laughing.
Pitzer highlights a deep and talented South Fayette pitching staff. Among the other players expected to play key roles are seniors Noah Scheel and Tristan Bedillion and sophomore Chase Krewson.
Pitzer, Krewson and Michael DiMartini headline a strong sophomore class. All three are pitchers. Pitzer and Krewson also play the outfield, while DiMartini starts at shortstop. Krewson, who knocked in two runs against North Catholic, has already verbally committed to Notre Dame. Pitzer and DiMartini are both drawing lots of Division I interest. Morgan said that Wake Forest, Boston College, Virginia and Coastal Carolina are among the schools showing interest in Pitzer.
Several seniors have already decided where they will play in college: Bedillion (Saint Vincent), A.J. Bryan (Gannon) and Ryan McGuire (Penn State Behrend).
South Fayette, which improved to 2-0 after Monday’s 12-8 non-section win at West Mifflin, hopes to make noise in a section (Class 5A Section 3) that also includes topranked West Allegheny.
“I definitely think we have the potential to go to [the WPIAL championship] and even states,” Pitzer said.
South Park
Arguably the biggest transfer in the WPIAL debuted at his new school Monday, and it went extremely well to say the least.
Junior right-hander Drew Lafferty gave up one unearned run in six innings to help South Park defeat Shaler, 3-1. Lafferty had six strikeouts and walked two, and also went 2 for 4 with a home run and two runs scored.
A Kentucky recruit, Lafferty was playing his first game at South Park after transferring from Seton LaSalle, where he sparkled his freshman season. He went 8-1 with a 1.80 ERA, helping the Rebels win the WPIAL Class 2A title.
There are two Laffertys playing key roles at South Park this season. Drew’s cousin, Austin, is a sophomore who went 2 for 4 and had the gamewinning RBI triple against Shaler.
New Castle
Rocco Bernadina hit for the cycle in New Castle’s season opener … and it took him only three innings to do it.
Bernadina, a Kent State recruit, had a memorable debut to his senior season in the 24-0 non- section win against Aliquippa. He singled, doubled, tripled and homered while driving in five runs. The homer came during an eightrun second inning.
Also homering in the game was Donny Cade, who was a starter on New Castle’s basketball team that won the WPIAL Class 5A championship. Cade also tripled and had three RBIs.