Boys athlete of the week

// The Post-Gazette’s top male performer from the past seven days

The past week: In four games for the Hopewell baseball team from May 2-9, LaSala went 5 for 12 hitting and also pitched twice, allowing no earned runs and only four hits, while striking out 17 in 11⅔ innings.

Check this out: LaSala is one of the main reasons Hopewell is the Post-Gazette’s No. 1ranked WPIAL Class 3A team. A 5-foot-10, 160-pound senior shortstop-pitcher, LaSala is 4-2 as a pitcher with a 0.36 ERA. He has allowed only 19 hits in 39 innings and struck out 53. Opponents have only a .109 batting average against him. LaSala also is hitting .354 with 28 runs scored and two home runs. LaSala has been a starter since his freshman year and has signed with Pitt. He also was a starter for four years in basketball. LaSala’s father, Chris, has been involved with the Pitt football program for close to three decades. He is now an associate athletic director for football administration. There was no high school baseball in Pennsylvania in 2020 because of COVID-19. Did that have any effect on you personally? Yeah.Going into that year, our team was supposed to be good. We had high expectations. Shutting the season down was so disappointing. It affected us mentally as much as anything.

You’ve been a starter since your freshman year. How are you better now than as a freshman? My freshman year, I had a bunch of great teammates and I just tried learning from them. It’s been just about learning the game more over the years and getting myself better. The playoff seedings come out

Friday. Be honest. Should you guys be the No. 1 seed? It’s not up to us.

But what if it was up to you? We’d like to be it. That’s the goal. But in the end, it doesn’t matter what seed you are. You have to win four games to win it.

How does this team compare to last year’s WPIAL championship team? It can be as good. Losing Roman Gill from last year’s team was big, but we can still hit.

Your dad has been involved with the Pitt football program a long time. Did you ever play football? No, I never played. I know that might be surprising.

Did you ever want to play? I wanted to when I was little. When I got the age where I was allowed to play, I just decided to stick with baseball and basketball.

Are you a better athlete than your dad was at Aliquippa? Everyone says yes (laugh).

You win $2 million, what are you buying first? Probably a house for my family because they’ve done so much for me. I would want to give back to them.