Serra slugger’s numbers astound
Serra slugger Mark Black’s postseason as strange as it is exceptional
Junior catcher Mark Black’s bat has Serra Catholic one win away from a PIAA baseball championship.
Strange. Exceptional. Surreal. Mark Black’s postseason has been all of them.
Black is a junior catcher for the Serra Catholic baseball team and his postseason has been as odd as it has been remarkable. Black has helped the Eagles make it to Friday’s PIAA Class 2A championship game at Penn State. They play Devon Prep at 4:30.
It’s the fear of the Black hole that scares opposing teams and pitchers. Because when you throw Black a regular pitch, often times it disappears — over the fence. Consider these Black stats for a strange but true playoff story:
• Twenty-six plate appearances.
• Seventeen intentional walks and one “unintentional intentional” walk.
• Four home runs in eight official at-bats.
• Two singles.
• Two groundouts. Black’s talent and the statistics make for one of the most intriguing players who has ever played in a PIAA championship game.
For the season (counting playoffs), Black has hit 14 home runs. That ties for the most by a WPIAL player since at least 2000. Peters Township’s Jordan Jankowski, who eventually made it to the major leagues as a pitcher, also hit 14 in 2007, counting playoffs.
“I’ve said 100 times that I don’t think people realize how good he is and what he’s accomplishing right now,” Serra coach Brian Dzurenda said.
In a PIAA semifinal game against Seton LaSalle Tuesday, Black, who already has made a verbal commitment to St. John’s University, batted leadoff and saw only one pitch. It was the first pitch of the game — and it ended up over the fence. The next three times, Black was intentionally walked, which means he never saw another pitch come his way. In high school baseball, a batter is immediately sent to first on intentional walks without a pitch being thrown.
Black’s power has become legendary stuff at Serra. It has become somewhat of an event when the 5foot-11, 200-pound catcher takes batting practice at a Serra practice.
“Our field [Boston Field] sits by the Youghiogheny River,” Dzurenda said. “There’s the fence, a parking lot, a bank and then the river. When Mark hits, we have to put a kid in the parking lot and one right before the river to stop balls from going in the river. We’ve been through 30 dozen balls this year on the team because he just keeps dropping them in the river.
“If we threw him 30 balls, I bet
you 15 go over the fence and we have to try to stop them from going into the river.”
Now the question is whether Black will see pitches in the PIAA championship game? At the start of the PIAA playoffs, Dzurenda moved Black to the leadoff spot.
“It’s the best move we made because maybe at least he will get one at-bat,” Dzurenda said.
Batting leadoff in three PIAA games, Black has homered, hit a single and received the “unintentional intentional walk.” Besides the three leadoff at-bats, Black has had only one other chance to hit — and he hit a home run.
It will be interesting to see who Devon Prep pitches. In a semifinal win against South Williamsport, sophomore Bere Bauers started, worked three innings and threw 49 pitches. Senior Andrew Czachor pitched the final four innings, did not allow a hit, struck out nine and threw 51 pitches. Both Czachor and Bauers are eligible to come back for the PIAA final. Czachor, also the team’s leading hitter, will play next season at NCAA Division I High Point.
Devon Prep’s record is only 1113, but it is deceiving. The team joined the Philadelphia Catholic League this season and played a number of teams in larger classifications.
A win would put Serra (23-3) and Dzurenda into elite company. Riverside is the only WPIAL team to win more than two PIAA titles. Serra would join six other WPIAL teams with two titles and Dzurenda would become only the third WPIAL coach with two PIAA championships.
Class 4A
The winner of the Class 4A game will have its first PIAA baseball title in school history.
WPIAL champ Beaver (17-7) takes on Selinsgrove (20-5) at 1:30 Friday at Penn State. Selinsgrove is making its first championship appearance while Beaver lost in a title game twice (2013 and 1983).
These two teams are opposites in a few different areas. Beaver has 17 players on its roster and 14 are seniors. Selinsgrove has only four seniors on its roster.
Beaver’s hitting has come alive in the postseason, with the Bobcats scoring 65 runs in seven games. Selinsgrove has scored only 22 runs in the past five postseason games, but allowed only five. Selinsgrove’s team batting average hovers around only .270.
But the Seals’ pitching has been superb. Senior Logan Hile and freshman Ryan Reich combined on a four-hitter in a 3-0 semifinal win against Hamburg. Hile is 8-2 with an ERA below 1.00. But he threw 105 pitches against Hamburg and is ineligible to pitch against Beaver.
But Selinsgrove still has senior Blaise Zeiders, a three-sport standout (football, wrestling, baseball) who was recently named the athlete of the year for The Daily Item in Sunbury. Zeiders is 8-0 with a 1.69 ERA and won a quarterfinal game last week in which he gave up three runs, one earned.