WPIAL CHANGES TEAM SCHEDULING
Coaches no longer will be able to rely on their ace
With games against section opponents usually separated by weeks, not days, WPIAL baseball teams have been able to throw their ace pitcher against the same foe twice.
Next season, that will change. No longer will teams be able to ride their top horse. They’ll have to rely on a larger part of the stable instead.
The WPIAL made a big change last week by adding a rule that will have section opponents play back-to-back games in the same week, likely on consecutive days. The move, which came by recommendation from the league’s baseball committee, was implemented with the intent of stopping teams from using their No. 1 pitcher twice against the same opponent. In the past, a team would play a section opponent once in each half of the season.
The new rule has been well received by coaches, some of whom said the change will create more of a total team effort by forcing teams to get creative when it comes to deciding which pitchers pitch when.
“I love the change,” Franklin Regional coach Bob Sadler said. “I think a series is what baseball is all about. It forces coaches to use some strategy because you can’t throw your No. 1 against certain teams and set up pitching that way. It will force you to use your top four or top five against each team in the section. It balances things out. The best team overall will have an advantage.”
The change could create more parity overall, while making the records of the area’s top teams a little less pristine.
“I think you’ll see some teams that are very good lose more here and there and I don’t think you’ll see teams running the table in sections,” said CanonMcMillan coach Tim Bruzdewicz.
Canon-McMillan (6A) and Franklin Regional (5A) are in the two largest classifications, classes with teams that generally have bigger rosters and more quality pitching depth than those in the lower classes.
Keystone Oaks plays in Class 3A. While coach Nick Kamberis supports the change, he believes that it could have a more profound impact in the smaller classes.
“This whole thing is great for the North Alleghenys and the Bethel Parks and the bigger schools, but when you’re a small school, you’re lucky to have a No. 1, let alone a No. 2,” Kamberis said. “You hope your No. 1 will go that whole first game, but if he gets knocked out and you use three or four in that game, you don’t have the depth. This year we had 13 varsity players and 13 JV players. You just don’t have the numbers.”
California coach Lou Pasquale said there were going to be big mismatches in the lower classes regardless. California won the WPIAL Class 1A championship in 2019, but will be bumped up to Class 2A next season. The Trojans won nine games by at least 10 runs a season ago, including five by at least 15.
“[The pitching is] depleted regardless of how you do it for some schools because you just don’t have those numbers,” Pasquale said. “That gets into another thing, 10-run and 15-run games, because you don’t want to run up the score on anybody.”
The WPIAL should have section opponents play one another three times a season, Mt. Lebanon
coach Pat McCloskey said. Like the majority of sections, Mt. Lebanon (Class 6A Section 2) competes in a section consisting of six teams, meaning each team has 10 section games and can schedule up to 10 non-section games.
“This is definitely an improvement, just disappointing that we’ll be playing two instead of three,” said McCloskey. “Only half of our games counts towards our section record. That’s the only disappointment. The format is better. In a 10-game season, there’s no time to balance it out. If you have a chance to win a game, each win is gold because all six teams are really good.”
While the WPIAL decided to go ahead with the section game rule change, it voted against a proposal that would have had teams play a best-of-three series in the semifinals and championship of the WPIAL playoffs. It’s a change some coaches hope is made down the road.
“I wish they would have continued in the playoffs to have a best-of-three,” said West Allegheny coach Bryan Cornell. “They’re sending the wrong message, that [back-to-back games are] good for the section, but not for the playoffs. I understand why. If you do a threegame series, you have to have two more games per round with umpires and officials. But I think it would be good to do.”
McCloskey added: “We’d like to see playoffs move to a best-ofthree. Baseball is not a one-game scenario. Moving it this way is a step in the right direction.”
Another significant change made when the WPIAL board of
directors met last week had to do with the new section alignments that will be used for the next two seasons. The biggest change-up can be found in Class 6A, which will now only have 12 teams after having 18 in the most-recent twoyear cycle. A school’s enrollment determines its classification.
While Class 6A will shrink considerably, Class 5A will grow from 19 to 25 teams. That number includes the six teams that dropped from Class 6A — Bethel Park, Connellsville, Latrobe, Penn-Trafford, Peters Township and Plum. Class 5A also includes the likes of Franklin Regional, Mars, Moon, Shaler and West Allegheny.
“I thought 5A was already extremely competitive last year. Having some of those [6A] teams move down will make it more exciting and more fun. You want to beat the best,” Sadler said.
Class 3A has 23 teams, but one of its four sections is the smallest in the WPIAL, as it has only five teams. Some strong teams, too. Steel Valley reached the WPIAL final in 2019, Avonworth in 2018 and South Park in 2017. Keystone Oaks advanced to the semifinals in 2019.
Having five teams in a section means that at least 80% of the teams will make the playoffs, and perhaps all of them if there are ties. The top four teams in each section will qualify for the postseason in every class.
The landscape will be different and the big rule change will throw a curveball into game plans, but when it comes down to it, there is still one constant — playing the game.
“It’s still the same for everybody,” Cornell said, “and once you get to the playoffs, anything can happen.”