Kadlecik talented vet on youthful Montour team

Montour’s Gannon Kadlecik could easily be referred to as “The Cannon.”

He’s got a Division I arm complete with a fastball that sometimes reaches the 90s.

He has belted some cannon shots as a hitter, too.

“He absolutely killed the ball,” Montour coach Bob Janeda said of a home run Kadlecik ripped against Central Valley.

But Kadlecik’s teammates simply call him “Caddy,” which, considering his helpful ways and leadership abilities as one of only two seniors who see playing time for the Spartans, is a nickname that suits him pretty well, too.

Gannon Kadlecik is a star pitcheroutfielder for a young Montour team that is ranked No. 3 in WPIAL Class 4A. The Spartans are 6-2 overall and 4-1 in Section 2. Kadlecik and Aiden DeLuca are the lone seniors in Montour’s lineup.

“He leads by example,” Janeda said. “He never takes a play off and works hard in practice. And that leads to success on the field.”

There has been quite a bit of that for Kadlecik, a two-sport standout at Montour who was an all-conference running back in football after rushing for 836 yards and nine touchdowns last fall.

Solidly built at 5 feet 11, 195 pounds, Kadlecik has been a starter in baseball since his freshman season, and was an all-section pick as a sophomore in 2019.

“I always loved football growing up, but I always thought baseball was

Baseball notebook

what I was going to do after high school,” Kadlecik said.

He was right. A left-handed pitcher who plays center field when he’s not pitching, Kadlecik will play baseball at Radford, a Division I school located in Virginia. And based on what Kadlecik has done on the field this spring, it makes sense as to why he has chosen to further pursue the sport.

Kadlecik is Montour’s best player, Janeda said. As the No. 3 hitter, he’s hitting .500 (10 for 20) with 2 home runs, 4 doubles and 7 RBIs. He has also scored 10 runs and has an onbase percentage of .655. On the mound, he’s 1-0 with a 0.91 ERA in two starts. He has given up just two hits in 7⅔ innings, while striking out 17 and walking 10.

“He’s a power guy with nice offspeed stuff,” said Janeda. “The comment I’ve made to him is, ‘If you throw strikes consistently, this league will not hit you. He can be a little erratic from time to time. He just needs to pound the strike zone. If he gets ahead in the count, they’re not going to hit him.”

Kadlecik is Montour’s No. 1 starting pitcher, and Janeda listed juniors Dylan Mathiesen and Mason Sike as “2a” and “2b.” Mathiesen tossed a nohitter and struck out 10 Tuesday in a big3-0 section win against previously top-ranked New Castle. Another junior, Matt Luchovick, is 2-0 and has a team-high 14 RBIs, including a 2-run homer against New Castle. Overall, the Spartans start 2 seniors, 5 juniors and 2 sophomores.

“We’re young, but we have a lot of talent,” Kadlecik said. “We’re coming together as a team.”

Plum

Plum was three outs away from being on the wrong end of a no-hitter Monday, but its offense came awake late to give the Mustangs a 5-4 win against a Mars team that is one of the best in Class 5A.

“It was impressive and really important for us,” Plum coach Carl Vollmer said of the triumph.

Mars right-hander Alex Heavner kept Plum in check through six hitless innings while striking out nine, but a high pitch count forced the Planets to go to their bullpen with the score tied, 1-1. That’s when Plum made its move. Colton Lowman’s sacrifice fly gave the Mustangs a 2-1 lead. Silvio Ionadi followed with an RBI single and Nate McMasters a two-run double to extend Plum’s advantage to 5-1. The Mustangs would need the insurance runs, too, as Teddy Ruffner hit a 3-run homer in the bottom of the seventh to bring the Planets within one.

Plum got a strong pitching performance of its own, as junior lefthander Colin Solinski tossed six innings, giving up five hits and one unearned run while striking out eight.

“And that was against a pretty good lineup,” Vollmer said. “We’ve seen some quality pitching to this point and we’ve found a way to battle through it.”

Plum beat Mars again Tuesday, this time 6-5. That improved the Mustangs, ranked No. 4 in Class 5A, to 4-1 overall and 4-0 in Section 2.

McMasters, a senior, has been Plum’s top hitter. He went 6 for 8 with four doubles in a doubleheader at Armstrong last week.