A classic matchup: North Allegheny vs. La Salle
Twelve PIAA championship baseball and softball games will be contested Thursday and Friday at Penn State, and the final game of the dozen is the Class 6A baseball championship.
Considering the pedigree of the teams involved, this could be the granddaddy of them all.
La Salle College High School from the Philadelphia Catholic League has been one of the top baseball programs in Eastern Pennsylvania over the past decade and has a team this year with a potent hitting attack.
North Allegheny has been one of the top programs in Western Pennsylvania for the past few decades and has a team this year with an awesome pitching staff. The two teams meet Friday at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park in what could be considered a classic championship matchup.
First, the history. North Allegheny is making its sixth championship appearance, which ties for the most of any team in the state. This year marked North Allegheny’s 20th time in the PIAA playoffs and the Tigers have two PIAA titles (1996 and 2007).
Since the Philadelphia Catholic League joined the PIAA in 2008, La Salle has represented the City of Brotherly Love quite well. This is La Salle’s sixth time in the PIAA playoffs since 2012 and the Explorers have won two state championships (2004 and 2012).
Now, for this year’s teams. North Allegheny (233) features a number of talented players, including shortstop Cole Young, who committed to Duke as a freshman. Young is considered one of the top juniors in Pennsylvania.
Young is outstanding defensively and is hitting .441. Senior first baseman Danny Gallon leads the team in hitting at .486 with 31 RBIs, and Gallon has been tremendous
Notebook
in the postseason. In six WPIAL and PIAA games, Gallon is hitting .722 (13 for 18). North Allegheny also has sophomore second baseman Spencer Barnett, who is hitting .380 with 31 RBIs.
North Allegheny will pitch Kyle Demi, a Pitt recruit who has had a dominating senior season. Demi pitched 1⅔ innings in the semifinals against SpringFord and should be at full strength for La Salle. He has a 9-0 record, a 0.60 ERA and 80 strikeouts in 46⅓ innings.
But Demi will face a La Salle team that has a .363 batting average and scored 14 and 21 runs in two PIAA playoff games. But La Salle (25-3) won Monday’s semifinal game against North Penn by only 2-0.
Mason Sermarini leads La Salle with a .556 batting average and Jephson Hadson-Taylor is hitting .442. Sermarini, Jake Whitlinger and pitcher Kevin Kell were all first-team all-Philadelphia Catholic League selections.
Kell will most likely be the starting pitcher against North Allegheny. Kell is a 6foot- 2, 205- pound righthander who has a 7-1 record, a 1.77 ERA and 59 strikeouts in 35⅔ innings.
Here is a look at three other PIAA title games involving WPIAL teams:
New Castle vs. Wyoming Area
New Castle’s basketball team has been known to draw huge throngs of fans. Now huge throngs of New Castle faithful are coming out for the baseball team.
New Castle won its first baseball championship in school history this year, and now the Red Hurricanes have made it to the state title game for the first time. New Castle (17-9) will face Wyoming Area (15-6) for the Class 4A championship at 1:30 Friday at Penn State.
“This is one of the most historic New Castle stories that I’ve heard of,” said Rocco Bernadina, a senior pitcher-first baseman for
New Castle. “Making history, doing it one step at a time, and now we’ve got one final step. We just have to reach up and grab the handle of victory.”
For Monday’s semifinal game against Montour, a crowd of around 2,000 was on hand at Neshannock — and most of them were New Castle fans.
“Listen, these fans are from all age groups, from little kids to elderly,” New Castle coach Bill Cook said. “I even had my aunt (at the semifinals). She’s 89 years old and she was sitting in her chair near the backstop. She said she wouldn’t miss it for the world. You see things like that, and see the joy this brings to many people, especially after COVID-19, and it really is special.”
While this is only the second year that New Castle ever made the PIAA tournament, this is the first time for Wyoming Area. New Castle will start Bernadina, an imposing 6-5 right-hander and a Kent State recruit. Bernadina has four postseason starts and has allowed only 16 hits in 26 innings and struck out 37 in those games. He’ll face a Wyoming Area team that has only a .270 team batting average. Wyoming Area scored four runs with two outs in the bottom of the seventh to beat Bonner-Prendergast, 5-4, in the semifinals. Wyoming Area
had only two hits in the game.
“I live for games like this,” Bernadina said.
Shenango vs. Schuylkill Haven
Shenango and New Castle are both from Lawrence County — and both are playing for a state championship for the first time. Shenango (23-2) will play Schuylkill Haven (24-3) for the Class 2A title at 10:30 a.m. Friday.
The game provides an interesting coaching matchup. Shenango coach Larry Kelly is age 67, but was never a high school head coach until this season. Schuylkill Haven has an elder statesman in Scott Buffington, who is in his 44th year as coach and has Schuylkill Haven’s field named after him. He has 641 wins. Schuylkill Haven lost twice in championship games — to WPIAL teams. In 1982, Schuylkill Haven lost to Riverview and then to Greensburg Central Catholic in 2002.
Schuylkill Haven features pitcher Mason Ulsh, a Quinnipiac recruit. But Ulsh pitched 5⅓ innings in Monday’s semifinals, and it will be interesting to see if he starts the title game on only three days rest.
Eden Christian vs. Halifax
Eden Christian (20-5) lost in the WPIAL semifinals,
but has stormed back to make the PIAA Class 1A championship. It is quite an achievement for Eden Christian, a tiny school that has the seventh-smallest enrollment in WPIAL baseball. Eden Christian plays Halifax for the Class 1A championship at 10:30 a.m. Thursday.
Offense has been a main reason Eden Christian (20-5) has made it this far. After losing to Union, 12-1, in the WPIAL semifinals, Eden Christian scored 9, 8, 12 and 8 runs in the next four postseason games. Senior Luke Vittone leads the team with a .455 batting average.
Eden Christian will face a Halifax team that has only a 14-11 record and has won its past two PIAA games by one run (4-3 and 2-1). Halifax has a team batting average of only .292, but senior Ryan Stahl is hitting .481. Judah Miller has a 7-2 record for Halifax, but he pitched all seven innings in the semifinals against Juniata Valley.
This is Eden Christian’s first championship appearance while Halifax made the Class 2A title game in 2005 before losing to Riverside of the WPIAL, 3-2. In the game, Riverside’s Curtis Brown threw the first no-hitter in PIAA championship history.