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Mt. Lebanon seeking third straight WPIAL baseball title

By Eleanor Bailey 4 min read
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David Shields unleashes a pitch to the plate during Mt. Lebanon's 6-0 win against Baldwin. In a five-inning stint, Shields struck out 12 batters.

The WPIAL baseball playoffs commence May 13 and Mt. Lebanon will be seeking its third Class 6A title in three years.

The task won’t be easy. Winning never is.

“Winning is relentless. It demands everything from you all the time,” said Lebo manager Patt McCloskey. “The minute you are not willing to pay the price every day that winning demands, then winning will go and find some other team that will pay that price.”

This spring, the Blue Devils have footed the bill and as a result they head into the tournament as one of the top-seeded teams with a 16-4 overall record. They have also claimed the Section 2 banner with a 13-2 slate.

Their lone defeats have been an exhibition against Shaler, which is the defending WPIAL and PIAA champion in Class 5A, and an extra-inning decision on May 6 against Chartiers Valley as well as section clashes with Canon-McMillan and Central Catholic.

“We had to catch some big breaks to win some really tight games, especially in the Canon-Mac and Central series,” McCloskey said. “We started to do some things better during the second half of the year, but we still need to continue to improve each day in order to win in the playoffs.

“Our goal is to continue to get better each day,” he continued. “The hope is we play our best in the playoffs.”

Having suffered a severe bout of mononucleosis in the early spring, David Shields is still rounding into the shape that has made him a prospective high-round pick in the upcoming MLB amateur draft. He is already committed to the University of Miami.

In the section finale, a 6-0 win against Baldwin on May 2, Shields was in top form. In front of dozens of scouts, the 6-2, 200-pound southpaw struck out 12 batters in five frames of work.

This spring, Shields is 4-0 overall with a 0.10 ERA. In 21 innings, he has struck out 41 batters, scattered seven hits and walked three.

“David continues to build himself up from what he lost when he had mono. His endurance and strength have been getting better with each start,” McCloskey noted.

Regarding the influence of the scouts, McCloskey added, “David is absolutely unfazed by all of the pressure. I can’t imagine being 17 years old, and there’s 50 scouts crammed behind our backstop at Seymour Field. He is the most emotionally mature player I have had the pleasure to coach.”

As a freshman, Graham Keen has exhibited a maturity beyond his years, too. He is 5-0 on the mound with 38 strikeouts and a 1.86 ERA. As the team’s clean-up hitter, Keen is batting .455 with six home runs and four doubles. He’s walked 10 times. Keen leads Lebo with 23 RBI and 14 runs scored.

Additionally, the Blue Devils have a strong arm in Nolan Smith. He is 4-1 with two saves. He has 27 strikeouts and a 2.16 ERA.

A catcher when not on the mound, Smith is one of several veterans from last year’s squad that not only won the district title but finished runner-up in the state. Among the others are Jake Tinnemeyer, Nate Girod and Brett Hamel, which gives the Blue Devils a solid infielder to complement an outfield that includes Sawyer Klasnick, Weston Airey and Luca Borris. The latter trio also add depth to the pitching staff

Additionally, the Blue Devils rely upon Frank Taucher, Danny Clevenger, Caleb Weidman, Chase Smith, Joe Wowczuk, Colin McBane, Dane Barber, Ben Kraemer, Matt Manning, Maddox Yost and Sam Bochkoris.

“We have some depth on the mound, and we have a lot of older players who have been in this environment before,” McCloskey said. “Those should be our strengths heading into the playoffs.”

With eight teams qualifying for the Class 6A playoffs, Mt. Lebanon has already advanced to the quarterfinals. The Blue Devils will face Butler, which finished fourth in Section 1 behind Pine-Richland, North Allegheny and Seneca Valley, when the postseason commences May 20.

“Everyone from the north is really good, and all of the other teams that qualified in our section are very good,” explained McCloskey. “Each presents a really challenging matchup for us if we were to meet up in the playoffs.”

That fact makes a one-and-done tournament the biggest concern for coaches. McCloskey is reminding his players of the 2021 postseason rather than the previous two that produced championships after rough starts of 0-8. The Blue Devils lost that year to Butler.

“They have two dominant pitchers and a couple of really good hitters,” McCloskey said. “They are exceptionally well coached as they blew us out of the water when we played them in the first round of the 2021 playoffs.”

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