Upper St. Clair blossoms under Donati
Life is certainly coming up roses for Jeff Donati and not just because he’s a florist. He’s the manager of the Upper St. Clair High School baseball team, which completed its most successful season in more than three decades.
His Panthers captured the program’s second-ever WPIAL championship by edging South Fayette, 3-2, on May 28 at EQT Park in Washington, and on June 4 ended their 14-10 season on a loss to Dubois, 13-10, in the quarterfinals of the PIAA Class 5A tournament.
After getting off the bus from the trip to Dubois, Donati went to work. Still in his baseball uniform and after his brief work shift at Pete Donati & Sons Florists in Bethel Park, he returned to the high school to watch eight of his players participate in commencement exercises.
“None of my brides care about my baseball title. They don’t care about my season. So going back to work was a smack of reality,” Donati explained.
Donati loves the floral business as much as he does coaching. In fact, the occupation was a Godsend once he changed from being an education major to a business minor at Robert Morris University.
“I was going to be a teacher, but I figured I could do floral and coach,” Donati said.
For 32 years, Donati has balanced both jobs. In fact, in addition to coaching baseball, he has served as an assistant football coach at USC as well as Mt. Lebanon and Bethel Park, his alma mater.
“I don’t know if there is anyone in the country that does what I do. Be a florist and a coach,” Donati said. “It’s very unusual.”
Uncommon is the way Donati’s Panthers produced a championship season.
Their longest winning streak during the regular season was three followed by back-to-back losses. They needed a sweep of Chartiers Valley in the last games of section action to clinch a postseason berth.
Additionally, USC lost their pitching ace at the start of the season. Nolan Wilson, a sophomore who is already committed to West Virginia, suffered a strain in the elbow’s ulnar collateral ligament and was reduced to designated hitter duties for the season.
Donati had to shuffle his pitching staff. Max Dietrick went from last year’s relief pitcher to USC’s “go-to” guy and sophomore Grayson Valancius moved into the No. 2 slot.
“It took us nine games to get used to life without Nolan,” Donati said. “It was a very unusual season and we never put together a significant winning streak until the playoffs but we persevered.”
As the No. 12 seed the Panthers won four games in a row to win their first WPIAL title since 1992. USC knocked off No. 5 Plum, 16-5, and No. 4 Moon, 10-9, in the opening rounds of the Class 5A tournament. In the semifinals, they blew a 10-1 lead but outlasted Montour, 13-10, in eight innings before edging the Lions by one run in the District 7 final.
“Winning the WPIAL is the best,” Donati said. “There’s no feeling like it. Ultimately we wanted a state championship but this was special because I could see how happy the kids were and how they will remember this for the rest of their lives, especially when they come back and see that banner in the gym.”
Assured of a WPIAL championship ring, the Panthers embarked on PIAA play. After edging New Oxford, 3-2, in eight innings, USC ran out of gas in the quarterfinals of the tournament. The Panthers lost to Dubois, 13-10, on June 4 at First Commonwealth Field in Homer City.
In a game that USC trailed, 9-7, Dubois sealed the win with a four-run seventh. The Panthers did not quit though, scoring three in their half of the seventh before a great defensive play prevented Tanner Schroeck from hitting a home run.
“The ball missed leaving the yard by a foot-and-a-half and their kid made a great play,” Donati said. “It was a wild game. The players were resilient but that’s who they are. There is no quit in them. They truly thought they were going to make a run at a state championship but nothing went right for them.”
In the loss, Nico D’Orazio, Evan Smirniw and Finn Baird scored two runs each. Of their two hits each, Smirniw, Wilson and Connor Stutzman doubled.
Brooks York also collected two hits while Wilson drove in four runs. Valancius, who walked three times, Schroeck and Luke Marchinsky also had safeties against the Beavers.
“It’s tough to cite any one player’s performance because they all had big moments in the game. It’s the way that it’s been all playoff long. None of them had a playoff run that was bad,” Donati said.
Eight seniors graduated and are moving on from USC baseball to college.
D’Orazio will play football at Harvard. James Gardner, a long snapper, will play football at Robert Morris.
Baird will play at Walsh while his twin brother, Noah, will attend Bowling Green. Both schools are in Ohio.
Stutzman matriculates to Tulane while Marchinsky and Dietrick are off to Penn State in the fall.
Dom Cortes was the only other senior on the roster. He was a versatile player that could play in the outfield as well as the infield.
“Just phenomenal human beings,” Donati said of the Class of 26. “I never raised my voice or never had to say pick up a ball. They always did the right thing and they were good to one another.
“I’m not sure we played a team that wasn’t more talented and Vegas odds weren’t in our favor. No one thought we’d get there,” Donati added of the WPIAL finals. “Culture took over talent. That is why we won. That was the secret to our success.”
USC will rely on that motto in 2027 when the Panthers return a handful of starters including Wilson and Valancius as well as Yorks, a sophomore catcher, Austin Chambers, a freshman left fielder, and Logan Wyatt, a freshman pitcher.
“We will be a year older but we lose critical seniors,” Donati said. “It’s not cliche but we believe in culture over talent. It’s how we go about things and how my kids have acted. They believe in one another. They don’t get down when things go south.”
Donati added that he “hopes” USC’s success on the diamond continues and that the legacy left by the veterans will carry on through the seasons.
“We have a lot of younger kids, six maybe seven freshmen, and they learn from the older kids,” he said. “I know this has been my most enjoyable year of coaching, just being around these kids. All days have been awesome. Their energy. How they practice. I give them a lot of latitude and I have never had to revoke any privileges. So it wasn’t me.”
Perhaps not for after all Donati is only a florist and his preference is not roses.
“Peonies,” he said. “Maybe because it’s the season right now, but they are my favorites. They smell so good and come in so many colors and varieties.”