Sports
USC Baseball Team Prepares For Playoff Opener Tuesday
USC looks to build on last year's run all the way to the WPIAL semi-finals as their playoff season begins Tuesday against Plum.
It's been a strange year for WPIAL baseball. Weather has been a major factor and is expected to continue to harass baseball schedules.
"It's hard for anybody to be consistent. I think they handled it well," USC manager Jerry Malarkey said.
Coach Malarkey made sure to give his team the occasional day off from hitting in the batting cages during the days games were rained out. He said you really need live pitching and the batting cages cannot provide that.
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Hitting is the strength of this baseball team. Rainouts didn't affect the hitting stroke of many of the Panther players. Mike Wilcox led the team in hitting with a .490 batting average. Zach Tobias followed with a .457 average and Matt Garbin, who led the team in home-runs with five, contributed a superb .441 average with his power numbers.
The WPIAL coaches pick an all-star team, and Erik Woistman was selected from the Panthers. Woistman had a .385 average leading the team with 19 RBI's and adding 3 home-runs as well.
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USC averages more than 10 runs a game and that will have to continue if they hope to advance further than last year's WPIAL playoff run. Last season ended in the semi-finals with a loss to Pine-Richland. Like last year, you need to advance to the championship game to reach the PIAA playoffs.
"When our team fires on all cylinders, we're tough to beat," said coach Malarkey.
He has yet to determine who his starter will be Tuesday at Woodland Hills High School when the WPIAL playoffs begin. They will be playing a tough Plum squad who is 13-4 overall and 10-2 in the conference compared to USC's 10-6 overall record and 8-4 record in conference.
"I don't know much about Plum's team, it's more about what we do at this stage in the game," Malarkey said.
The playoffs tend to shrink your pitching staff a bit. USC will put one of their starters into the bullpen because there are only two games a week — if you keep winning and advance. Either Steve Gannon, Matt Fraudin or Mike Wilcox will be moved to the bullpen.
On the eve of their first playoff game, Malarkey has a tough decision on who will start against Plum. It all depends on his criteria. Gannon led the team with four wins and 30 strikeouts, but his ERA of 4.73 is the worst of the three pitching top guns.
Fraudin has the best ERA at 2.13 but less strikeouts than either Gannon or Wilcox. He has three wins on the year. Wilcox has two wins and a 3.23 ERA.
While the WPIAL coaches have selected their all-star team with Woistman the lone Panther, the All-Section and All-Area teams have yet to be picked by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. There may be a few more Panther names surfacing when those teams are announced.
Right now it's not about individual awards, it's about team goals. Getting the WPIAL championship game is the goal of the Panthers. That's the only way they will improve on last year's performance. That would also qualify them for states.
It all begins Tuesday at Woodland Hills at 4 p.m. against Plum and I hate to sound like a broken record, but that is certainly weather permitting. Good luck to the Panthers.
