WEXFORD — After coming into the WPIAL Class 4A playoffs as the No. 8 seed and finishing second in its respective section, Central Valley ran into a buzzsaw of pitchers Wednesday night as the Warriors fell to Indiana 4-1 in the first round at North Allegheny High School.
“You have two guys that are throwing in the 90s, it makes it pretty tough,” Central Valley head coach Tim Bruzdewicz said following Central Valley’s loss. “That's just part of the game of baseball. You are going to face some adversity in life and lose some games but you have to move on. Unfortunately, this is a finality because this game was a one-and-done game, but that team [Indiana] you just have to tip your cap to them, they were the better team tonight and there is no question about that.”
The Warriors ran into a gauntlet of pitchers Monday night which included right-handed junior Greg Minnick who recently committed to Texas Tech University and senior Quinnipiac commit Ben Ryan.
Minnick whose fastball sits in the low 90s went five full innings striking out 10 batters while walking two and only allowing two hits in the victory for the Indians. He pitched three mistake-free frames while also setting down eight batters looking.
With a young roster, which has just four seniors and three of them inserted into the starting lineup, facing that type of competition in the box was something that that young group had not seen before.
“We are starting three freshmen and five sophomores,” Bruzdewicz said. “They haven’t seen anything like this before. We have some good pitchers in our section but today, that was on a whole other level. This team [Indiana] does not hit great but with the arms that they have and the defense that they play, they have enough to win games in the postseason. We were trying to keep the game close by trying to elongate the game and hopefully, somebody would make a mistake, but it just didn’t happen. When their first guy [Minnick] was starting to throw his curveball for strikes, and he’s throwing the speed that he is throwing at, it makes it tough. I think that they [Indiana] are going to keep on doing damage in the postseason with the weapons that they have.”
On the other side of the plate, senior Zach McLean was roughed up in his outing for Central Valley as he went six innings allowing four runs with three being earned, walking two while fanning seven batters.
Bruzdewicz pointed to McLean’s lack of command of his off-speed pitches as one of the reasons why the senior struggled in his final outing in his high school career.
“This was probably one of his worst outings of the command of his slider,” Bruzdewicz said. “We knew if he had his slider working, it would have been a tough game for them [Indiana] and we were hoping for it to be a 1-0 game to where we could bunt a runner over. But he didn’t have his best stuff today and you could tell that he didn’t when he couldn’t finish hitters and if he has two strikes, he could get hitters out someway. I told him during the game that a pitcher only has his best stuff once out of 10 starts and now you have to figure out how to battle and he did that tonight.”
With as young of a roster as Central Valley has, many expected this team to be on the outside looking in at the beginning of the season due to the youthfulness that the roster has.
But having the opportunity to experience what the team did tonight, was invaluable to Bruzdewicz’s group who looks to use this season as a building block to a deep run in the playoffs next season.
“Our leadoff hitter is 14-years old,” Bruzdewicz said. “It means a ton to be able to experience the playoffs this season. Besides facing the great pitching that we did, we got to practice for an extra 10-15 days because we were a playoff team. All of these younger kids have bought in, I think that this program has really turned the corner over the past several years, and now with what we have returning next season, we are just going to keep on working. Our cornerstone pieces are not just back for next year, but the next two seasons so we have some things to work with all around the diamond.”
Central Valley’s season might have come to a close Wednesday night, but it has a lot to look forward to in the years to come with the returning crop of players the Warriors have for next season.
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