Pitchers Luke Deschenes and Noah Gyauch-Quirk had very different 2021 seasons.
As a junior at Emmaus, Deschenes emerged as a staff ace and pitched several key games for the Green Hornets en route to Eastern Pennsylvania Conference and District 11 championships and the second round of the PIAA tournament.
As a freshman at Liberty, Gyauch-Quirk didn’t pitch at all on the Hurricanes varsity, and didn’t really make an impression on the coaching staff until the fall.
The biggest noise Gyauch-Quirk made was as a hitter, winning the Allentown Major League Baseball Junior Home Run Derby that earned him a trip to national competition at the World Series.
Despite different levels of expectations entering the 2022 season, Deschenes and Gyauch-Quirk put in the hard work in the months leading into the spring to get ready.
Both delivered in a big way.
Deschenes was a key figure in leading Emmaus to its second straight Eastern Pennsylvania Conference crown and Gyauch-Quirk carved out one of the most amazing seasons any sophomore pitcher has ever delivered in leading the Hurricanes to the District 11 6A title and then added two more wins in the PIAA tournament.
The savvy senior and the super sophomore who led their teams to championships on the mound are The Morning Call’s co-pitchers of the year for the 2022 scholastic baseball season.
The Seton Hill-bound Deschenes posted a record of 12-1 with a 1.15 ERA and 98 strikeouts in 73? innings. Opponents batted just .195 against him.
Gyauch-Quirk went 8-1 with a 0.28 ERA and had three saves. He went 44? innings until he gave up an earned run and finished with 72 strikeouts and just 11 walks and 26 hits allowed in 50? innings.
Both Deschenes and Gyauch-Quirk were also excellent hitters. Deschenes hit .288 with nine extra-base hits, including four home runs, and 15 RBIs. Gyauch-Quirk hit .392 with 16 RBIs.
Here’s a look at the two special players:
Luke Deschenes
Emmaus head coach Jeremy Haas remembered Deschenes as a freshman in 2019 who needed some work.
“He wasn’t overly strong or extremely built up,” Haas said. “He was also probably two inches shorter than he is now and while he had clean mechanics, he wasn’t anything remarkable. He had good stuff and rhythm, but more importantly he had that ‘want to’ and love for the game that all coaches want to see. But as a freshman he only got some innings on the JV team.”
From there, however, Deschenes blossomed.
“He took it upon himself to transform his body,” Haas said. “He started lifting a lot and got a ton stronger. He got a few inches taller and got his body where it needed to be. He increased his velocity and turned into one of the best high school pitchers I’ve ever seen. To me. it’s a remarkable story of perseverance, work-ethic and drive.”
Haas still has the charts from 2019 and said Deschenes’ fastball topped out at 70 miles per hour during the tryouts as a freshman. Now he has improved to the point where he throws consistently in the mid-80s and sometimes higher.
“His growth over four years was remarkable,” Haas said. “And not just physically. Mentally, he went from a guy that just wanted to pitch to a pitcher capable of making adjustments. He sees things that most other high school pitchers don’t see. In a sense, he’s a pitching coach for himself and an extension of what we’re trying to do as a staff.”
As an example of his ability to adjust, Haas said Deschenes was having trouble finishing games early this season and was primarily a fastball/slider pitcher.
In a memorable May 1 game against Parkland at Coca-Cola Park, Deschenes reached his pitch limit one batter shy of finishing off what proved to be a 3-2 Green Hornets win.
“He said to me that we need to come up with something that will get out lefties with soft contact so he could reduce the number of pitches and finish games,” Haas said. “So, over the next two weeks he developed a cutter and a sinker. He went almost exclusively to those two pitches and that allowed him to get two complete-game wins for us in the playoffs. It was remarkable what he did for us all with a midseason adjustment.”
Deschenes went the distance in beating Nazareth 3-1 in the district semis and then scattered seven hits and struck out nine in a 1-0 win over District 1 champ Owen J. Roberts in the first round of the state tournament.
Haas is predicting success for the righthander in college.
“He’s willing to work hard and has such a good understanding of how to pitch a game,” Haas said. “He knows what he needs to do to get his body ready. He understands himself. He just gets it.”
Deschenes felt he proved himself as a junior in 2021 and took it up a notch this spring.
“Last year, I showed what I was capable of and this year was more about what I could do for others,” he said. “I tried to give back and be more of a role model for the younger guys on my team. I wanted to be a good leader and show guys that hard work gets you results more often than not.”
He would like to see others work hard to get themselves in good shape.
“The recommendation I have for younger guys is get your body in shape and get bigger and stronger … eat well,” he said. “Make sure you’re physically ready to be better than everyone else. I think all of our guys put in the hard work needed to get what we wanted out of our season. No one will look back at 2022 with a sour taste in our mouths.”
Noah Gyauch-Quirk
Liberty coach Andy Pitsilos noticed Gyauch-Quirk during fall workouts.
“He came from nowhere,” Pitsilos said. “It was like wow. He was not only throwing well, but he was hitting spots with three different pitches. Then he went on to play basketball and after he came back to us, he had probably gained three miles an hour on his fastball.”
But despite signs of vast improvement, no one could have expected the season Gyauch-Quirk put together. He had a variety of impressive stats, but one stood out to Pitsilos.
“He was our closer and what was so impressive is that he had eight inherited runners as a reliever and none of them scored,” Pitsilos said. “That’s an amazing stat.”
Gyauch-Quirk may have caught many opponents by surprise this season, but the expectation bar will be several notches higher next year. Pitsilos said he expects his soft-spoken, hard-throwing righthander to be able to handle a brighter spotlight.
“We always talk about simplifying everything,” Pitsilos said. “Just make the next pitch. If the ball goes 400 feet, who cares? Just make the next pitch. All you can do is control your attitude and what you do next. It’s a difficult thing for a young kid to be able to simplify it. But Noah’s a very cerebral kid and he can compartmentalize what just happened and move on to what he needs to do next. We try to calm everybody down and he’s able to do it well.”
Pitsilos gives catcher Reese D’Amico credit for working well with all of the Liberty pitchers, especially Gyauch-Quirk.
“Reese is the first catcher in 20 years for me as coach to call pitches,” Pitsilos said. “Reese is good at it, and wanted to do it and when your team ERA is 1.47 through a 29-game season a lot of that has to do with your catcher getting good pitches for his pitchers. He played a big role and he did a good job of calming our pitchers down.”
Gyauch-Quirk didn’t flinch in the postseason spotlight. Used as a reliever all season, he got to start for the first time in the first round of the state playoffs against Manheim Township. He went the distance in a riveting 1-0 victory that featured numerous escapes that displayed the 15-year-old’s poise under pressure.
He followed that up with the 4-2 win over Hazleton in the state semifinals, bouncing back from giving up his first two earned runs of the season to silence a lineup stocked with Division I talent.
“It was a huge year of growth for me trying to adjust to the varsity level,” he said. “I was thankful to have the opportunity to pitch a lot and also get in there and hit, too.”
Asked about the secret to handling the pressure, he said: “I just tried to stay focused on myself and took deep breaths. I really get that from my mother. She’s the one who taught me and helped me adjust to this new type of baseball.”
Gyauch-Quirk throws as hard as anyone in local scholastic baseball, routinely reaching the high 80s on the radar gun and occasionally touching the low 90s. He already has been plans for 2023.
“I’m trying to work on my curveball and changeup over the summer,” he said. “Losing that last game in the state finals will give us a ton of motivation going into next year. We got where we wanted to be, but it didn’t end the way we wanted it to end. I also want to improve my leadership skills. I see where I could be on this team and I would love to guide them on another state run.”
PAST PITCHERS OF THE YEAR
2021: Carter Welch, NW Lehigh
2019: Evan Zwolenik, Northampton
2018: Adam Smith, Parkland
2017: Michael Jenkins, Parkland
2016: John Yocum, Freedom
2015: Connor Higgins, Parkland
2014: Paul Roth, Notre Dame-GP
2013: Tyler Duff, Parkland
2012: Jimmy McCarthy, Liberty
2011: Karl Keglovits, Nazareth
2010: Pat Kregeloh, Pleasant Valley
2009: Andrew Kulp, Parkland
2008: Joe Candelmo, Parkland
2007: Kevin Mihalik, Parkland
2006: Adam Maini, Emmaus
2005: Steve Prazenka, Emmaus
2004: Sean Heimpel, Liberty
2003: Joel Hockman, Easton
2002: None selected
2001: None selected
2000: Christian Fretz, Emmaus
1999: None selected
1998: None selected
1997: John Stefens, Emmaus
1996: Mike Palos, Bethlehem Catholic
1995: None selected
1994: Nolan Fry, Nazareth
