Batter up
Five of eight area baseball teams begin playoffs Monday
When the WPIAL released its baseball playoff pairings on Friday, Carmichaels coach Dickie Krause immediately took note of the schedule and when his team would play.
“We were a little surprised that it was Monday,” Krause said. “We expected no earlier than Tuesday. That’s pretty tight because that doesn’t give you a lot of time over the weekend when you’re scouting and trying to get ready for a new opponent.”
Carmichaels is one of five area teams, along with Jefferson-Morgan, California, Frazier and Belle Vernon, who are slated to open the postseason on Monday.
Three more – Connellsville, Waynesburg Central and Mount Pleasant – get underway on Tuesday.
The Rockets (11-8) and Mikes (8-8) were seeded seventh and eighth, respectively, in the Class A bracket and play a doubleheader at Washington & Jefferson’s Ross Memorial Park. Carmichaels faces No. 9 Sewickley Academy (8-9) at 4 p.m. and J-M takes on No. 10 Union (6-10) at 6:30 p.m.
This will be the final playoff appearance for Rockets coach John Curtis who is stepping down after 42 years at the helm.
When asked how he’s approaching this last postseason, Curtis said, “That’s a tough question. It’s something I try not to think about, like, well this is my last time in the playoffs, this is last home game, last this or that.
“It’s in the back of my mind but I’ll think about it more when it’s all said and done. It went fast, I’ll say that.”
The Class A seedings fell about where Curtis thought they would with top eight in order being Eden Christian, Greensburg Central Catholic, Serra Catholic, Western Beaver, Leechburg, Avella and then Jefferson-Morgan and Carmichaels.
“I always kind of do a pre-bracket of my own, and Avella, us and Carmichaels, we’re pretty much where I thought we would be, six, seven and eight,” Curtis said. “The top four, I had Eden two and GCC one for the simple reason GCC was 15-0. I know Eden has a lot of history and they were pretty good.
“Regardless, you’ve got to take them one at a time, try to win and move on.”
The Rockets, who have won 10 of their last 12, finished third in Section 1 behind GCC and Avella with Carmichaels fourth.
“We got kind of a late start, practice-wise, with a lot of them because of the great success of our basketball team but that was a good thing for the school,” said Curtis, whose teams have had a knack for getting better as the season has gone along through his career. “We make a few adjustments and continue to do what we do and the kids seem to respond to that. So we usually see our hitting, pitching and defense get much better as the season goes on.”
Getting a scouting report on opposing teams is usually easier nowadays with much available online, but Curtis had trouble digging up information on the Scotties.
“Union is hard to gauge because they didn’t have anything on MaxPreps,” Curts said. “I’ve had a couple people I know help me out so we have a little bit of info but not a whole lot. All of our stuff is out there.”
J-M ace John Woodward will likely be the starting pitcher against the Scotties.
“You have to win the first one so I’d say it’s a pretty good bet,” Curtis said. “The games are a little more spread out than usual. There’s only 12 teams.”
Krause has had plenty of playoff success recently, including guiding the Mikes to the WPIAL final where it fell to Serra last year, but not as much was expected from his youthful 2026 squad.
“We’re thrilled to be back in the playoffs. I’m really happy for the kids,” Krause. “To get into the playoffs was a goal at the beginning of the season. We went 7-5 in the section which I was pleased with.
“The last two years have been successful but we turned over so many players, eight seniors from last year and six the year before, so that’s 14 kids out of your program in two seasons. In Class A that’s a big hit, one we haven’t had before. This year we only have three seniors and one is a first-year player.”
As he expected, Carmichaels had its ups and downs this season.
“We were typical of a young team,” Krause said. “One day we would go out and play a great game and have a nice win, then the next game we wouldn’t play nearly as well. Like Avella, we played a nice, solid game and won at their place and the next day we looked about as bad as we could look, miscommunicated, dropped a pop up on the mound that was a big play in that game and made a bunch of mistakes.
“We came on at the end, won four of our last five games, so we’re getting better and all signs are looking positive about next year when we get most of these kids back. The kids are excited about being there and we’re looking forward to Monday. This is one of the hardest working teams I’ve ever had and they’re good kids.”
As for Sewickley, Krause said, “They have a similar record and played in a section with (Bishop) Canevin, Eden and Serra and all of those teams we’ve played in the playoffs the last three or four years so we know how competitive that section is.”
While playing Monday was a surprise, Krause is happy with the site.
“W&J is a beautiful facility so we’re looking forward to playing there,” Krause said.
In Class 2A on Monday, No. 8 California plays No. 9 Freedom in a 4 p.m. game at Peterswood Park and No. 13 Frazier goes up against No. 4 Riverview, 6:30 p.m. at West Mifflin.
Trojans first-year coach Jason Rechichar felt his team would be seeded a bit higher.
“I honestly thought we would be somewhere between five and seven, with our record being 14-6 overall and 10-2 in the section,” said Rechichar, whose squad finished second behind top-seeded Fort Cherry in Section 1. “I felt we’d get a better seed than what we got, looking at say Apollo-Ridge, which had five section wins and eight overall and was put above us. It was frustrating.
“We lost some non-section games to good, bigger schools, like Belle Vernon and South Park and Ringgold, that were playoff teams. That’s who I wanted to play in the regular season to make our team better but I guess they didn’t take that into account.”
Rechichar did agree with the Rangers being placed at the top of the seedings
“Fort Cherry is a very good baseball team and I’m not surprised they were No. 1,” Rechichar said. “What did surprise me was I felt like they didn’t give the rest of our section the respect it was due.”
Rechichar has done a bit of scouting on Freedom.
“I know they’re a contact hitting team and they have two pretty good pitchers,” he said.
Rechichar took over as California’s coach after Taylor Andrisko left the Trojans to coach Belle Vernon, but he was part of the program.
“I was the middle school coach for three years here prior to taking this job, so the transition was really smooth,” Rechichar said. “I knew most of the kids, obviously, having coached them before. It was pretty seamless.”
He has a four-man coaching staff behind him including former Brownsville coach Skooter Roebuck, who has a WPIAL title on his resume.
“Skooter coached me in high school,” Rechichar pointed out. “Also I have PJ Ross, Chris Daniels and Trent Wible.”
Rechichar feels his players are ready for the postseason.
“They’re excited to be in the playoffs and we feel confident,” Rechichar said. “We were literally one out away from beating Fort Cherry the second time we played them and a kid hit a home run in the seventh inning to tie it and we wound up losing. I’ve told them you guys can beat anybody if you bring your ‘A’ game.”
Andrisko took the reins of a Leopards team that reached the Class 4A semifinals last year under Tony Watson. Belle Vernon (14-5), which tied with West Mifflin for second in Section 2, is the fifth seed and plays No. 12 Hampton, 6:30 p.m. at Gateway on Monday.
“We’re very satisfied with the five seed,” said Andrisko, who led California to the WPIAL final three years ago. “I think had we won at home against West Mifflin last week we may have been a spot or two better. I think the committee did a great job this year and the playoffs are going to be competitive in every round.”
Andrisko is wary of the Talbots.
“We know that Section 1 is very competitive top to bottom and has some very good teams,” he said. “Hampton has had some very impressive wins this season so we know they’re battle-tested out of that section. They also have some impressive non-conference wins.
“They certainly don’t appear to be a 12 seed to be slept on. That speaks to the entire 4A bracket. Every team in the field is competitive and has a guy on the mound that they trust, and that makes anyone dangerous on any given day.”
Waynesburg is the 16th and last seed in Class 3A but owns a win over No. 2 Seton LaSalle. The Raiders (7-12) placed fourth in Section 4.
“We weren’t surprised with where we landed,” Waynesburg coach Perry Cunningham said. “Ultimately, if we wanted a better seed, we should’ve played better in both the section and our non-section schedules.
“With that being said, we feel our non-section has prepared us for the postseason. We scrimmaged and played five playoff teams, four of which are 4A as well as Avella, plus Trinity. We didn’t play very clean in most of those games, but I still felt the speed of those teams and pressure they put on us will help us.”
The win over the Rebels gives his players hope against top-seeded Avonworth. The two will meet in a 6:30 p.m. game on Tuesday at Ross Memorial Park in the second game of a doubleheader. No. 8 Mount Pleasant (12-8) faces No. 9 Charleroi in the first game at 4 p.m.
“We talked to our kids about the reality of our Seton LaSalle win and if we can beat the No. 2 team, why can’t we beat the No. 1 team?” Cunningham said. “Certainly it’s going to be a challenge and we’ll have to play clean baseball just as we did against Seton LaSalle, but that win should be a reminder that we can play a solid game, and, hopefully, our kids bring that confidence.
“Also, this is a different feeling for us this year. Last year’s team had expectations and there was a certain level of pressure that came along with those. This group doesn’t have any pressure, especially as the No. 16 seed.”
Like Waynesburg, Connellsville (9-11) is a No. 16 seed and faces top-seeded Pine-Richland on Tuesday in a 6:30 p.m. game at Gateway.