Brian Reed likely doesn’t have many starts on the mound left in his baseball career. When he begins playing for Point Park next season, he expects to be a catcher or first baseman.
But Reed was called upon to start Tuesday’s WPIAL Class 2A championship, and he was so effective that his future college might want to reconsider his future position.
Reed gave up just one run over 5⅓ innings and tied a season-high with 11 strikeouts to lead No. 2 Seton LaSalle to an 8-1 win against No. 1 and defending champion Serra Catholic at Wild Things Park.
It’s the second WPIAL title in five years and third overall for Seton LaSalle (17-4-1), which also beat Serra (19-3) in the 2019 championship and 2021 semifinals. Serra had won 13 games in a row and was seeking its fifth title.
It was not Seton LaSalle’s starting pitcher, but rather its opponent’s hurler that got most of the attention going into the game. Serra senior right-hander Zach Karp came in with a 10-1 record and his 33 career wins are tied for second most in WPIAL history. But it was Reed who outdueled Karp, handing him his second loss. Reed, a lefty, scattered four hits and walked four before being removed with one out in the sixth after reaching the 105 pitch limit.
“This is amazing,” said Reed, the starting first baseman in Seton LaSalle’s loss to Shenango in the 2021 WPIAL final. “I love this. I’m a senior. This means a lot. I’m just so grateful for this team.”
Reed said his slider and fastball were both working well Tuesday. He showed a little wildness early on, issuing two walks in the first and another in the second before ending that second by striking out the side.
“For him, it’s all about getting into that feel,” said first-year Seton LaSalle coach Brad Bestic, who guided Vincentian to a WPIAL title in 2019. “The first two innings, he had leadoff walks. Just getting ahead of batters and trusting the defense to make plays for him is what’s been really great. But he also has wipeout stuff and can make plays on his own on the mound. That certainly helps us, too. We’re never going to complain when he wants to attack it that way.”
Bestic didn’t complain about his team’s offensive performance, either. Serra had given up only three runs over its first two playoff games and the eight runs the Eagles surrendered Tuesday were a season high. All the offense Seton LaSalle ultimately needed came via a two-run third inning. Aric White led off the frame with a single. With one out, Nate Georgiana doubled home White, and Gio LoNero then followed with a run-scoring single to extend the lead to 2-0.
Serra notched its first hit on Mike Schanck’s leadoff single to start the fourth. With two outs and Schanck on second, Karp hit a ball that third baseman Mark Weber didn’t field cleanly, allowing Schanck to score to cut the Serra deficit to 2-1.
However, two innings later in the sixth, the wheels came off for Serra, which couldn’t find the strike zone in an inning that saw the Eagles walk six batters, go through four pitchers, and give up six runs. Three of those runs came on bases-loaded walks and another on a wild pitch.
Karp went 5 ⅓ innings, giving up five runs and eight hits while striking out three. Relievers Stephen Murray, Tyler Skaggs and Joe DeMoss combined to walk eight in 1⅔ innings.
“When you come into the game and you’ve done everything you possibly could have done to prepare for the game, you live with the results. You let the chips fall where they may,” said Serra coach Brian Dzurenda, who earlier this season earned his 400th career win. “We lost to these guys in 2019 in the WPIAL championship. It was 12-1. And then we beat them in the state semifinals and went to the state championship game. There’s a whole new tournament starting next week and we just got to put this behind us and move forward. Bottom line. It’s baseball.”
Georgiana, LoNero and White all went 2 for 3 for Seton LaSalle. Georgiana drove in two runs and scored twice. Schanck finished with two of Serra’s four hits.
Bestic was the recipient of a Gatorade shower afterward in what has been a refreshing season for the first-year coach. It has been quite a turnaround for Bestic, who last season didn’t win a game while the coach at St. Joseph.
“I’m not proud to say it, but we didn’t win a single game last year,” Bestic said. “We went 0-13, so this is very special.”
Brad is a sports writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at beverett@unionprogress.com.