After entering last year’s WPIAL playoffs as a No. 7 seed with eight losses on its resume, Avonworth had the luxury of flying under the radar prior to its epic postseason run.
My, how quickly things have changed.
Fast forward to 2025, and the big bad Antelopes won’t be catching anybody by surprise this time around. Despite playing with a massive target on their backs as the defending WPIAL Class 3A champion and PIAA runner-up, the Lopes have steamrolled the competition on their way to a 9-1 start through 10 games.
“We got a good early start down in Myrtle Beach, and that worked out really well for us,” said Avonworth coach Jeff Bywalski, the 2024 PUP baseball Coach of the Year. “We’re not sneaking up on anybody. People know who we are. That’s a good thing, too. There’s nothing wrong with that. As long as we just worry about us.”
Following a five-game trip to Myrtle Beach, S.C., to open the season at the Ripken Experience tournament, the Lopes returned home with four wins in their back pocket. Their only loss came in a 6-5 nail-biter against Greene County Tech, Ark., in their second game of the season on March 22. Avonworth followed that setback with an 8-4 win a day later against Amos Alonzo Stagg, Ill., then the Lopes mercy-ruled Calhoun Academy, S.C., 15-0, before finishing their trip with a 9-3 win against Sissonville, W.Va.
In WPIAL play, the Lopes (9-1, 4-0) have been virtually untouchable, posting four consecutive shutouts before a 15-4 rout against South Allegheny on Wednesday. In five games overall against WPIAL foes, they have outscored opponents by a combined score of 54-4.
“Our pitching has been pretty strong so far,” Bywalski said. “I think our offense has improved from last year overall. … We’re probably a little bit deeper this year with our pitching, and the great thing about our pitching is that they’re all juniors, so that sets us up even better for next year.”
With a trio of multisport stars each carrying championship pedigrees, Avonworth has an abundance of big-time talent at the top of its lineup. Junior pitcher-outfielder Cooper Scharding and senior catcher Mason Metz have starred for the Lopes in both football and baseball while winning WPIAL titles in both sports, and junior third baseman Jack Dolan recently helped Avonworth’s hockey team capture its first Penguins Cup title.
“In the last three or four years, this group of kids coming through — football, baseball, even basketball — they’ve been phenomenal athletically,” Bywalski said.
An all-section selection as a sophomore, Dolan is providing plenty of pop out of the cleanup spot, batting .667 with a home run, eight RBIs and 12 runs scored despite missing the first two games of the season. He is also showing some promise as a relief pitcher, bolstering the depth in the Lopes’ already-loaded bullpen.
Also a returning all-section pick, Scharding authored a performance for the ages by firing 7⅓ scoreless innings of relief against Riverside in last year’s 14-inning, 4-3 triumph in the WPIAL Class 3A final. He has cemented his place as one of the area’s top two-way players this spring, batting .457 out of the leadoff spot with 6 doubles, 4 home runs, 13 RBIs and 10 runs scored. On the mound, Scharding is 2-0 with a 1.62 ERA and 16 strikeouts in 13 innings pitched.
“The one thing we say about Cooper is, the bigger the game, the bigger he plays,” Bywalski said. “He has shown that from the time we got him as a freshman.”
As for Metz, the team’s unquestioned leader in the clubhouse is in the midst of a stellar senior season to cap off his magnificent career. The No. 3 hitter in the lineup, Metz is batting .478 with 2 doubles, 2 triples, 5 homers, 15 RBIs and 16 runs scored. Also a critical piece of Avonworth’s defense as the team’s trusted backstop, you won’t find many players in the WPIAL who are more vital to their team’s success than Metz.
“He’s been the leader of our team since I got there [in 2023] as a sophomore,” Bywalski said. “They see how hard he works and how much he cares and puts into it. And he’s very coachable, too. Extremely coachable. Probably the most coachable kid on the team. He doesn’t walk around like he thinks he’s the best out there. He just loves the game so much.”
Elsewhere, senior second baseman Michael Libbon is enjoying a breakout season while batting .444 with 12 RBIs and eight runs scored, and senior left fielder Alex Rowe is batting .452 with eight RBIs and nine runs scored. Junior pitcher-first baseman Carson Franc is batting .464 with 5 doubles, 10 RBIs and 8 runs scored, and he has shined on the mound with a 3-0 record, 1.40 ERA and 12 strikeouts in 15 innings of work.
Overall, the team has six players batting above .400 in its lineup — and even the bottom of the order is doing its job and turning the lineup over while coming up with clutch, timely hits.
“We play a lot of big schools, even down in Myrtle Beach, to really push ourselves and make ourselves better,” Bywalski said. “We did the same thing last year. Not only do we have Pine-Richland coming up, we have Plum, we have DuBois and we have Mars. That’s going to help us prepare for what we need to try to do in May.”
Last postseason, the Lopes caught lightning in a bottle and carried their magical season all the way to the PIAA championship game, only to come up short in a 12-0 defeat against Neumann-Goretti. The painful memories of that loss still sting, but Bywalski and his players are simply using it as added fuel to a championship-caliber ballclub that is already firing on all cylinders.
“Does it stick in my mind? Yeah, there’s no doubt it does. Does it stick in their minds? I’m sure it does,” Bywalski said. “We really enjoyed going there, and we didn’t like the ending. That’s something that’s probably motivating us even more this year. We’re not talking too much about it, because we’ve got to take it day by day. As much as I think my team might be better than last year, it doesn’t mean we’re going to win a WPIAL championship. We’ve still got a long way to go.
“We’re still writing our story right now.”
Belle Vernon back to high-scoring ways
Coming off a weeklong hiatus due to a string of rainouts, Belle Vernon’s big boppers were back out on the diamond for a doubleheader against Laurel Highlands on Wednesday, and the high-scoring Leopards weren’t wasting any time getting back to work.
First, Belle Vernon posted a lopsided 9-2 win in game one, then the Leopards (8-0, 6-0) blew out the Mustangs by a score of 12-4 in the second game of the day to keep their perfect record intact. On the season, Belle Vernon is averaging more than 10 runs per game while outscoring its foes by a combined score of 81-16.
A trio of all-section performers are back from last season for the Leopards in junior infielder Connor Bergman, senior outfielder Cole Matusik and senior left-hander Parker Lind. Bergman ranks second on the team with eight RBIs, while Matusik is batting .474 with a double, 2 triples, a home run and 9 runs scored. Meanwhile, senior pitcher-infielder Lucas Judy leads the team with a .619 batting average and 13 RBIs.
As for Lind, the ace southpaw holds a record of 3-0 with 42 strikeouts to just seven walks in 21 innings pitched, and he has yet to allow an earned run this season. Judy has been equally effective on the mound, posting a record of 2-0 and 0.00 ERA to go with 21 strikeouts and only two walks in 13 innings.
Bishop Canevin, Eden Christian jockeying for top spot in Class 1A
In a WPIAL championship rematch on Monday, two-time defending champion Bishop Canevin (4-3, 4-1) moved into the driver’s seat in the race for the Class 1A Section 3 title with a 7-4 road win at Eden Christian. Standout senior Tyler Maddix earned the win while notching three doubles at the dish and driving in a pair, and sophomore Jackson Maddix went 2 for 4 with a double and two RBIs of his own.
The section rivals squared off again on Wednesday, though, this time at the Crusaders’ home ballpark. Once again, it was the visiting team coming away victorious, as Eden Christian (7-2, 4-2) cruised to an 8-2 victory to move back to within a half-game of first place in the standings.
For the season, Tyler Maddix is batting .375 with six extra-base hits for Bishop Canevin, while his younger brother Jackson is batting .500 with eight RBIs and eight runs scored. Senior pitcher-outfielder Kole Olszewski leads the Crusaders with a .542 batting average and 13 runs scored.
Junior pitcher-outfielder Noah Emswiler is off to a sensational start for Eden Christian, batting .407 with 4 doubles, a triple, a home run, 14 RBIs and 10 runs scored through the team’s first nine games. On the hill, Emswiler is 2-0 with a 3.28 ERA and 36 strikeouts to seven walks in 21⅓ innings pitched. Junior pitcher-shortstop Brett Feldman is also having a big year, batting .500 with eight RBIs and 16 runs scored.
Steve is a sports writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at srotstein@unionprogress.com.
