Pitching aces spark Leopards to 6-0 start

Parker Lind and Lucas Judy are the core of BVA’s staff.

Of all the baseball and softball teams in the Mon Valley, the Belle Vernon baseball squad has gotten off to the hottest start thanks to strong starting pitching and timely hitting.

The Leopards are 6-0 with four wins over Section 2-4A opponents already after series sweeps against Uniontown and Ringgold. They also claimed wins at McGuffey and Woodland Hills by a combined score of 24-6.

Belle Vernon has outscored its opponents 60-10 and has only surrendered runs in half of its games with the midway point of the regular season approaching.

“Starting pitching and timely hitting seem to be the things driving us so far,” Belle Vernon coach Tony Watson said. “It’s been a complete team effort, from the returning veterans to some of the younger guys that are stepping up. Guys like Parker (Lind) and Lucas Judy, we kind of knew what we were going to get out of them.

“But the way Kole Doppelheuer’s been playing and our outfielders Cole Matusik and Chace Petrosky; our catching, Jaden Johnson has been real solid, so it’s been a complete team effort. Alonzo Wade, it’s his first year playing organized baseball in years, and he jumped into the starting lineup and is giving us production.”

Lind, who will be pitching at Kent State after this season, has been dominant for the Leopards on the mound.

In Belle Vernon’s shortened 14-0 win over McGuffey to open the year, he went the full five innings without surrendering a hit and struck out 11 batters. His next start came in the Leopards’ first game against Uniontown, an 11-2 win that saw him give up two unearned runs on only two hits with 12 strikeouts.

Lind also took the hill for a 5-2 victory over Ringgold, pitching 5 1/3 innings and giving up three hits and one unearned run with 11 strikeouts. In all, that gives him a 3-0 record with 34 strikeouts as he’s allowed just five hits and three unearned runs.

Judy gives Belle Vernon one of the strongest 1-2 punches in the WPIAL in terms of starting pitchers. The Woodland Hills win was a bullpen game, but Judy started the second games against Uniontown and Ringgold and gave up a combined five hits, no runs and two walks with 21 strikeouts.

Offensively, Judy, Doppelheuer, Matusik, Petrosky and others have been excellent as the Leopards are averaging 10 runs per contest.

“They’ve kept the focus so far,” Watson said. “We always preach, one pitch at a time, one inning at a time, one game at a time. They’ve bought into that mantra. There’s no quit with this team, and they’re a close-knit bunch. They got a taste of winning last year, and they’re capitalizing on errors and doing all the little things right to keep that going thus far.”

Belle Vernon will take on Laurel Highlands in section play today and tomorrow after having non-section games against Mount Pleasant and California postponed this past week. Lind and Judy will presumably be ready to go on the mound before a non-section game at Derry on Thursday.

The Leopards sit on top of the section a year after winning their first section crown since 2012, but they’ll be challenged to keep it that way. West Mifflin is undefeated in the conference after sweeping Albert Gallatin earlier this year, and Elizabeth Forward is 3-1 in the section with two wins over Laurel Highlands and one more over Ringgold.

The Leopards and the Warriors (6-1) will battle in a big series starting next Monday.

“It’s a tough section this year,” Watson said. “EF and ourselves are almost like mirror images of one another, and you look at West Mifflin and they execute small ball as well as anybody I’ve seen. Between Ringgold, Laurel Highlands, Uniontown and Albert Gallatin, any team can take a game off you if you’re not careful either.

“It’s going to come down to execution in section play. At the beginning of the year, it seemed like (us, Elizabeth Forward and West Mifflin) would be the top part of our section, and that’s kind of the way that it’s shaking out thus far.”

It remains to be seen how the Leopards will close the year, but with a month left in the regular season, things are looking good.