WPIAL Class 2A baseball championship preview: Seton LaSalle vs. Shenango

By: Paul Schofield
Tuesday, June 1, 2021 | 6:34 PM

Baseball

Class 2A

1-Seton-La Salle (21-2) vs. 2-Shenango (19-2)

1:30 p.m. Wednesday at Wild Things Park, Washington

Road to the finals

• Seton LaSalle — In three playoff wins, Seton-La Salle, the Section 4-2A champ, has outscored its opponents 32-0. The Rebels blanked Serra, 12-0, in the semifinals.

• Shenango — The Wildcats, the Section 2-2A champs, breezed through the first two rounds of the playoffs by a combined score of 17-2 before recording a tight 7-6 win over Carmichaels in the semifinals.

Secret to their success

• Seton LaSalle — The Rebels don’t have many apparent weaknesses. Junior SS/OF Brian Vogel is batting .444 with 32 hits, five doubles, four home runs and 39 RBIs. Junior Brett Wagner is hitting .450 with 27 hits, five doubles, six triples, three home runs and 30 RBIs. Senior C Cameron Colwell is hitting .460 with 29 hits, five doubles and 23 RBIs. Wagner and Sam Georgiana each are 7-0.

• Shenango — The Wildcats can score runs with the best of them. Senior Shane Cato is batting .461 with 25 hits, 10 doubles and 31 RBIs. Junior Tyler Kamerer is hitting .446 with 29 hits, 35 runs scored, four doubles, five triples and 29 RBIs. Senior Braeden D’Angelo is 6-0 and Cato is 7-1.

Championship factoids

• Seton LaSalle — The only WPIAL baseball team left trying to “defend” its 2019 championship, the Rebels also won diamond gold in 1995. In that season, the winning pitcher in the championship game for Seton LaSalle was Mike Wagner, the current head coach. Wagner not only pitched 3⅔ innings of scoreless relief for the Rebels, he also drove home the winning run in the eighth inning on a sacrifice fly to give the green and gold a 4-3 victory. Daniel Boehme hit for the cycle two years ago as Seton LaSalle crushed Serra Catholic in the finals, 11-2.

• Shenango — The Wildcats are hoping to win their first WPIAL baseball championship in their third title game appearance. Shenango lost to Center in the 1990 AA title game and fell to Seton LaSalle five years later in an eight-inning thriller at Pullman Park in Butler. The head coach of the Wildcats baseball team 26 years ago is the school district’s current athletic director, Jan Budai. The last time Shenango and Seton LaSalle met on the baseball diamond was in a 2016 AA quarterfinals game won by the Wildcats, 4-2.

Paul Schofield is a TribLive reporter covering high school and college sports and local golf. He joined the Trib in 1995 after spending 15 years at the Daily Courier in Connellsville, where he served as sports editor for 14 years. He can be reached at pschofield@triblive.com.

Tags: Seton La Salle, Shenango