North Allegheny ace shuts down Hempfield, leads Tigers to record 8th WPIAL title

By: Chris Harlan
Tuesday, June 1, 2021 | 9:52 PM

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Hempfield got an early look at right-hander Kyle Demi a few weekends ago, but that sneak peek at the North Allegheny ace didn’t help much Tuesday night.

Once again, Demi was dominant.

The hard-throwing senior struck out 11 in six shutout innings as top-seeded North Allegheny defeated No. 3 Hempfield, 4-0, in the WPIAL Class 6A final at Wild Things Park in Washington. With a fastball that reaches the low-90s, the 6-foot-2 pitcher allowed only two hits, both singles, and walked three.

His championship outing was reminiscent of May 15, when Demi faced 15 batters and struck out nine in a nonsection win over Hempfield.

This time, he didn’t let a runner past second.

“He’s really good,” Hempfield coach Tim Buzzard said. “We tried to attack his fastball, but he was just on.”

Demi struck out Hempfield’s first two batters and four of the first seven. He took a little different approach this time, throwing curveballs earlier in counts.

“I was expecting them to come out guns firing,” Demi said, “because I knew they were going to be fired up from last time.”

The WPIAL title was North Allegheny’s eighth overall, giving the Tigers the most in league history. They had been tied with McKeesport and Allegheny, who each won seven.

But this was NA’s first title since 2013 after falling short in 2017 and ’18, as the WPIAL runner-up both years.

“The third time is the charm,” NA coach Andrew Heck said. “We’ve been close.”

“It feels great, especially with what we didn’t have last year,” said Demi, whose junior season was wiped out by the pandemic. “I feel that we could have won it last year too. This year, I knew we had a very good shot to do it. We went out and we did it.”

Hempfield (15-8) was making its first appearance in the WPIAL finals. Both Class 6A finalists qualify for the state playoffs which start Monday.

“We’re disappointed with the loss, but there’s a lot of season left,” Buzzard said. “We’ll get ready for Monday. We wanted to come away with the win, but North Allegheny was a little better than us tonight.”

North Allegheny (20-3) scored two runs in the third inning and one each in the fifth and sixth. The Tigers collected seven hits, including a solo homer by Spencer Barnett, a sixth-inning blast that tied NA’s single-season record with eight.

Three runs were charged to Hempfield starter Phil Fox, who allowed five hits, two walks and struck out seven in 4⅔ innings.

In the third, with two on, two out and first base open, Hempfield had a decision to make. The Spartans decided to pitch to NA standout Cole Young, and the Duke recruit capitalized. Young swung at Fox’s first pitch and bounced a two-run single into right field, scoring Aaron Kalaska and Erik Sundgren for a 2-0 lead.

“I’m glad that Cole got a pitch to hit,” Heck said. “I don’t want to say he’s been fighting himself a little bit, but he hasn’t seen a ton of good stuff to hit lately.”

Young leads NA with 22 walks, but walking him isn’t an easy choice. The Tigers’ next batter, cleanup hitter Danny Gallon, leads the team with a .459 average.

“We talked about whether we’d go at him or not go at him,” Buzzard said. “We went back and forth on it. … The guy behind him is super hot. We knew it was pick your poison.”

The RBIs pushed Young’s total to 21.

North Allegheny added a run in the fifth without a hit in the inning. Ethan Gavlik was hit by a pitch, stole second and reached third on a throwing error. He scored on a passed ball with reliever Jake Kramer on the mound.

In the sixth, Barnett hit a leadoff homer to right to run the lead to 4-0.

With Demi’s pitch count rising to 94, NA reliever Joe Lang pitched a scoreless seventh. If there was a flaw in Demi’s outing, it’s maybe that he struck out too many batters.

“As a coach, I love the strikeouts and I know everybody else likes the strikeouts,” Heck said. “But at the same time, we have a great defense behind him. I like to let them work a little bit. If you let them work a little bit, you get get deeper in the game from a pitch-count standpoint.”

Demi doesn’t disagree.

“I never go full games because I’m always going for Ks,” he said, “but I give everything I’ve got.”

Before becoming North Allegheny’s ace, Demi entered this spring largely unknown around the WPIAL since last season was canceled entirely. He’s now 8-0 with 71 strikeouts in 40⅔ innings.

Opponents have scored only eight runs against him.

“When he’s on, he does a great job of being able to work both sides of the plate,” Heck said. “You saw that tonight.”

Allegheny and McKeesport had been tied with North Allegheny with seven WPIAL titles apiece, but neither of those schools had won in decades. McKeesport’s most recent title was in 1963. Allegheny won seven between 1914 and ‘22.

NA won its other WPIAL titles in 2013, ‘09, ‘05, ‘03, 1996, ‘91 and ‘90.

“This was our biggest goal for the season and we achieved it,” Young said. “It feels awesome.”

Watch the video stream archive of this game on TribLive HSSN.

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.

Tags: Hempfield, North Allegheny