Knoch baseball team relies on deep pitching staff

By: Ted Sarneso
Thursday, April 3, 2025 | 8:21 PM

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It wasn’t until the seventh inning when Zane Pacek started to hear whispers in the dugout.

“I was like, ‘Come on guys, now you’ve jinxed it,’ ” Pacek said.

Despite his teammates committing the cardinal sin of mentioning the opposing team having no hits, the 7-foot-1 junior pitcher threw a no-hitter in a 7-0 win Sunday against Greensburg Salem in Section 3-4A.

The game lasted only 1 hour and 26 minutes as Pacek struck out four batters and was three walks away from a perfect game.

Pacek’s fastball, which has been clocked at 84 to 86 mph, was the one pitch working for him that day.

“In our scouting, we knew Greensburg Salem was a high-contact team, so I went through the lineup the first time just seeing what their approach would be,” Pacek said. “My fastball was going right by them, jamming them and I was able to induce a lot of ground balls.”

Of the 27 outs recorded, only one was a flyout.

With his height and his throwing motion, it’s almost impossible for opposing hitters to see Pacek’s pitches.

“I’ve heard opposing batters say on their way back to the dugout that they can’t see the ball coming out of my hand, and that it looks like it’s coming down from heaven,” Pacek said.

What also helps is Pacek’s long stride that has him finishing nearly 10 feet closer to home when he releases the ball.

“To the hitters, it probably looks like it’s coming about five miles an hour faster,” Pacek said.

On the season, Pacek has thrown 14 innings, given up 15 hits, walked four and given up eight runs, six of which were earned. He has a record of 2-1, an ERA of 3.00 and has 10 strikeouts.

“My job isn’t to strike anyone out, it’s to throw strikes and get the ball in play,” Pacek said. “If you’re constantly throwing strikes, balls will be put in play and that helps with efficiency. I love getting ground balls, and I think it’s something I think I’m the best at.”

Pacek headlines a talented pitching staff. Seniors Cody Stull and Noah Glassic are the No. 2 and 3 starters, respectively, and juniors David Breese and Alex Eddy have gotten starts.

“We’re all very coachable, like to listen to people who are more experienced than us and have performed higher and done more things than we have,” Pacek said. “David has some killer off-speed stuff. I don’t know how he gets the ball to move like he does.”

Coach John Negley, who is in his first year with the Knights, has developed the staff.

“Cody’s been pitching since he was little, so he knows what he’s doing,” Negley said. “Noah hasn’t pitched a lot yet, but we’ll count on him more down the stretch.”

Closing out games for the Knights is junior Kyle Morgan.

Knoch not only has depth on the varsity team but has seven kids on the junior varsity team who can pitch. There was even an eighth grader, Kenny Fraser, who threw a no-hitter against Highlands on the same day Pacek threw his.

“The junior high team came over after their game to watch Zane finish his no-hitter, and both those pitchers got a photo together,” Negley said. “It was pretty cool.”

Pacek was given the task of mentoring the younger pitchers in the program.

“I’ve had the freshmen sit with him, and he’ll go over the postgame and pregame stuff with them,” Negley said. “He’s a very nice, humble young man who loves the game, and he’s been a very good teacher and loves to do it.”

Pitching has led the Knights to a record of 4-4 overall and 1-1 in section play, but the bats have been steady as the Knights have scored 41 runs and delivered 19 extra-base hits over their first eight games.

Leading the way is sophomore catcher Dylan Roth, who is hitting .391 with five doubles, a home run and six RBIs.

Brothers Sean and Kyle Morgan each have driven in five runs. Sean, a senior, has hit four doubles and is batting .385. Kyle, a junior, has three doubles and is hitting .316.

Stull, who is the team’s designated hitter when he’s not pitching, has gotten off to a slow start, hitting .217. But he has hit a home run and driven in three runs.

“I have a very young team,” said Negley, who has four seniors, 12 juniors and a sophomore on his varsity squad. “We’re trying to build something here.”

Negley has been around and coached baseball for 20 years. He was an assistant at Butler for 10 years, coached travel teams out of the state of Indiana and many teams in the area when his son Cade was younger.

“I’ve been having a blast,” Negley said. “We started in December with voluntary workouts and were going twice a week. I had 27 of the 31 kids show up, and they have worked their tails off to get better.”

Knoch’s looking to improve on its 9-10 record and WPIAL first-round loss to West Mifflin last year. To do that it will need to be a disciplined ball club.

“I’ve tried to instill us being accountable from Day 1,” Negley said. “The two words we’ve used all winter were the controllables and uncontrollable.

“In baseball, you control your at-bat until you don’t swing. The uncontrollables are when a ball is hit into the gap and as the outfielder you have to go get it. Once you get the ball, you’re in control again and have to make the correct play and hit the cutoff man. We need to make sure we use the controllables and uncontrollables in ways that make us better as a club.”

If the Knights can follow what Negley is preaching, they can achieve the goal everyone in the locker room wants the most: a section title.

“If we do that, it would be great,” Pacek said. “It would mean we’re in the playoffs, and we would have a top seed. But in order for us to get to that point, we have to show that we can do it and not shy away from the big moments.”

Big moments will be found in the new Section 3 in Class 4A. Indiana is looked at as the top dog of the section after losing in the Class 4A championship game last year. Greensburg Salem lost in the first round. Coming over from 3A are three teams who missed the playoffs last year: Derry, Highlands and Valley.

All six teams in the section have overall records of .500 or better.

To get ready for section play, the Knights tested themselves earlier in the season with three games against Class 6A teams Shaler, North Hills and Butler.

Even though Knoch lost those games, by three runs to Butler and two runs to both Shaler and North Hills, they came away with learning experiences.

“That’s how you build character,” Negley said. “You learn more from failure than you ever do from success, and that goes for life, not just baseball.”

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