La Salle College starter shuts down North Allegheny in Class 6A finals

By: Chris Harlan
Friday, June 18, 2021 | 9:23 PM

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Sometimes, it’s not a pitcher’s fastball velocity that makes him unhittable. La Salle College starter Ryan Marler proved that true Friday night.

The right-hander threw frequent change-ups in the PIAA Class 6A championship, a strategy that led to weak contact and some easy outs. North Allegheny faced more off-speed pitches than usual and managed only five hits off Marler — all singles — in a 2-1 loss at Penn State’s Medlar Field.

La Salle’s infielders caught eight pop-ups, a clear sign his change-up was working against a good fastball hitting lineup.

“That’s called the equalizer pitch for a reason,” NA coach Andrew Heck said. “If you have a good change-up, you can win. We couldn’t make the change in our approach to sit on something like that. It’s a hard thing to do as a hitter.”

With a fastball that reaches only the low-80s, Marler pitched a complete-game five-hitter with three walks and five strikeouts. Heck said Marler’s change-up was the best his team faced this season from a right-hander.

“When you’re a fastball-hitting team or you want to hit the fastball, it’s hard to tell yourself to sit on the change-up,” Heck said. “It’s kind of a next-level (idea). Trust the plan. As a left-handed hitter, you know you’re going to get one, maybe two, maybe even three in an at-bat the way he was throwing.

“We just couldn’t buy into that approach tonight.”

The senior kept North Allegheny scoreless into the sixth inning and allowed only one runner to reach third base the entire game. The struggles at the plate were surprising for an NA team that typically hits well. The Tigers have five starters batting better than .300 and two with an average over .400.

“Sometimes you can throw below bat speed,” La Salle coach Kyle Werman said. “For a team like this, it’s like that soft-throwing lefty. He’ll throw anything anytime. He’s like a lefty from the right side.

“Guys aren’t used to seeing change-ups at the high school level that’s effective,” Werman added. “You can see a breaker and you can sit fastball, but when a guy can really throw a change-up and you really want to hit it, it looks this big and then disappears.”

This was the third PIAA title for La Salle (26-2), the District 12 champion and a member of the Philadelphia Catholic League. The Explorers also won in 2012 and ’14, when the PIAA had only four classifications.

North Allegheny (24-3) was in the finals for the sixth time overall, but this was the team’s first appearance in 21 years. The Tigers, who own two state titles, finished as PIAA runners-up for the fourth time.

There were four juniors and one sophomore in NA’s championship lineup, so the window isn’t closing.

“There’s no reason we can’t be back here again next year,” Heck said. “I hope that the younger kids take from that. It takes hard work. It takes a little bit of luck. It takes a little bit of grinding things out.

“If we could have maybe just grinded it out a little bit more, we could have gotten this one today.”

La Salle had only three hits, but the Explorers used them to capitalize on a couple of early walks.

In the second inning, La Salle’s first two batters drew walks from NA starter Kyle Demi, and both runners eventually scored. La Salle’s Brian Baquero and Jephson Hadson-Taylor had RBI singles to lead 2-0.

Demi escaped the second with an inning-ending double play but was replaced one batter into the third after throwing 43 pitches. He allowed two runs on two hits, three walks and a hit batter.

Joe Lang relieved Demi and held La Salle scoreless over the final five innings. Lang allowed one hit, one walk and struck out three.

“You can’t give free passes up in big games,” Heck said. “If you look at this game — it’s a 2-1 game — and we gave them a lot of stuff there in the first two innings.”

North Allegheny’s only run came in the sixth when junior Cole Young drew a leadoff walk, stole second and reached third on a throwing error. Danny Gallon followed with an RBI single, cutting La Salle’s lead to 2-1.

In the seventh, NA had two runners on with one out when Marler struck out No. 2 batter Logan Andreyko and forced No. 3 hitter Young into a game-ending flyout.

“The common way to adjust to that (change-up) is just move up in the box, but that doesn’t work for everyone,” Young said. “We just couldn’t hit him today.”

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: North Allegheny