Leechburg baseball team says goodbye to talented senior class

By: Andrew John
Monday, June 12, 2023 | 4:24 PM

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The Leechburg baseball team gathered in early January for workouts, which coach Heath Shimer said had a lot to do with the team having its best season since 2009.

The Blue Devils (13-5, 10-2) finished the regular season with an eight-game winning streak to lead them to a second-place finish in Section 2-A and the No. 3 seed in the WPIAL Class A playoffs.

Leechburg was led by a potent offense that averaged 10.2 runs during the regular season.

However, the bats went silent in a 4-1 loss to Bishop Canevin in the WPIAL Class A quarterfinals May 22. The Blue Devils mustered only three hits in the loss to the eventual WPIAL champions.

“I preach to my boys from the beginning: Life isn’t easy. These are things that you need to deal with. At the end of the season, you kind of feel gutted. I said it stung,” Shimer said. “You can’t win ball games with three hits. We didn’t have strikeouts, so it wasn’t like we were being dominated by pitching.

“(Bishop Canevin) played a hell of a defensive game as they made zero mistakes.”

Besides the covid year, the Blue Devils have made it to the playoffs every season since 2018.

But they haven’t made it out of the first round.

This season, Leechburg’s only section losses came at the hands of Union, 4-2 and 17-16, on April 3 and 4. After the back-to-back losses, Leechburg won 10 of its last 11 games in the regular season, which earned the Blue Devils a first-round bye in the playoffs.

The Blue Devils had 11 days off between their regular-season finale — a 6-5 win over Rochester — and their quarterfinal loss to Bishop Canevin.

“Having a week off between the regular season and the postseason, I was looking at it that we could heal up a little bit, rest and get ready,” Shimer said. “Maybe the layoff wasn’t what we needed at the time. I’m thankful that the WPIAL looked at our body of work and gave us a three seed.

“I’m not a person that wants to look in the rear view. You can’t control the past. It’s already done.”

The Blue Devils were led by senior Owen McDermott, who finished with a .439 batting average, .681 slugging percentage, 14 doubles, 27 RBIs, 28 runs and 13 stolen bases.

McDermott, a Mount Aloysius recruit, led the Blue Devils on the mound as well with a 2.07 ERA, 57 strikeouts and 28 walks in 47¹⁄₃ innings pitched.

“There was a reason why he was captain of the team and a captain as a junior last year,” Shimer said. “Owen led by example, too. He had some errors, and he would come into the dugout and be upset. He would get to the plate and make up for it. For the underclassmen to have a caliber player like that to look up to is going to be great.”

McDermott headlined a senior class that included Braiden Turiak, Tyler Burke, Logan Kline, Matt Curfman and Eli Verner.

The Blue Devils will return sophomore Chase Henry, who led the team with a .464 batting average, .549 on- base percentage and 35 runs scored. Henry finished with six doubles, 12 RBIs and a .550 slugging percentage.

Freshman catcher Rocco Vigna finished the season with a .377 batting average, .542 on-base percentage, .490 slugging percentage, six doubles and 11 RBIs.

Shimer also will look for continued development from sophomore outfielder Jayden Floyd.

“I graduate seven seniors, and I have a bunch of incoming freshmen. My goals are still the same. I’m not going to waver,” Shimer said. “I know Mike Tomlin says, ‘Next man up,’ and that’s kind of my philosophy.

“You know the assignment when you sign up to play with me. I want your best on game days and practice days. I’m trying to build a culture here. In Year 2, I think I made a big leap, and I plan on moving along with it.”

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