Trib HSSN baseball team of the week for May 22, 2025

By: Don Rebel
Thursday, May 22, 2025 | 10:52 PM

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Trib HSSN baseball team of the week – Indiana Little Indians

Coach: Dan Petroff (second season)

Record: Indiana finished as Section 3-4A champion with a record of 10-0, four games in front of both Knoch and Greensburg Salem. The Little Indians have an overall record of 21-1 with eight straight wins.

#Earned: Last spring, the Indiana baseball team enjoyed a season of silver in which it lost to North Catholic in the WPIAL 4A finals, 7-5, and fell to Holy Ghost Prep in the PIAA championship game, 6-5. Now the Little Indians hope to reel in the gold this high school baseball season. They are one win away from taking home the big prize in the district playoffs following 4A postseason victories over Ambridge in the quarterfinals in nine innings on Monday, 1-0, and over Belle Vernon in the semifinals on Tuesday, 11-2. In the victory over the Bridgers, the game was scoreless through eight innings before the Little Indians scored the game winner in the bottom of the ninth. The offense came to life in a big way thanks to a big inning the next day. With the game knotted at one apiece, Indiana scored six runs in the third inning and added on with three runs more in the fourth to eventually win by nine and secure a second straight trip to the WPIAL 4A championship game. On Tuesday or Wednesday at EQT Park in Washington, No. 1 Indiana will battle No. 3 Elizabeth Forward for 4A district gold.

Standout performers: Indiana showed its versatility this week in the postseason, winning a low-scoring pitching heavy game Monday and then leaning on the sticks by scoring double-digit runs to advance Tuesday. In the quarterfinals, senior Texas Tech commit Greg Minnick was the star of the game, pitching 7⅔ innings of shutout ball, allowing only one hit with one walk and 17 strikeouts. Senior Ryan Okopal pitched the final 1⅓ innings, giving up no walks or hits and striking out two to pick up the victory. The only run of the game scored in the ninth inning when junior Sullivan VanHoose singled home senior Carter Putt while junior Ethan Shank led the Little Indians offense with two of the team’s five hits. The next day against Belle Vernon, the Indiana offense hammered out 13 hits, led by Putt and senior Tim Birch, who each had three hits and two RBIs. VanHoose had two hits and two RBIs and senior Mark Collinger added two hits and an RBI. Senior Rocco Cosentino drove in three runs for the Little Indians. On the mound, Okopal picked up his second straight victory while combining with VanHoose, Collinger and sophomore Brady Oakes in limiting the Leopards to only one hit.

Last year: Indiana began the 2024 season by winning seven of its first nine games, then after losing five games in a row, finished winning three of five to end up in second place behind North Catholic in Section 4-4A. The No. 9 seed in the 4A bracket then got hot, beating Central Valley in the first round, 4-1, blanking Blackhawk in the quarterfinals, 5-0, and then crushing Montour in the semifinals, 11-0. In the WPIAL title game, Indiana led 5-1 after three innings but could not stop a furious North Catholic comeback, losing 7-5. The Little Indians bounced back, though, beating Bellefonte, 3-0, East Pennsboro, 6-5, and Fleetwood in the state semifinals, 10-3, to reach the PIAA finals. There, they lost a heartbreaker to District 1 champion Holy Ghost Prep, 6-5.

Remember when: It was a year of firsts for Indiana in 2014. It was the first time in school history that the Little Indians played in a WPIAL baseball championship game and also the first time they participated in a PIAA state title contest. The program has been successful this decade with 11 wins in 2021 and 2022, 17 wins in 2023 and 16 victories a year ago. However, it wasn’t that long ago that the program was looking up at everybody else. The Little Indians finished the 2019 season with an overall record of 1-19.

2025 Trib HSSN Baseball Teams of the Week

Week 6 – Mars Fightin’ Planets

Week 5 – Neshannock Lancers

Week 4 – Ellwood City Wolverines

Week 3 – Bethel Park Black Hawks

Week 2 – Waynesburg Central Raiders

Week 1 – Belle Vernon Leopards

Tags: Indiana