Our Lady of the Sacred Heart will feel right at home when it opens play in the WPIAL Class 2A Baseball Championships Tuesday afternoon.
The Chargers have reached the postseason every season but two since Phil McCarren took over as coach in 2010. The misses came in 2011 and 2018.
Otherwise, OLSH has been a part of the WPIAL tournament, and eight times during that span the Chargers have entered with a section title under their collective belts.
That was the case last season, when they advanced to the semifinals before losing to Seton La Salle.
And that’ll be the case again this season, with OLSH having claimed the Section 3 championship. But starting with Tuesday’s 2 p.m. tournament opener against 10th-seeded New Brighton at North Allegheny High School, it’s a whole new season.
And McCarren believes there’s no clear-cut favorite to win this year’s WPIAL crown.
“It’s going to be a tough tournament,” he said. “There’s a lot of good teams – it might be as deep a tournament as I’ve seen over the years.
“There’s really no super standout team – there are five to seven teams that could win it. It really is kind of a wide-open tournament. There’s a lot of good baseball teams.”
OLSH is one of them. Seeded No. 2, the Chargers put together an overall record of 13-7, including an 11-1 mark in section play.
McCarren said he purposefully stocked the non-section portion of his schedule with rugged opponents such as Class 5A Taylor Allderdice and Quaker Valley and Steel Valley – both of which play in Class 3A — with postseason play in mind.
“It’s probably the toughest (non-section schedule) we’ve had,” he said. “I wanted us to be challenged because we felt in the long run that would pay off.”
In hindsight, he believes it has. McCarren said one of his team’s biggest strengths is an intangible – and that’s team chemistry.
“It’s a good group of guys who get along,” he said. “They’re very positive – they play hard and they play for each other.”
In terms of tangibles, McCarren said that pitching has probably been the team’s strength, but the Chargers also have gotten a lot of timely hitting.
“We talk all the time about getting guys in scoring position and finding ways to get those guys in,” McCarren said. “We can’t strand guys at second and third.”
Senior left-hander Iseia Fields-Schulz is Our Lady of the Sacred Heart’s top pitcher. (Photo by Mike Longo Jr.)
In the pitching department, the Chargers have gotten solid efforts from No. 1 starter Iseia Fields-Schulz, a senior left-hander who’s gone 7-1 and has struck out 82 batters in 42 2/3 innings.
“He’s got a nice fastball, and he mixes up his pitches,” McCarren said of Schulz, who battled through some injury issues each of the last two seasons but has been healthy this year.
“He has good command and can hit his spots.”
The Chargers are at a bit of a disadvantage at the No. 2 pitching spot as Thomas Medwig, who occupied that spot, is ineligible for the playoffs due to his transfer status. Medwig also was OLSH’s top offensive performer this season.
“We’ll have to do our second starter by committee,” McCarren said. “But we have a bunch of other capable pitchers. We’ll see how it goes, who we’re playing and what the matchups will be.”
McCarren can call upon senior right-hander Sean Hudac or freshman lefty Dean Douglass. Senior Van Kavals, who has been injured most of the season, also is attempting to return for the playoffs.
Medwig batted .581 this season, but even without him, the OLSH offense has some weapons. Senior infielder Gino Williams hit .457 and Douglass batted .340 while splitting time between right field, first base and the pitchers mound.
Other bats of note are catcher Bruno Williams, who is batting .325, and second baseman/outfielder Chad Minton, who has a .333 average.
McCarren said the Chargers also have gotten solid defensive play from their outfield, and particularly from senior center fielder Anthony Hansen.
“He’s given us superb outfield play with his range and his arm,” he said. “He’s really anchored down our outfield and does a great job.”
Overall, McCarren said he’s pleased with what he’s seen from his team this season.
“Going into the season I was thinking we’d have a competitive team,” he said. “We lost a couple key starters from last year, but we had a lot of returning lettermen who’d be a year older, and some new players coming in. I thought we’d be competitive and play good sound fundamental baseball and get good pitching.”
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