California, here they come
Cade Negley and Dom Bucko are World Series-bound.
The respective Butler and Knoch graduates have been spending this summer playing for the Baird Brothers Palomino baseball team in the Youngstown Class B League.
After winning that league title, the squad moved into Palomino tournament play and recently won the East Zone Tournament title. That earned the team a berth in the Palomino World Series this week in Santa Clara, Calif.
Much of the Baird Brothers' roster consists of WPIAL players.
“I'm from Latrobe and I'm partial to that area,” said Don Pletcher, the team's head coach. “We recruit pitching and defense. That's what wins in these tournaments.
“We also want quality kids. I'm flying to California with a bunch of 17 and 18-year-olds and I trust every one of them to behave and act accordingly.
“We're not going out there to sight-see. We're going out there to win,” Pletcher added.
Negley hits fifth or sixth in the lineup and has been playing primarily second base this summer. He has pitched sparingly, recording a 0.75 earned run average in 23 innings.
Offensively, he's hitting .395.
“I didn't want to throw too many innings this summer because I've got fall camp coming up (at Santa Clara University),” Negley said. “It's cool we're going to play this tournament in a park right across the street from the campus I'll be attending.
”I just got back last week from an orientation out there. Now I'm going right back. It's exciting. The guys are counting on me to show them around, direct them to all of the good restaurants.”
Negley said the Baird Brothers team wins “because the coaches let us go out there and do our thing. This is an extremely talented team.”
Baird Brothers is 42-9 on the season. The team defeated the Worthington/Kittanning Stangs 7-4 in the East Zone championship game after hanging a 17-0 loss on them earlier in the tournament.
“I could play Cade Negley anywhere in the field and he'd do the job for us. He's a glue guy. He plugs in holes,” Pletcher said. “We needed a right fielder one game and he had not played there. He goes out and makes a great catch in that game.“He's got pop in his bat and gets a lot of clutch hits.”Bucko leads off and plays center field for the team. He had eight hits in 10 at bats in his last two games, including 5-for-5 in the Zone title game.The team was scheduled to fly to California this morning. Its first World Series game is at 3 p.m. Eastern time Thursday against host Santa Clara.“Of course, I'm pumped up for this,” Bucko said. “This is the first time I've played in a national event. This is why anybody plays baseball at any level — to get to the World Series.”And Bucko — who was part of a state championship team with Knoch in 2015 — likes his team's chances out west.“Everyone can hit the ball from top to bottom in our lineup and our pitching runs deep,” Bucko said. “We will be tough to beat.“The Youngstown Astros are our big rivals. They went to the World Series two years ago and went 2-2 (in the double-elimination tournament). Their coach said he hasn't seen a team as good as ours.”Other WPIAL schools represented on the Baird Brothers rosters include Norwin, Central Catholic, Penn-Trafford, Blackhawk and Peters Township.“Dom Bucko is my kind of guy, a complete player,” Pletcher said. “He can do everything on a baseball field.“He led our team in walks this year. Two years ago, he didn't know what a walk was. That's how much he's learned to be selective at the plate and shows how hard he works on his game.”Negley and Bucko are both in their third year with Baird Brothers. The team won the Youngstown Class B title last year before losing in the semifinals of the East Zone tourney.“This team gets along great,” Pletcher said. “We had an hour and a half practice the other day and a bunch of guys stayed in the dugout for an hour afterward, laughing and enjoying each other's company.“We lost two straight games in our league championship to force a deciding fifth game and our guys are throwing a football in the outfield before the game. It's not that they didn't care. They were loose. They were confident.“They know they can play this game,” the coach added.
