Bednar

ADAMS TWP — Will Bednar is heading south.

His pitching is going nowhere but up.

The hard-throwing Mars senior right-hander announced Sunday he will continue his academic and baseball career at Mississippi State.

“This has been a long, drawn out process that wound up with Will being presented with three very good options,” said Andy Bednar, Will's father and high school coach.

Will narrowed his final choices to Wake Forest, Alabama and Mississippi State before deciding to join the Bulldogs.

“Their facilities are simply spectacular,” he said. “They spent a ton of money (roughly $40 million) on their baseball stadium and it's probably the best college stadium in the country.

“The place seats 10,000 to 15,000 and they average a few thousand fans per game. It's where I want to be.”

Will said the coaching staff likes him as a starting pitcher. His fastball has hit 95 miles per hour and averages between 91 and 93. He had a 0.55 earned run average for the Planets last spring and averaged 16 strikeouts per nine innings.

Carrying a 4.0 grade point average, Will is undecided about his collegiate major. He is leaning toward business or engineering.

“All I want to do is develop into the best baseball player and student I can be while I'm there” he said.

He will be playing for coach Chris Lemonis, hired by Mississippi State in June to replace interim head coach Gary Henderson. The latter guided the Bulldogs to the College World Series this summer, where they lost to Oregon State.

Lemonis coached Indiana of the Big 10, leading the Hoosiers to the NCAA tournament three of the past four years.

“Coach Lemonis and his assistants were great to us,” Coach Bednar said. “We all hit it off very well. Will and I got to visit all three of the places he narrowed his list down to and my wife got to go as well.

“We were all blown away by Mississippi State, its coaches and athletic facilities. It's incredible down there.”

Bednar added that Will's older brother David, a pitcher in the San Diego Padres' farm system, “told Will to go somewhere down south, wherever you go.”

David Bednar pitched for Lafayette in eastern Pennsylvania.

“Will has picked David's brain a lot,” Coach Bednar said. “No doubt, he's benefitted from following in his footsteps.”

Will Bednar spent the summer competing in showcases throughout the country, including the Perfect Game National, East Coast Pro and Area Code Games in Long Beach, Calif.

“My slider and changeup are so much better now than they were in the spring,” he said. “Improving my secondary pitches is my next step.”

His next goal is more basic.

“Win the WPIAL and state championship,” Will said of his senior baseball season.

His plans for Mississippi State could be derailed, of course, if Will is selected in the early rounds of next June's Major League Baseball amateur draft. But he's not thinking along those lines.

“I can't look that far ahead,” he said. “That could be another way to go, sure, but if I dwelled on that, it would affect my development now and in the coming months.”

His father said Will will likely report to Mississippi State next July.

“He's earned all of this,” Coach Bednar said. “Throwing every day, long tossing, building up arm strength ... He's worked for this and it's paying off for him.”