EVANS CITY — From the day he was born, Ryan O'Connor was a baseball kid.

"His father put a baseball in his crib right away," said Judy O'Connor, Ryan's mother. "The nurses had to put it in a plastic bag."

O'Connor began playing organized baseball when he was 5. He's made the postseason traveling all-star team in his league every year.

Now standing 6-foot-2 at age 14, the Evans City resident has added yet another honor to his baseball world:team champion of the Pitch, Hit &Run competition held last Sunday at PNCPark.

O'Connor won the 13-and-14 age division and is one of 30 Pitch, Hit &Run champions — one from every major league city — whose score will be considered for the national competition. The top four scores will compete for the national championship July 10 at the All-Star Game in San Francisco.

"My pitching kinda let me down,"O'Connor said of his performance at PNCPark. "If I had hit one more pitch, I think I'd be in the top five nationally. Hit two or three more, I'd be a lock to go (to nationals)."

Pitch, Hit &Run contestants are judged on all three phases. The hitting competition consists of hitting three baseballs off a tee to straightaway center field, with points accumulated for distance and accuracy.

Pitching is judged by throwing six pitches from 45 feet away and hitting a major league strike zone. Running is judged by how much time it takes the participant to run from second base to home.

O'Connor competed in Pitch, Hit &Run for the second straight year. He won his local competition last year before finishing third in the sectional competition. Sectional champions from Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia advanced to the team competition at PNCPark.

O'Connor has never lost the hitting competition. He has tied for first in the pitching phase.

There were 10 competitors in his age group at the local competition in Evans City.

"Ryan's father (Mark)coaches in the Evans City Athletic Association and they hosted the local competition last year,"Judy O'Connor said. "That's how we found out about it."

Figuring he would do better in the event this year, O'Connor still did not expect to win the PNCPark competition. His name was announced before the Pirates-Chicago White Sox game that day and he appeared on the scoreboard.

"That was pretty amazing,"he said. "I was thrilled to do so well."

Entering ninth grade in the Seneca Valley School District this fall, O'Connor tried out for the freshman baseball team last spring, but was cut.

He plays in the Cranberry Township and Evans City Pony Leagues and is on the Cranberry All-Star squad, which begins tournament play July 5.

As a pitcher, O'Connor has 66 strikeouts in 41 innings. As a hitter, he's batting .551 (32-for-58) with eight doubles, two homers and 34 RBI. He's walked 15 times as well.

Besides pitching, he's played third base, center field, shortstop and second base.

"I'm big and cover a lot of range, so I can play a lot of positions,"he said.

He plans to play freshman ball for Seneca Valley next school year and hopes to gain a Division I baseball scholarship in a few years.

His older sisters — Shannon and Amanda — played collegiate volleyball at Marshall and Indiana (Pa.), respectively. Shannon earned a scholarship to Marshall and Amanda was a walk-on at IUP.

"Ryan's sisters showed him what it takes to get a scholarship and he really wants it,"Judy O'Connor said. "I'm not betting against him."