SALT LAKE CITY — Utah was the last place in the world Josh LaPiana thought he would end up.

“Heck no,” LaPiana said. “I’m a Pittsburgh kid from the middle of nowhere and here I’m pitching against the best competition the West Coast has to offer. It was a blessing.”

At first, it was a nightmare.

LaPiana, a Chartiers Valley graduate, had just concluded his freshman season on the mound for the University of Akron when it was announced the program was cut.

The left-handed pitcher was suddenly without a home.

“The first thing that goes through your mind is, ‘Is this real?’” said LaPiana, who spent this past summer as a pitcher on the Butler BlueSox staff. “You have no idea what the heck is going on. The next thing you think is, ‘Shoot, where am I going to go?’”

That answer came from an unlikely source.

University of Tennessee baseball coach Dave Serrano had tried to recruit LaPiana out of Chartiers Valley and passed his name along to Utah baseball coach Bill Kinneberg when Akron’s program was eliminated.

“I went out and visited,” LaPiana said. “It was the first time I had ever been out west. It was a beautiful facility and a great fit.”

LaPiana has already made a mark.

LaPiana tossed a three-hit shutout against No. 19 Oregon Sunday, striking out five and walking just one in the 2-0 win.

He needed just 96 pitches to cruise through nine innings.

“It was great to be able to help the team win a series,” LaPiana said. “We were tied 1-1 going into Sunday and if we lost it would have been, ‘Oh, crap, we lost another series.’ The whole mindset changes.

“To be able to go out and put it all on the line against the best of the Pac-12 is awesome,” LaPiana added.

“We got great performances from Jayson Rose and Josh on the pitching side in both wins this weekend,” Kinneberg said. “We did just enough offensively for the wins. I thought it was a much better weekend for us in a lot of phases. I felt we finally got a little better this weekend.”

At Chartiers Valley, LaPiana was a three-sport star. As well as playing basketball, he was the starting quarterback for the Colts’ football team.

On the mound is where LaPiana shined the most, hitting .495 and going 7-1 with a 0.91 ERA during his season year with 72 strikeouts.

In his high school career, he won 20 games.

He parlayed that success into a starting job at Akron where he went 2-3 with a 4.40 ERA as a freshman.

LaPiana spent last summer at Kelly Automotive Park in the Prospect League with the Butler BlueSox and went 3-4 with a 4.90 ERA.

He struck out 37 in 40 innings.

LaPiana plans on returning to Butler to pitch for the BlueSox this summer.

“That’s the plan,” he said.

LaPiana isn’t a hard thrower — his fastball tops out at 87 mph — but he has excellent command and works in a change-up and curveball to keep hitters offbalance.

“My big pitch is my change-up,” he said. “My curveball has gotten a lot better.”

LaPiana said his experience with the BlueSox made him a better pitcher and has led to his early success in Utah.

“Just being there and getting those innings and experience helped me tremendously,” LaPiana said. “(BlueSox manager) Jason Radwan talked a lot about setting up hitters. That’s a huge thing and it’s a great league with some great players and good competition.”