The recently concluded major league baseball season meant something special to Seneca Valley graduates Kevan Smith and Cory Mazzoni.

Skeptics of those two and their viability in the big leagues may scoff at such a notion.

While Smith hit a solid .283 with four homers and 30 RBI in 276 at bats with the White Sox in 2017, he did strike out 46 times, walked only nine, and rarely threw out anybody trying to steal a base while he was in the lineup as a catcher.

Mazzoni has a career earned run average of 17.28 in 14 games on the mound for the San Diego Padres. He allowed 32 earned runs, 40 hits and seven home runs in 16.2 innings pitched this past season.

But, yes, both of these guys made noticeable strides in their attempts to build major league careers.

Mazzoni did not pitch competitively for more than a year after having surgery on a torn labrum in April of 2016. He was virtually unhittable at Class AAA El Paso late last season, earning a call-up to San Diego.

His final two appearances with the Padres were scoreless innings. And though that club designated him for assignment, the Chicago Cubs claimed him immediately.

This is not a guy who’s done.

Smith took an odd path to professional baseball. A potential early-round draft pick out of high school, he told the scouts he was choosing college football and they backed off.

Smith started at quarterback briefly as a freshman at Pitt. After a couple of years, he switched back to baseball, played catcher at Pitt and for the Butler BlueSox. He was drafted by the White Sox in the seventh round in 2011 and turns 30 in June. Mazzoni, drafted by the Mets in the second round in 2011, is 28.

These two were once battery mates at Seneca Valley. And they’ve already beaten the odds.

Players selected in the second round of baseball’s amateur draft have a 49 percent chance of reaching the majors. Players picked in Round 7 have a 20 percent chance.

Only one in every 100 high school baseball players ever play an inning of affiliated minor league baseball.

One of every 30,000 kids who play baseball at all ever get to the minor leagues.

Smith and Mazzoni both played college baseball. Only 11.6 percent of college ballplayers ever reach the minor leagues.

Now this former Seneca Valley pitcher-catcher tandem belong to Chicago franchises. The White Sox and Cubs play each other every year.

Smith standing at the plate while Mazzoni is standing on the mound?

Could happen.

If it does, those two guys should exchange a wink and a smile before Mazzoni sends the baseball plate-ward.

They’ve earned it.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle