Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 85

Aug 03 2011 South Zone PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE GT 4, 2011 WWW.POST-GAZETTE.COM S-10 S-10 By Joe Koch Tri-State Sports News Service The last thing Derek Law wanted to see before hopping on an airplane to Arizona was the backyard of his Beechview residence. After years of developing as a pitcher in youth baseball and later at Seton-LaSalle High School and Miami Dade (Fla.) College, Law had realized his dream: signing a professional baseball contract with the World Champion San Francisco Giants. dad built a mound in the backyard when I was 7 years he said. go out there every day, and where I learned how to pitch. I was still using it in high school, but then my pitches became uncatchable for my With each hurled strike, Law learned how to pitch.

the end of every session, my dad would say, inning, last and have to throw three strikes in a he said. how I got my So no surprise that this ninth-round draft pick had to take that final trip to the backyard where grass now grows on the mound. went out there for old sake with one of my friends because where I developed my love for the he said. Then it was off to Scottsdale, where Law is on the roster of the farm team in the Arizona Rookie League. Not long after his arrival, he got his first taste of professional baseball.

So far this season, he has appeared in seven games, pitching 7 1 3 innings with a 2.45 ERA and no decisions. pitched in my first game Wednesday, July he said. pitched one inning, and it went really well. I struck out the first guy, and I got the next two guys to ground out softly to second base. It was might not best describe approach to pitching.

He graduated from Seton-LaSalle in 2009 with a 3-2 record in his senior season and a sparkling 1.70 earned run average with 55 strikeouts in 39 innings. Those numbers impressed the Texas Rangers enough to draft him in the 28th round. Law, though, had a different idea. the right said Law, who accepted a scholarship from Miami Dade, one of the top junior college baseball programs in the country. to Miami Dade helped me to This past season, Law had an 8-5 record with a 2.35 ERA in 92 innings.

He struck out 121 batters, averaging 11.8 strikeouts per nine innings. The Giants drafted Law in the ninth round. He could have held off as he did two years ago and opted to go to a four-year college to finish his amateur career. But waiting was not an option this time. time was right this time, and I was being drafted by the world he said.

hit me at first, but when I got there are big signs everywhere. I was signed by the World Series champions, and pretty father, Joe, who has been with the pitcher every step of the way, was as ecstatic as the signee. a dream come said Joe Law, who himself was signed by Oakland and spent nine years in the organization. groomed him all my life, and I was a pitcher myself. I tried to make him the best pitcher he could be, and I be any prouder than I am right Derek Law is confident in his four pitches.

His fastball has been clocked at 92 mph, and his chan- geup (80), curve (74) and slider (82) are solid. He likes the idea of starting games, but not opposed to closing them. One site, Bleacher Report, states he has the same build and repertoire as Giants closer Brian Wilson. seen that Law said. have one more pitch than he does a changeup.

But I have his Joe Law said his son might be sent to the short-season team in Salem-Keizer, Ore. The younger Law mind. He hones his pitches on a daily basis, and he has his dad to thank for that. told me not to look forward too much and get caught up looking at other he said. said to keep my head on straight, worry about your own goals and work a lot Law now pitching for Giants affiliate Seton-LaSalle grad turns pro BASEBALL By Chris Adamski Tri-State Sports News Service How to improve upon perfection? Serra Alain Girman is out to find out.

Girman remarkably is a perfect 24-0 in his high school pitching career, and he had an almost-perfect 0.63 ERA and is 2-for-3 when it comes to leading his team to a WPIAL Class A championship during a season in which he plays (this year his Eagles win the WPIAL title, but they made up for it with a PIAA championship). Girman, who lives in Monroeville, content. He continues pushing, working, refining improving. want to focus on Girman said. tell me I need to speed up my curve- ball a little bit, get it up in the lower 70s.

And, of course, get bigger faster, Girman, a left-hander who can throw his fastball into the mid-90s, added a slider to his repertoire over the past year. also gradually built up better control within the strike zone with his location. back in my freshman year, done a lot better with my supporting pitches, being able to throw any pitch in any count on the Girman said. This summer, Girman is pitching for the Berkley Hills Renegades in the wooden-bat Johnstown All-American Amateur Baseball Association League. The league is composed primarily of college players.

competition is pretty Girman said. bats, real Girman said he has been receiving instruction from former Pirates pitcher and Freedom Area High School alumnus Josh Sharpless, and former minor leaguer Jon George. He also was part of a team representing the western side of the state in the Keystone Games last weekend in the Hershey area. coach at Serra, Brian Dzurenda, was a co-coach of the Keystone Games team along with Penn State-Greater Allegheny coach Jim Chester, another Serra graduate. absolutely remarkable when you look back and you reflect on Dzurenda said.

even more remarkable is that never given up more than three runs earned or unearned in any of his 24 games since his freshman The combination of package of pitches that he can throw for strikes, the velocity with which he can throw them and the fact he is left-handed leave no doubt that he is a coveted commodity among major colleges and perhaps even beyond. Girman said interested in a variety of schools, including Penn State, East Carolina, N.C. State and Florida Atlantic. There also is the possibility he could be drafted in the Major League Baseball entry draft next year. since I was 5 years old, wanted to play in the major leagues, so if the opportunity presents itself, of course, that definitely would be Girman said.

In the late summer and fall, Girman plans on playing again for the Allegheny Pirates travel team, a collection of some of the top players in his age group in the region. For now, Girman is working out to get bigger and stronger, doing exercises to strengthen his arm and refining his pitches. Dzurenda said Girman is the best pitching talent seen in 14 years of coaching. But not all that impresses the Serra coach about his star pitcher. has a very good work Dzurenda said.

real laid back though. Some coaches at the next level, they see him and they kind of mistake that for laziness or arrogance. not it at all. kid works incredibly hard, works with private pitching coaches and personal trainers. He does the work it takes to get to the next Girman works to improve his game Matt Serra Alain Girman has a 24-0 record through three varsity seasons.

HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL By Nicholas Tolomeo Tri-State Sports News Service Championships never get old but after six in a row, the details of each may start to run together. But St. manager Tom McCarthy finds something unique about each title run this year was no different. St. Johns captured its sixth consecutive Greater Pittsburgh Federation League title with a 3-1 championship series win against the Steel City Black Sox.

one is McCarthy said. had more people involved. We just have an awful lot of people who were a part of the team and played a role one way or the other. There were a lot of new faces with The more things change such as the makeup of the St. Johns roster the more they stay the same, that is the championship result and the veteran core of the team.

That core is made up by Rick Krist, South Greg Stokes and Bethel Nate Thimons and Jim Jaskowski. The four have been a part of an impressive six consecutive league titles and they have been around for 10 championships in the past 12 years. Krist, an outfielder, played more innings (218), than anyone else on the team. He scored a team-high 32 runs and drove in another 16. Stokes, also an outfielder, scored 22 runs, drove in 19 and batted .303.

Thimons, a first baseman, led the team with 27 RBIs. He also batted .438 with six home runs and drew a team-high 23 walks. Jaskowski, a designated hitter, batted .390 with 18 RBIs and 21 runs scored. The four provide more than just those numbers. The veteran leadership around the diamond for St.

Johns was evident with the way the team bounced back from a 1-0 series deficit against the Black Sox in the championship series. St. Johns looked like anything but a veteran bunch in the first game of the series. Five errors contributed to a 15-5 Black Sox win. St.

Johns had not allowed any team to score more than 10 runs all season and in the first game of the championship series, defensive woes allowed the opponents to plate 15. was one of the things that really bother McCarthy said of the game one loss. are not in a position where we worry about that. It was just one game, we play As can be expected by a franchise in the midst of a multi-year title reign, St. Johns rebounded in a big way.

Games two and three were played as part of a doubleheader and St. Johns swept it by a combined score of 24-8. Krist had three hits and two RBIs in game two and Jaskowski had a pair of RBIs as well. Stokes came through with a two- run home run in game three. Thimons and Stokes also knocked in two runs each in the third game of the series.

In game four St. Johns clinched another title with a 5-1 win. It now moves on to the National Amateur Baseball Federation regional in Buffalo. The double-elimination tournament is set to begin today. It is the first time St.

Johns has advanced to the Buffalo region. In past years St. Johns competed in the Youngstown region but the Federation League received two berths to NABF regionals this season and St. Johns opted to go to Buffalo while Steel City took the Youngstown berth. will be a little different, we gone to Buffalo McCarthy said.

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