CHARLESTON, W.Va — When Bishop Donahue and Wahama meet in Friday’s Class A baseball state semifinal at 5 p.m., the two teams will end a combined 40 years of state tournament droughts.
Wahama (23-7) hasn’t been since winning its second title in 1998. For Bishop Donahue (21-5), it has been 23 years since an appearance back in 1992 — the Bishops have never won a baseball championship.
“We’ve been building the last five years, getting better pretty much every year,” said Bishop Donahue coach Bob Kleeh. “We’ve taken an additional step every year, making the regional finals last year, the sectional finals the year before that. We knew we could be pretty good this year and kids have played up to expectations most of the year.”
Kleeh’s club has had a nice mix of seniors and younger players who have produced those 21 wins on the year. Andrew Cunningham (.290 avg), Jesse Padlow (.456 avg), Matt Vucelik (.371 avg) and Alex Riedel (.456 avg) are the four seniors at the top of Bishop Donahue’s lineup who have led the way on the year.
“They’re also an excellent defensive team,” said Wahama coach Tom Cullen. “They have those seniors right up at the top of their order and those are kids who have been to war quite often.”
More: Complete baseball state tournament schedule
On the mound, Padlow is Bishop Donahue’s No. 1, while Andrew Rush has really been coming on of late — Rush came up just short of a complete game in a 3-2 regional final win over St. Marys, scattering just four singles in the game.
Padlow is 7-1 on the mound with a 1.45 ERA.
“Jesse (Padlow) is not an overpowering pitcher, but he mixes his pitches up well and stays out of the middle of the plate,” Kleeh said. “He’s a competitor and he would turn all of his individual awards over for the betterment of the team. He’s a team player, a coach on the field and has his head in the game. He will fight you to the end to get the job done.”
Wahama counters with four pitchers with ERAs under 2.00 on the year and a total team ERA of 1.33. Sophomore Phillip Hoffman (7-2, 1.45 ERA) has totaled 91 strikeouts in 58 innings, junior Mason Hicks (4-2, 1.02 ERA) has 50 strikeouts in 27 innings, junior Kaileb Sheets (6-0) has 61 strikeouts in 46 innings and senior Garrett Miller (6-3, 1.70 ERA) has 50 strikeouts on 45 innings pitched.
“It sounds like they’re well coached and it seems like they hit the ball pretty well,” Kleeh said. “They’re going to be a handful for us. We’re going to have to be at our best to get the job done. From what I’ve heard on them, we’re going to have be on our ‘A’ game.”
The two teams have a couple of common opponents in Charleston Catholic and St. Marys. Wahama lost to St. Marys 6-3 in the regular season and fell to Charleston Catholic 1-0 and 9-0 in regular season play before beating the Irish 6-4 in the regional semifinals.
The White Falcons went on to shutout Williamstown 11-0 in the regional final.
“I actually thought we would have been playing (at this level) earlier in the year,” Cullen said. “We knew our pitching was going to be good and we have a team ERA under 2.00. We hoped we would have been hitting a little bit better before this, but last week (during regional play), we hit like we thought we would have all year long. At least we’re peaking at the right time, I hope.”
Bishop Donahue owns a 2-1 regular season win over Charleston Catholic and that 3-2 regional final win over St. Marys.
Cullen was an assistant on Wahama’s state championship teams in 1996 and 1998, but is in his first state tournament appearance as the head coach, after taking over midway through the 2004 season. The White Falcons had made six previous regional appearances in a row before finally breaking through last week.
It’s Wahama’s sixth state tournament appearance all-time.
“When we won it back in ’96 and ’98, we had three or four solid pitchers. That’s what it usually takes to get there and then to win it, along with some good defense behind them,” Cullen said. “You have to be pretty good and then there has to be some luck that goes with it as well.”
With both programs back in the tournament after such long gaps, the anticipation has been heightened from the fan bases as well.
“We’re going to have a good following,” Kleeh said. “They’re trying to fill a student bus and we should have a pretty good following. It would be significant if we could get it done (and win the title). If it would happen, it would be big.
“We have a small school, but a big following,” Kleeh continued. “It’s a hard-working school and a couple years ago we had to fight to survive – that’s what these kids do everyday. They give it their all and they’re a good group of kids.”
The winner of Friday’s semifinal will face either Man (18-14) or Moorefield (19-9) for the Class A championship.
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