Without home field, Mt. Lebanon baseball team finds success on road

Without much argument, Mt. Lebanon can claim the toughest road schedule in the WPIAL this baseball season.

But it wasn't entirely by choice.

“Our home field — what's supposed to be our home field — is filled with gravel and dirt,” Mt. Lebanon senior Austin Kitchen said. “It's real hard to look at. But we had to move past it, really focus, dig deep and just play.”

With Wildcat Field under construction since last fall, Mt. Lebanon will play 15 of its 16 regular-season games on the road this season. But even on the bus, the Blue Devils made themselves right at home.

The travel hasn't affected the Section 5-AAAA champions. Mt. Lebanon is 11-0 in the section and 14-1 overall. The team has won 12 in a row, clinched a second consecutive section title and is ranked No. 1 in WPIAL Class AAAA.

Mt. Lebanon coach Patt McCloskey credits his team's maturity.

“If there was ever a season to not have a field, this was a pretty good group to do it with,” said McCloskey, who has 16 seniors on the roster. “They had some experience, and we didn't have to start with the basics of our system. We've been very fortunate with the level a maturity our players have had this year.”

The Blue Devils for awhile hoped their field on Cedar Boulevard could be ready in late April, so they scheduled their first six section games on the road and their last six at home. But the artificial turf installation remains unfinished, so their season-long road trip continued into May.

“Because of weather conditions, they haven't been able to resume construction since December,” McCloskey said.

The team practiced a handful of times behind Mt. Lebanon's Mellon Middle School and used that field once this season for a section game with Carrick. But conditions there made steady road trips a better option.

“We were able to win (at Mellon Park) but it wasn't a very good experience playing there,” McCloskey said. “… Our district did a great job. They poured a lot of money into our ninth-grade field for us. But unfortunately, it's in such a state that it's fine for a (junior varsity) or ninth-grade game, but it's a little tough to play a varsity game there. We decided in the interest of preserving the integrity of Quad-A baseball, we would just play our varsity home games away the rest of the year.”

The Blue Devils were officially the home team Monday at Bethel Park and Tuesday at Baldwin. The team's regular-season finale comes Monday at Upper St. Clair, and Mt. Lebanon will honor its seniors there.

“(This senior class) is very much akin to what we had in 2012, 2006 and 2002,” said McCloskey, noting that the Blue Devils reached the WPIAL championship all three times. “You get cycles like this at Mt. Lebanon where you have a grade that's just particularly deep. As coaches, we recognize that we're very fortunate. It's not just one or two guys. There are a lot of seniors who have made big-time contributions this year.”

Mt. Lebanon's lineup includes seven and at times eight seniors, with either one or two juniors. They've outscored their past eight opponents 55-9. The team hasn't lost since March 23 to Butler.

“We've been playing together since we were 8,” said senior second baseman Vince D'Orazio, who's hitting .340. “We have a lot of good chemistry.”

That camaraderie improves the bus rides, he said. The team traveled on three consecutive days this week. The third was a trip to Washington & Jefferson College's field to face Peters Township. The Blue Devils won 2-0 on Wednesday.

“We're probably one of the goofiest teams out there,” D'Orazio said with a laugh. “If another team looks at us they have to wonder, how is this team undefeated in the section? We're just real relaxed. We're not tight at all. We have fun.”

Seven starters are batting better than .300, with senior left fielder Joey Stabile (.444), junior shortstop Eddie Jenkins (.391), senior third baseman Brian Isler (.368) and senior first baseman Robert Klinchock (.356) among them. Klinchock leads with 16 RBIs. Jenkins has a team-high 17 runs.

Kitchen, a left-hander committed to Coastal Carolina, is the Blue Devils' ace. He's 5-0 without the comfort of a familiar home pitching mound.

“Going on the road, I think, helps prepare us for the playoffs,” Kitchen said. “We're playing pretty well, and we're really starting to like playing on the road.”

Chris Harlan is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. Reach him at charlan@tribweb.com or via Twitter @CHarlan_Trib.