Junior pitcher has been tough to hit this spring for Mikes
Brandon Lawless got his driver’s license March 29, no doubt an important development.
Some might even say essential.
But it hasn’t been the only coming-of-age moment for the Carmichaels baseball team’s ace pitcher.
A three-sport athlete thrust into starting roles as a sophomore – hardly rare at a small school such as Carmichaels – Lawless has become downright dominant as a junior, this season pitching the Mikes to the Section 1-A championship.
“He’s a young junior,” Carmichaels coach Scott VanSickle said. “Last year, you could see that his body just wasn’t mature enough yet. I can’t even describe how much he’s grown in one year. He’s figured it out.”
The 6-3 Lawless is the type of athlete perhaps only Washington’s Josh Wise – a three-sport athlete himself – can fully appreciate: a three-sport stud who excels year-round.
Lawless plays quarterback for the football team, forward for the basketball team and pitches and plays third base for the baseball team.
His favorite sport?
“That’s a tough question,” Lawless said. “I don’t know. I guess whatever season it is.”
This season, no doubt, has been enjoyable.
Lawless has a 6-1 record with a 2.05 earned-run average. He has 56 strikeouts against 11 walks in 41 innings for the Mikes (12-3), who begin the WPIAL Class A playoffs Monday with a 4:30 p.m. game against Frazier at Mt. Pleasant. At the plate, Lawless is hitting .318 with 12 RBI.
“I’ve gotten stronger, faster and more mature body-wise and personality-wise,” said Lawless, who throws in the mid-80s and mixes two- and four-seam fastballs with a curveball and slider, throwing just over 66 percent of his pitches for strikes. “I pretty much have gone from a boy to a man.”
A year ago, Lawless was football coach John Menhart’s starting quarterback after taking over for Josh Mundell in Week 2, but Menhart worried about throwing too much at his young signal caller; he kept the playbook thin, the reads easy, the decisions few.
But after Lawless hit a natural growth spurt, things began to fall into place. He gained some confidence. He started to understand concepts and schemes. The game slowed down. This past season, Lawless completed 32 of 66 passes for 504 yards and four touchdowns. He ran for an additional three scores.
“He’s a tall, gangly kid,” Menhart said. “But he’s a lot more athletic than people think.”
In basketball, Lawless averaged 21.0 points per game for a team that finished 17-5 and reached the WPIAL Class A playoffs, but perhaps the greatest testament to Lawless’ growth is this: VanSickle, a former college baseball player himself, trusts Lawless so much that he lets his pitcher and catcher Mike Blasinsky call their own pitches.
“They have a pitching plan before they go out,” VanSickle said. “Brandon knows what he’s going to do, and he pitches kids exactly by the scouting report.”
Mature stuff for a high school kid, sure, though it’s not a surprise for Menhart, who opened up the playbook this past fall and even incorporated more running plays to take advantage of Lawless’ sneaky athleticism.
“We put Brandon into a situation where he didn’t have a lot of experience,” Menhart said. “He was just a young kid. As he gets older, he has already matured mentally more than physically in the last year or so. He has a good understanding of athletics, and he’s becoming a natural leader.
“You don’t own respect, you gain it. And he’s gained the respect for his actions. He’s a hard-worker. He works at everything. He’s very coachable. Honestly, he’s just a fun kid to be around.”
Lawless credits much of his progress to the weight room. Because he does play three sports, Lawless will often lift before school, sometimes as early as 5 a.m. That extra work has brought out more of his personality, and he has turned into one of those kids teammates gravitate to.
“Being the quarterback and leading that team, basketball and leading them, that has helped him during the baseball season,” VanSickle said.
The million-dollar question, then, would be why didn’t this happen sooner.
“I wish I had that answer because I would have made it happen a year ago,” VanSickle said, laughing. “I don’t know. It just all clicked for him.”