Apr 23, 2015 4 min read

Austin Kitchen thrives when the spotlight is brightest. Mt. Lebanon’s senior left-handed pitcher does not care about pitch counts, where the Blue Devils play their “home” games, how warm the weather is or even the opponent.

A strong breeze swept through Washington & Jefferson’s Ross Memorial Park Thursday evening, sending chills up players’ spines and impacting movement of pitches.

The 40-degree weather is far different from what Kitchen, a Coastal Carolina recruit, will experience next year, but he was as dominant as ever.

Kitchen tossed a complete game two-hitter with 13 strikeouts and two walks to help the Blue Devils defeat Canon-McMillan, 3-1, in a Section 5-AAAA game.

First-place Mt. Lebanon (7-0, 10-1) now holds a three-game lead in the section while Canon-McMillan (4-2, 7-3), which lost two of its last three section games, are in a tie for second place.

“I thought this is the best he threw. I thought this was the hardest he threw,” Mt. Lebanon head coach Patt McCloskey said. “It’s funny that it’s in cold weather. He just really wants to win and he doesn’t want anyone else to do it. He wants to do it.”

Using a devastating slider and a dizzying curveball, Kitchen struck out six Big Macs looking and his fastball reached 85 mph. After walking the second batter he faced, Kitchen retired nine straight and grew more comfortable as the game progressed.

“I threw most pitches for strikes and tried to keep it low,” Kitchen said. “They were chasing a lot of sliders, so I hit backdoor, outside corner, inside corner, moving in and out. I kept changing my speeds and it worked. We’re the road warriors.”

With Mt. Lebanon’s home field undergoing maintenance, the team has not played a home game all season. The Blue Devils moved Thursday’s game to Ross Memorial Park and made themselves comfortable early.

Facing Canon-McMillan senior right-hander Luke Blanock, who struck out four, walked four and hit three batters, Mt. Lebanon had runners on first and second in the first inning after a hit batsman and a four-pitch walk. Left fielder Joey Stabile capitalized with a two-out RBI single to right field.

Another runner scored on a wild pitch to give the Blue Devils a 2-0 lead. That’s all Kitchen needed. Mt. Lebanon added another run in the second inning when Vince D’orazio grounded into a fielder’s choice with the bases loaded, scoring Matt Pesacreta for a 3-0 advantage.

The Big Macs did not record a hit until the fourth inning when right fielder Jared Beach fought off an inside fastball that dropped over Kitchen’s head and Beach beat the throw for an infield single. C-M did force Kitchen into four full counts in the first two innings but struck out twice, grounded out and walked.

After a tough start to the game, Blanock settled down, allowing just four hits and forcing the Blue Devils to strand six runners.

“We had a great pitching performance by Luke. We were facing a very, very good pitcher as evidenced by what he does,” Canon-McMillan head coach Frank Zebrasky said. “We had some quality at-bats that didn’t end successfully.”

Canon-McMillan spoiled Kitchen’s shutout in the fifth inning. Designated hitter Andrew Wuenstel drew a leadoff walk, and two batters later second baseman Andrew Serafino hit an elevated fastball to center field that scored Wuenstel, drawing the Big Macs to within two runs.

Kitchen did not allow a hit the rest of the game and struck out five in the final two innings.

The Blue Devils struggled against Blanock and the game revealed a troubling trend to McCloskey.

“I told the team afterward that we have developed a bad habit of taking Austin for granted,” McCloskey said. “In a big game for first place, he really come through. You come to expect so much from him, but sometimes you have to take a step back and say, ‘Wow, he really did something special today,'”

Canon-McMillan will play Upper St. Clair Saturday and has three section games scheduled for next week. Despite its third section loss, the Big Macs are not panicking.

“Welcome back to Section 5,” Zebrasky joked. “Everybody else still plays each other. We continue to get quality pitching and that was a quality effort by Luke Blanock. Quality pitching, timely hitting and solid fielding is the recipe to get to the playoffs.”