McGuffey baseball: making history one win at a time
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
McGuffey’s baseball players get instructions from head coach George Linck during a game against Waynesburg at Wild Things Park.
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
McGuffey coach George Linck, right, watches from a dry spot in the dugout as his team takes the field against Waynesburg at Wild Things Park. This season has been the high-water mark for McGuffey baseball as the Highlanders have won a section championship for the first time.
Mark Marietta
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
McGuffey coach George Linck watches from a dry spot in the dugout as his team takes the field against Waynesburg at Wild Things Park on May 3. This season has been the highwater mark for McGuffey baseball as the Highlanders have won a section championship for the firts time.
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
McGuffey High School’s baseball players stand as a team for the national anthem before the May 3 game against Waynesburg at Wild Things Park. McGuffey has clinched the Class 3A Section 4 championship, the first baseball section title in school history.
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Jake Orr acknowledges cheers as he leaves the field at Wild Things Park after having pitched a complete game in the Highlanders’ 8-1 victory over Waynesburg on May 3.
Don’t look for George Linck to step on a crack in the sidewalk for fear he might break his mother’s back.
You will never find him standing under a ladder or walking across the path of a black cat.
To say Linck is superstitious would be quite an understatement. To get him to talk about any of his players on the Highlanders’ baseball team he has coached for the last three seasons is tricky unless your are talking about them in a collective manner.
This has been a baseball season unlike any other in McGuffey High School program history. The Highlanders won their first section title and nearly finished the league season with a 10-0 record. Only a loss to Waynesburg in a wild nine-inning section finale late Thursday night stopped that from happening.
The section title was wrapped up a couple weeks ago, setting off a brief celebration that stayed within Linck’s protocol for the Highlanders program that began in the mid-1970s.
We’re not sure Linck has any rabbit’s feet in the pocket of his uniform or a four-leaf clover nestled into the scorebook but hey, it can’t hurt, right?
“The kids knew about (the section title drought) but they tried to keep it into perspective,” said Linck. “We try to play it one game at a time. Our kids are really just focused to have the best year they can have. A lot of people make a lot about the history but we want to look toward the future.”
Besides the loss to Waynesburg, the Highlanders have two other blemishes on their overall record, an 11-5 loss to Ringgold that began the season like so many others, and a 13-3 loss at Carmichaels April 22 that served as a call to readjust the priorities of the season.
“When we rebounded against a bad loss to Ringgold, I was concerned about our pitching,” said Linck. “Once we got our pitching sorted out, I realized this could be a pretty good team.”
The heart and soul of the team centers around three senior players: Luke Wagner, Jake Orr and Austin Beattie. Orr and Beattie form a solid 1-2 punch on the mound with ERAs of 1.12 and 0.88, respectively.
“The coaching has come a long way,” said Orr. “Coach Linck has a good way of making sure everyone is working hard in practice. Working hard in practice, good things come from it. That’s been showing in our games. Coach Linck has brought winning back to McGuffey baseball.”
Beattie leads in just about every important pitching category but just by a little over Orr.
“I don’t want to say we have a No.1 and No. 2 starter,” Linck said. “We have two No. 1s. The two are very similar. Austin might have a better slider and a bigger curve. But they are both very similar on the mound and in the field.”
Beattie said the competitive nature of the team increased with Linck as head coach.
“Before, it was more for fun (than baseball),” Beattie said. “No one really cared about winning. Now, we have goals set high for what we can accomplish. I think we’re on the right path to do so.
“I still don’t think the guys have realized the history that they made. We trying to meet our goals, winning the WPIAL and state titles.”
Wagner, who is headed to Santa Barbara (Calif.) City College in the fall, came into the week with a .353 batting average and leads the team with two triples. The first baseman is a hulk of an athlete with the ability to send the ball a long way on any pitch.
“As a freshman, I wouldn’t say our main focus was being competitive. We were just focused on having fun,” said Wagner, whose grandfather Bob pitched in the Cleveland Indians organization. “My sophomore season, they brought in Coach Linck and he is very focused on winning and very focused on discipline. He’s like a father to us. He likes to do things a certain way and that’s how we play baseball. We play very disciplined baseball. We don’t like to talk too much about what we do. We like to stay humble.”