Christian Herstine

Beaver

This week: Herstine, only a freshman, remained unbeaten as a pitcher with a 2-1 victory Monday against Burrell in the first round of the WPIAL Class AA playoffs.

Check this out: Herstine has had a phenomenal season for a 15-year-old ninth grader. A 5-foot-11, 140-pound right-hander, he was one of the WPIAL leaders in wins in the regular season, and Monday's victory gave him a 9-0 record. Herstine also is batting above .500. He's not overpowering, throwing around 80 mph, but has a good curveball and changeup. His father, Bruce, is Beaver's coach.

• Being only a freshman, what were your expectations at the start of the season? Just to try and go out there and try to do whatever I could to help the team win.

• Did you ever, in your wildest dreams, think you'd be 9-0? No, not facing seniors this much. I thought I'd get crushed a lot.

• Is it hard when your dad is the coach? Yeah. He puts a lot of pressure on me to do better and worker harder than anyone else.

• What pitcher do you look up to? I've always liked to watch Randy Johnson. When I was younger, I used to watch him and he was amazing. I always watched his technique.

• When should kids start throwing a curveball? For me, I probably threw one too early, but I played travel baseball and it was necessary. I'd say when they get to Pony League (ages 13-14), they can start to develop it and throw it right.

• Do you have any pregame rituals? No, except when we have away games I always sleep on the bus.

• People might be surprised to know that ... I'm a freshman.

-- By Mike White

Oakland Catholic

Last week: Doaty won the 100-meter hurdles at the WPIAL Northern Qualifier with a time of 14.35 seconds, the best time in the WPIAL this year.

Check this out: Doaty's time was the seventh best in WPIAL history. Doaty, a junior, also has the second-fastest 300-meter time in the WPIAL in the 300 hurdles this season (44.58). Doaty transferred from Pine-Richland to Oakland Catholic for her junior year.

• Can you tell the story of how you became a hurdler? My summer track coaches thought I'd be a good hurdler. The coaches [at Oakland Catholic] had been asking me to try. Then at the Tri-State Invitational in April, they needed someone to run and I decided to do it.

• Why did you transfer to Oakland Catholic? I wasn't really happy at Pine-Richland and I knew a lot of people who already went here [to Oakland Catholic]. They all had good things to say about it. It's a lot more diverse than Pine-Richland, and I also like being in the city.

• Oakland Catholic is an all-girls' school. What is it like not having boys around? It's a little bit more focused. But because girls tend to talk a lot more than boys, sometimes it's hard to get class started when we're all chatting with each other.

• If you were mayor of Pittsburgh, you would ...Probably shorten the number of days in the school year. I'd have something like parades every month, just for something fun.

• You could take anyone in the world to the prom? Probably LeBron James.

• Do you eat anything special the day before or the day of a race? The day before my mom and dad usually grill steaks.

• Alexander Ovechkin is ... I have no idea who he is.

-- By Mike White