The WPIAL does not keep official statistics for stolen bases, so looking at the numbers, it's hard to imagine that Washington High finished the regular season tied for the Section 2-AA title with Charleroi and Brownsville.

After all, the Prexies (10-5, 9-3) had fewer than 20 extra-base hits this season and one home run. It is the stolen bases that have been getting the Prexies across the plate at an average of nine runs per section game.

Coming into his first year as head coach after serving as an assistant under veteran coach Bob Peton, Rocky Plassio's lineup was devoid of big bats. What it did have was three running backs from the football team who all run 4.5 40s.

"I knew we had a lot of fast kids on the team, but I didn't think we would have this many," said Joey Ward a senior captain and one of the top base stealers on the team.

"Not a lot of people are known for stealing bases, but we know we have to be aggressive on the basepaths because we don't get the opportunity for extra-base hits. I haven't seen many catchers who have been able to throw us out."

In fact only one catcher had after 40 attempts and that was on a pitchout in the first game of the season when junior Mark Wise was going for his third stolen base of the game.

Ward and Wise along with freshman Julien Anderson and the rest of the Prexies have been burning up the basepaths against their opponents. Through the first 11 games Wise had 11 stolen bases, Ward 10 and Anderson 9. They cause even more problems for opponents considering they are all bunched together in the lineup. Anderson is the ninth batter in the lineup and coming around to the top of the order is Ward and Wise, who are both returning starters.

"We have to work for everything," Wise said. "We really have to stretch singles into doubles and keep running a whole lot.

"We have a lot of speed and Mr. Plassio wants us to express that speed. It's great because you know you can always have a runner in scoring position. If a person gets a single, they will be on second or third momentarily."

Senior Mike Damerow is a returning starter at shortstop and leads the team in batting average, hitting better than .500 after 30 at bats. Ward was hitting .318 and junior Turner Gorby is batting .310 and leading the team in RBIs with 10. Senior Cory Carpenter is a returning starter at catcher and senior Shaun Pierson is back playing first base. Junior Eric Poland plays multiple positions, including third base and outfield and he can also pitch.

Poland is the number two pitcher on the team and after 14 innings his ERA was down to 1.35. Sophomore J. Jay Paskert is the staff ace and after 26 innings he was averaging more than one strikeout an inning. He is 4-1 with an ERA of 1.32. Opponents are struggling to solve him, batting .089 when Paskert is on the mound.

"He has really come into his own this season," Plassio said. "He has really taken on the role of being our bulldog."

Against Beth-Center earlier this season, Paskert threw a complete-game three-hit shutout with 10 strikeouts in a 3-0 win. Anderson also sees time pitching as does Damerow and Gorby, who comes in relief. Senior Rick Corso, in his first year on the team, has been an innings eater for the Prexies and he also has a sub 2.00 ERA after two starts.

Jared Interval has made a dramatic improvement from last season. He is the backup catcher and is often used in the DH role.

"You want to talk about a kid who improved a lot, just look at Jared," said Plassio. "We put him in the cage as a freshman and he would just get blown away, but he worked hard. I call him off the bench and he comes through. He is clutch in that sense and he has a great work ethic and an ability to understand the importance of all the small things in baseball."

Opponents still have not been able to contain the speed of Wash High once they get on base. Anderson, who played tailback for the Prexies football team but will move to quarterback next season, is not worried about the lack of extra base hits.

"We just have to make contact and get singles. We don't need the big hits," Anderson said.

"In the past couple of years I heard they really haven't stolen many bases. Our coach now wants us to be more aggressive when we are on base and we have just been running all over other teams."

Wash High is exceeding expectations this year in the first time they had a coaching transition in more than three decades. In Peton's 35 years at the school, he compiled 396 total wins. So far Plassio's aggressive baserunning plan has worked to near perfection.

"Those three kids [Wise, Ward and Anderson], they can fly. I never played with anyone who can wreak as much havoc running the bases as those kids," Plassio said.

"You have to play to what your advantages are and we don't have that one big bat. We kind of knew this was the way it was going to be, we have to play small ball and do all the things right.

"We are going to run and hit and run. I have been lucky enough that I have good kids that have bought into it."