Another no-hit outing from Tyler Samide leads Greensburg Central Catholic past Bishop Canevin in Class A

By: Dave Mackall
Tuesday, May 20, 2025 | 9:51 PM

Sit down for this: On Tuesday, in a WPIAL Class A quarterfinal-round baseball playoff shortened to four innings, two teams totaled 17 runs, 17 walks and six errors.

Oh, and there was a no-hitter, too, the second in a row for Greensburg Central Catholic, both by right-hander Tyler Samide.

GCC managed just six hits against the Maddix brothers, from Bishop Canevin — Tyler and Jackson — whose uncharacteristic wildness produced a total of 16 walks.

Simply put, it was a wacky afternoon at West Mifflin High School.

No. 5 seed GCC scored eight runs each in the first and fourth innings, and Samide pitched four hitless innings for the Centurions in a 16-1 rout of No. 4 Bishop Canevin to advance to the Class A semifinals.

GCC (17-2) was scheduled to return to West Mifflin on Wednesday to take on top-seeded Serra Catholic at 4 p.m.

The Eagles advanced with an 11-1 victory over No. 8 Jefferson-Morgan at Peterswood Park in Peters.

“I believe every bit of it,” GCC coach John Boyle said of his team’s latest lopsided victory.

The Centurions hit double-digit runs for the sixth consecutive game and 10th of the season.

“I understand how it may seem a bit unbelievable because Bishop Canevin is a great team, and those are two first-rate pitchers we saw today.”

Anthony Grippo had two of GCC’s six hits and drove in a pair of runs. Jackson McMullen led the Centurions with three RBIs, and Stephen Kochis added two RBIs.

“We know we have to play again (Wednesday), but we shouldn’t forget about this game,” Kochis said. “We just want to keep it rolling.”

For Samide, it was his third no-no in the past four outings. He tweaked a knee when he landed while throwing a pitch in the second inning, and he sat for long periods.

But he stayed sharp throughout.

“You never know who’s going to be watching,” Samide said. “They could come and watch for 5 minutes and leave. I never take off a pitch. I play like it’s the seventh game of the World Series.”

Samide, a junior, pitched a five-inning no-hitter in a 14-0 first-round victory over Sewickley Academy on Thursday at Plum, when GCC scored 10 runs in the first.

He authored another four-inning no-hitter in a regular-season, 15-0 victory over visiting Mapletown on May 7.

“We go five-deep (in pitching),” Boyle said. “They all want the ball, but Tyler is our ace. He’s got nice heat, a good offspeed pitch and he’s in command out there.”

Bishop Canevin (11-7), which shared the Section 3-A championship with Serra Catholic and Eden Christian, never recovered from an 8-0 deficit in the first inning.

When someone suggested to Crusaders coach Craig Sonson that they couldn’t believe what they had just witnessed, he quickly replied: “I can’t, either.”

Sonson said his team fell back on its heels early and couldn’t respond.

“We definitely weren’t prepared for our season to end, like this. The doors came off,” he said.

GCC scored eight runs on five hits in the first and another eight runs on just one hit in the fourth.

Bishop Canevin got its only run against Samide in the second inning with the help of two errors and his wild pitch.

GCC, the Section 1-A champion, will get another shot at upending a section winner in Serra Catholic (18-3).

“I told our guys, it’s all about sacrifice and opportunity,” Boyle said. “We sacrifice. We work hard. Believe me, these guys work hard at every aspect of the game, and now we have the opportunity to beat three section champs. We took care of one today. We have a big challenge (Wednesday).”

Tags: Bishop Canevin, Greensburg C.C.