Former Black­hawk High School star Bren­dan McKay is ex­pected to go in the top few picks Mon­day night of the Ma­jor League Base­ball draft. But two play­ers with ties to the WPIAL might go in the first few rounds of the draft.

J.J. Mati­jevic is a ju­nior at the Univer­sity of Ari­zona and a ter­rific sea­son hit­ting has vaulted this Nor­win grad­u­ate into good po­si­tion for the draft. Mati­jevic, who led the Pac-12 Con­fer­ence in hit­ting, is pro­jected to go in the first two or three rounds. Base­ball Amer­ica ranks him the No. 71 pros­pect for the draft.

It’s rare to see two WPIAL prod­ucts go­ing in the first few rounds of the draft. McKay is a pitcher/​first base­man at Lou­is­ville who is be­ing con­sid­ered by the Min­ne­sota Twins for the top over­all pick.

Mati­jevic is listed as a first base­man, but he played a num­ber of po­si­tions at Ari­zona. After hit­ting be­low .300 his first two sea­sons, Mati­jevic bat­ted .383 this sea­son with 10 home runs and 65 RBIs.

Mike White

Former Blackhawk star Brendan McKay taken 4th overall in MLB draft by Rays

And don’t look for any cur­rent high school play­ers to be se­lected early. The high­est-rated WPIAL player, ac­cord­ing to Base­ball Amer­ica, is Peters Town­ship out­fielder Tor Se­h­nert, who is ranked No. 483 for the draft. But will Se­h­nert be se­lected high enough in the draft for him to forego his col­lege ca­reer at Coastal Car­o­lina?

Latrobe out­fielder Zach Kokoska and Mon­tour pitcher Trent Vi­et­meier are two other WPIAL play­ers who have been men­tioned be­fore as pos­si­ble draft picks in later rounds. Kokoska is a Vir­ginia Tech re­cruit while Vi­et­meier has signed with LSU and it seems un­likely they would by­pass col­lege ca­reers if they are drafted late. Kokoska will play Mon­day in the PIAA semi­fi­nals.

“I love Vir­ginia Tech and I know it’s im­por­tant to get an ed­u­ca­tion,” Kokoska said. “Then again, if the draft num­ber is there and I like the sign­ing of­fer, I’ll take it. I’m ready to sign out of high school. But right now, I’m must con­cen­trat­ing on win­ning the state with my boys.”

One to watch

Austin Hen­drick. Re­mem­ber the name. Maybe some­day we could be talk­ing about him go­ing high in the draft.

Hen­drick just fin­ished an im­pres­sive fresh­man sea­son with the West Al­le­gheny base­ball team. Per­fect Game USA rates Hen­drick the No. 1 fresh­man in the coun­try. It should be pointed out that Per­fect Game of­ten makes rat­ings on young play­ers who par­tic­i­pate in show­cases around the coun­try. Not all play­ers do.

But the rank­ing still gives you an idea of Hen­drick’s rep­u­ta­tion. He is a 5-foot-11, 185-pound cen­ter fielder who was one of West Al­le­gheny’s lead­ing hit­ters this year with a .371 av­er­age. He also had three home runs and 20 RBIs. He has a sweet left-handed swing and also is ex­cel­lent de­fen­sively. But he also is an adept left-handed pitcher who was 5-0 with a 0.82 ERA this sea­son.

Ken Wunderly

WPIAL champions North Allegheny, Beaver County Christian lose in PIAA volleyball finals

And this tells you some more about his tal­ent: “He al­ready has of­fers on the ta­ble from Lou­is­ville, Miami and West Vir­ginia,” West Al­le­gheny coach Bryan Cor­nell said. “He’s just a spe­cial breed. He has all the tools.”

Hemp­field’s per­fect storm

So far, ev­ery­thing has been per­fect for the Hemp­field soft­ball team. If the Spar­tans fin­ish per­fect, they will put them­selves into an elite class of teams.

Hemp­field is 25-0 and plays Mon­day in the PIAA 6A semi­fi­nals. The only two teams from the WPIAL to win a PIAA ti­tle with a per­fect record are Bishop Can­evin (25-0) in 1999 and Carmichaels (26-0) in 1998.

“Truth­fully speak­ing, the big­gest driv­ing force is last year’s team was anointed the best team in Hemp­field his­tory be­cause they won the WPIAL and the state,” Hemp­field coach Bob Kalp said. “But the kids who were wait­ing in the wings last year, came out and said, ‘We’re go­ing to be the best this year.’

“No team has ever won 26 games in a sea­son here. Our next game would do that.”

Semi­fi­nal dou­ble play

These PIAA semi­fi­nals are twice as nice for South Park. The school’s base­ball and soft­ball teams will play Mon­day in semi­fi­nal games. The pre­vi­ous WPIAL school to have base­ball and soft­ball teams in PIAA cham­pi­on­ships was Bethel Park in 1987.

Mike White: mwhite@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1975 and Twitter @mwhiteburgh.

First Published: June 11, 2017, 4:00 a.m.