It would be difficult to argue that any player has done more for his team than Wallach has for the Pirates (31-13), who open the four-team, double elimination Super Regional today at 4 p.m. against visiting Saddleback.
Wallach is 8-1 with three saves on the mound, where he has fashioned a 2.11 earned-run average, struck out 95 and allowed just 65 hits in 89 2/3 innings.
But that’s only the half of it, as the 6-foot-2, 180-pound right-hander has hit .362 with three home runs and 43 runs batted in from the cleanup spot. When he is not pitching, he plays first base for Coach John Altobelli, who is not shy about singing his sophomore standout’s praises.
“He’s been phenomenal this season,” Altobelli said of the Orange Empire Conference Player of the Year, who helped the Pirates share the conference title with Cypress and Santa Ana. “He has been the best I’ve ever had [in 18 seasons] as a pitcher, but it’s his offense that has been a big surprise. He has probably been the most clutch hitter with two outs and runners in scoring position that I’ve ever had.”
Wallach, whom Altobelli has been told will likely be selected between the third and fifth rounds as a pitcher in the major league draft in June, has always harbored his own big-league dreams.
But, he said, it was not until his senior year in high school that he began showing the kind of progress that would attract even college recruiters.
“When I started high school, I was 5-foot-4,” Wallach said. “By my senior year, I was 6-0, 160 pounds.
Wallach played shortstop at Orange Lutheran, where he pitched only two innings.
“I pitched my whole life, but I just never had the velocity,” said Wallach, who has thrown 92 mph for the Pirates. “I don’t know where it came from and I don’t know what happened. But [the velocity] just hit me.”
