Norwin notebook: North Huntingdon's Morgart earns promotion

John W. Morgart, Jr. of North Huntingdon received a promotion.

The successful sensai is now a fifth-degree black belt in Tang Soo Do under Grandmaster Cynthia Rothrock.

Morgart, who has won on a world stage and taught dozens, is known for forming and cultivating his own style called, “Wei Son Do.”

In 2021, he was Inducted into the International Martial Arts Hall of Fame for the Founder of the Year Award for Wei Son Do.

Morgart is currently training in the hopes of reaching the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

Matijevic’s walk-off winner

It wasn’t majestic, like one of his second-deck home runs, and it didn’t find a gap.

But JJ Matijevic’s hard-hit grounder did enough to score the winning run for the Houston Astros, who continued their mastery of the visiting New York Yankees last July 21 with a 3-2 win.

Matijevic, pinch-hitting again in a tough situation as he clings tightly to his second major league call-up of the summer out of Triple-A Sugar Land, delivered an infield single deep on the infield with the bases loaded to score Alex Bregman for a walk-off victory.

The Norwin product homered off Gerrit Cole and the Yankees on June 25 — a solo shot into the upper deck — in a 3-0 win that saw Cristian Javier, Hector Neris and Ryan Pressly combine on a no-hitter.

His first two hits in the majors were home runs.

Astros manager Dusty Baker keeps circling back to Matijevic, the rookie whom he sent to the plate with two outs in his pro debut in April. Houston trailed Toronto, 4-3, with two on in the bottom of the ninth.

Matijevic struck out.

This time, the well-tattooed lefty assured to make contact to get the base paths moving.

“I was happy for JJ,” Baker said after the win.

Said Matijevic: “I’m always ready to hit … big situations, be ready to go. It’s a great feeling to help this team win.”

Matijevic, 26, who has been playing some first base and starting as a designated hitter, was slashing .159/.229/.341 in 44 at-bats. He had seven hits, five runs scored and four RBIs.

He was the 75th pick in the 2017 MLB Draft.

Basala, others honored

Former Norwin standout pitcher Jake Bazala was the recipient of the Pete Vuckovich Award, which goes to the top pitcher in the Johnstown Collegiate Baseball League.

Another local standout, Aiden Dunlap, who played at Hempfield and is set to play at Youngstown State, was tabbed the league’s Ken Horoho Award winner as the top rookie.

Bazala, who plays at Mercyhurst, helped Paul Carpenter Capital Advisor’s win the regular-season title. He was 5-0 with a 1.01 ERA and 38 strikeouts in 272.1 innings.

Dunlap batted .444 with 24 runs scored and drove in 21.

Another Norwin alum and Paul Carpenter team member, Nick Fleming (Mount St. Mary’s), was named an all-league designated hitter, while Aidan Shephard (Norwin/Mercyhurst) of Mainline Pharmacy and Noah Sweeney (Greensburg Salem/Seton Hill) of Paul Carpenter made all-league as outfielders. Connor Helm (Franklin Regional/Washington & Jefferson) of Team O was picked as a shortstop and Landon DiBeradin (Norwin/Mercyhurst), also of O, was selected as a catcher.