OLEAN — In their own respects, Alex Green, Trey Buchholz and Luke Petryszak made the most of their respective senior years and, in turn, earned the top Big 30 baseball All-Star honors.

Green, the catcher for sectional champion Wellsville, collected the top prize: the Bill Husband Memorial Big 30 Player of the Year. Petryszak, from Portville, and Buchholz, from state semifinalist Bolivar-Richburg, shared the Matt Threehouse Award for Big 30 Pitcher of the Year.

For a Wellsville team that reached the Class B Far West Regional and finished the year with just two losses, Green had a season to remember.

Green’s mark of .541 broke the single-season program record for batting average. He was also named to the Section 5 Class B All-Star team and named the Most Valuable Player for the Section 5 Independent team. The four-year starter also finished the season with three home runs, 35 RBI and 21 runs scored.

Now, as a perfect culmination, he has added the Big 30 POY award to his trophy cabinet, something that, according to him, represents more than just what he was able to produce on the field.

“It means a lot. I had a rough junior year being out with injury the whole year, then at the beginning of this year, I had surgery and was out again all winter,” Green said. “So, it really just showed my hard work actually came true.”

His battles with injury the last two years had not been easy. For someone whose entire life is about being out on the field, being deprived of it for over a year was a mental struggle he had to overcome. To this day, Green finds some tasks a little more taxing than they used to be, but slowly he is getting back to his old self.

“It was so tough, I mean, I live at the baseball field,” Green said. “When I’m going through a tough time, I go and hit, and it was just a tough time for me. So now, getting back into it, I still feel it. It’s tough for me to go lift for two hours and go hit for three. I’m just starting to get back in the swing of things right now.”

Green said that this road to recovery has reminded him to savor every moment that he is on the field throughout his career, which will continue at the collegiate level as he has committed to playing for Finger Lakes Community College. As for the Player of the Year award, he noted how much it meant to win after his senior year considering the lengths he went through and the high-quality candidates in the area.

“I mean, it’s such an honor, it’s a big, big area with a lot of talent and it just means a lot,” Green said.

Salamanca’s Jaxson Ross also received a nomination for Player of the Year.

THIS YEAR’S race for Big 30 Pitcher of the Year was a close one. Inevitably, the decision was made to split the award between Portville’s Petryszak and B-R’s Buchholz.

Buchholz aced a Wolverines team that reached the NYSPHSAA Class C semifinals and ended the season with just three losses. On an individual level, he pitched 60 innings and finished the season with an 8-1 record and a 2.19 ERA. Additionally, he racked up 83 strikeouts and walked just 18 batters.

Offensely, Buchholz finished the season with a .391 batting average, 26 RBI, 39 runs, 26 stolen bases and one home run.

The Big 30 Pitcher of the Year award is one that Buchholz has had his eyes on throughout his high school career. Now that he’s received it, the feeling is special.

“It feels good. This is one of the awards that I’ve been looking forward to getting my whole career,” Buchholz said. “It feels great to finally achieve that goal.”

Petryszak helped Portville to a 17-2 season and a league championship, largely led by contributions on the bump. Through the 44 innings he pitched on the season, he gave up just four earned runs in total, threw two no-hitters, recorded 74 strikeouts and finished the season with a staggering 0.64 ERA.

Offensively, he finished with a .327 batting average, four home runs, 27 RBI and 26 runs. Petryszak finished his high school career with five no-hitters and the program record for career home runs.

A four-time league all-star and ‘24 league Player of the Year, Petryszak reflected on the journey that led him to this point in his career. A varsity athlete since middle school, he credited the number of great teams he’s been on over the years and the coaches that helped him reach this achievement.

“Being named Big 30 Co-Pitcher of the Year means so much to me,” Petryszak said. “After being pulled up to varsity my seventh grade year, I have always pitched for our Portville team. We’ve had many successful years and also made it to the final four of states, which I pitched in. I’ve been lucky to be around many very good coaches that have shaped me into the pitcher I am today.”

Buchholz described the mentality one must have on the mound in order to be successful. As much as baseball is famously considered a mental game, the stakes are raised when one takes the mound, he said.

“I think pitching is a whole different mindset in and of itself,” said Buchholz, who like Green will play at FLCC. “There’s a whole different mindset when I’m going into a game where I was pitching from where I wasn’t pitching. You just have to just kind of just lock into pitching. Then, once your defense is working with you and your offense, then you can kind of just settle down and just work through the game.”

Petryszak, who will continue his baseball career at Gettysburg College, noted he has maintained the same pregame routine before every game he pitches. This consistency combined with the hard work he has put in behind the scenes has all been for the benefit of his game

“Staying consistent with my routine has helped me stay confident on the mound, especially when I am in tough positions,” he said. “I’ve also been going up to Niagara Falls for the past couple of years and have worked on my pitching mechanics and what I need to do before games to make sure I am effective on the mound.”

Buchholz and Petryszak were among four nominees for Pitcher of the Year, the other two being Coudersport’s Mason Roessner and Wellsville’s Tyler Vogel.

Altogether, Green, Buchholz and Petryszak experienced the taste of defeat just seven times this season, with none of their teams having dropped more than three games. The team aspect aside, on an individual level, all three players put together extremely strong campaigns that are impossible to ignore. Now, as all three move on from their high school careers, they will do so having collected one final accolade that symbolizes the individual greatness they were able to put on display.