BECKLEY — Jeff Wallace remembers Dean Wolosiansky as an 11-year-old growing up in northeast Ohio.

“When I first started working with him, he was a skinny little kid,” said Wallace, the former Pittsburgh Pirate and current West Virginia Miners pitching coach. “Now I have to watch what I say around him.”

Wolosiansky has grown a lot since the days he worked with Wallace at his indoor baseball facility in Alliance, Ohio. And not just physically.

The 6-foot-5, 225-pound rising senior at Ohio State was rewarded for a stellar summer by being named the Prospect League Pitcher of the Year on Friday. It was an accolade unexpected by Wolosiansky, but probably not by anyone else.

“I just came in, worked as hard as I could every day, both on and off the field,” Wolosiansky said. “I wanted to give the Miners everything I had so they could be successful in their first year.”

Mission accomplished.

The Miners made the PL playoffs in their first year of existence, and Wolosiansky was a huge part of that. He went 5-1 in the regular season and led the league with a 1.19 earned run average.

He was tied for third in wins, fourth in opponents’ batting average (.186) and tied for fourth in strikeouts (54).

And he did all of that after reporting late upon completion of finals at Ohio State and while interning full-time at L.A. Gates.

“He’s an All-American kid,” Wallace said. “He would get up at 8 in the morning, work at an engineering firm until 5, take off his nice clothes, put on his uniform and dominate.”

Knowing Wallace made Wolosiansky’s time in Beckley even more comfortable.

“He helped me out this summer and worked on some different pitches,” Wolosiansky said. “I knew it was going to be the perfect atmosphere to learn and get better.”

Wolosiansky’s selection came as no surprise to manager Tim Epling.

“It was something that was unbelievable,” Epling said. “Everybody in the league knew how good he is and how dedicated he is. He’s got a strong mindset. He takes care of himself, and he is truly a professor of pitching. He knows what his strengths and weaknesses are.”

Wolosiansky was the starting pitcher against Chillicothe in Monday’s Eastern Division championship game. The Paints scored three unearned runs off the right-hander in a 5-2 loss. The Paints went on to beat Danville 7-6 in 11 innings for the league championship.

“Even when he wasn’t on top of his game, he was a treat to watch,” Epling said. “He was up in the zone (against Chillicothe) and walked a few batters, but he still had guys on their heals.”

West Virginia center fielder Joe Koch was also honored by the league as a second-team outfielder.

The junior from Kent State was one of the Miners’ top players, offensively and defensively. He batted .305 and led the team with a .428 on-base percentage, 37 walks and 42 runs scored.

Epling fully expects Koch to be back in Beckley next summer. More importantly, Koch will be back at Kent after there was some speculation that he might have his scholarship reduced.

On the contrary.

“He told us they increased his scholarship because of the way he played for us,” Epling said. “He got, I think, a 44 percent increase. He was so excited about playing for us this year. He said this was the best time he has had in his life.”

Wolosiansky, meanwhile, will not be back. He will be a senior next spring in Columbus and, thus, will have no league eligibility remaining. But he will look back fondly on his only summer in Beckley.

“It’s a summer I will never forget,” he said. “You make friends all over the nation in summer ball, and it’s more laid back than college ball.

“It was an experience I will never forget.”

— E-mail: gfauber@register-herald.com