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Holy Redeemer has already earned a trip to the state tournament. Three more Wyoming Valley Conference squads will be hoping to join them over the next few days.
All of them are looking to have gold medals placed around their necks at PNC Field.
Not that it will be easy. The four WVC teams left standing in the 2017 season are all facing the No. 1 seeds in their respective brackets as the District 2 championships in Moosic get underway with three games Sunday, followed by three more on Monday.
MMI Prep (A), Dallas (4A) and Crestwood (5A) will get their shot on Sunday in the first tripleheader. Redeemer (3A) will be up next as the middle game on Memorial Day.
CLASS 5A
It was an emotional semifinal victory for Crestwood last week, as the Comets outlasted perennial contender Wyoming Valley West in eight innings.
When Crestwood faces Wallenpaupack in Sunday’s final game (6:30 p.m.), it will be the program’s first district finals appearance since current pro reliever Matt Wotherspoon was the team’s ace back in 2009. That title game, a 4-2 loss, came against eventual state champion Abington Heights, which was led by San Diego Padres outfielder/third baseman Cory Spangenberg.
“And we haven’t won one since my brother played in ‘85,” Comets coach Tony Caladie said after the semifinal win. “And we hadn’t won the league in about 30 years, too, I think. So we want to go get it.”
History has been on the brain for Caladie, who led his alma mater to the WVC Division 1 crown in the regular season. With a balanced and productive lineup and two reliable starting pitchers in James Graves and Colin Macko, the Comets shook off a particularly tough four-loss week earlier this month to reach the district title game.
To get there, second-seeded Crestwood knocked off two reigning champions from the old four-classification format by beating North Pocono (3A) and Valley West (4A) in the first two rounds. Those teams combined to win three state tournament games a year ago.
Up next is a veteran Buckhorns team that outslugged Abington Heights and North Pocono to win the Lackawanna Division 2 crown. Pitcher Aaron Husson is a Division I recruit bound for UMBC.
Taking the field Sunday evening figures to be a special moment for the coach and his Comets.
“For me personally, it’s gratifying,” Caladie said. “I’d like to keep going. I went to school at Crestwood. It’s been a while. We’ve had some really good coaches here — it’s nothing against them.
“The kids, I don’t know if they quite grasp what I have in my head as far as the length of time since we’ve been back. But I’m proud of what we’ve done as a team.”
CLASS 4A
Stuck at 2-6 in league play and missing a couple of productive seniors — Charles Giacometti and top pitcher Lee Eckert — Dallas was facing long odds to reach PNC Field.
But here are the Mountaineers after all, ready to face Valley View in Sunday’s second game (4 p.m.) as one of the district’s hottest teams. Dallas hasn’t lost since hitting that low point, rallying to win the WVC Division 2 title and then knock off Nanticoke and Tunkhannock in the postseason to run its winning streak to eight games.
It’s been a heck of a two-month transformation for the second-seeded Mounts, who are in their first D2 final since 2003 and looking for their first district gold since 2001.
“We played one preseason game, and when the season started we were like deer in headlights,” coach Ken Kashatus said after beating the Tigers for a fourth time this year in the semifinals. “We really were because we graduated a lot of seniors and we had guys hurt. The Giacometti kid just got cleared. He just got activated. The Eckert kid hasn’t thrown the ball for us this year and he came in as our ace. So we had a bunch of young guys.
“I knew they could play a little bit because our freshmen team was good last year. But we’re regularly starting four sophomores now. They’re hungry, they’re playing like they have a chip on their shoulder and are trying to prove something. And some of those guys have our best numbers offensively.”
That would be sophomores like Darren Kerdesky, Mike Luksic and Will McCrum, all of whom have been fixtures in the lineup along with seniors like J.D. Barrett.
Dallas was the highest-scoring team in the WVC’s top two divisions in the regular season and has 12 runs so far in the tournament. That production will be necessary to beat the Lackawanna Division 3 champion Cougars, who boast one of the area’s best pitching staffs, led by Nathan Seprosky (Rhode Island) and Mason Black (Lehigh).
CLASS 3A
Holy Redeemer’s numbers were outstanding in the regular season as the veteran squad outscored teams 104-31 in league play, hit .326 and sported a 1.89 ERA as a team.
But it added up to a second-place finish in Division 3 of the WVC thanks to four tough losses in league play, all by one run. The last one came on another trip to PNC Field, falling to Lake-Lehman in eight innings.
Since then? Five straight wins by an impressive 31-5 margin, including a five-inning no-hitter of those same Black Knights in the district quarterfinals.
“They always kept their heads up,” Royals coach Chris Ritsick said after getting past Meyers in the semifinals. “We’ve been in every game this year, and there’s some very good senior leadership on the team that kept everyone in the right direction. And they’ve been working all year. They’ve worked hard.”
Jordan Choman, who threw that no-hitter in the quarters, and Sean Wills are two of the pitchers who will be available for the third-seeded Royals against Lakeland in Monday’s second game (2:30 p.m.) Tony Molitoris will not be eligible because of pitch count rules, having thrown over 75 pitches on Friday against the Mohawks.
Both Redeemer and Lakeland have secured spots in the state tournament. Monday’s winner will get to stay near home and play the District 11 champ while the runner-up must hit the road to face the winner out of District 4.
The Chiefs will be the toughest test yet for the Royals, entering the game with a perfect 17-0 record and the Lackawanna Division 4 title. The likely mound opponent will be talented left-hander Brad Richards.
“Our goal is a district championship,” said Ritsick, who led the Royals to the 2012 crown. “We’re there, and we’ve got some work to do. Hopefully we’ll come out with a victory.”
CLASS A
This won’t be the first trip to PNC Field for a few MMI Prep players. As freshmen, Kisan Patel and Nick Young both started in the 2014 District 2 Class A championship game against Blue Ridge, a game the Preppers rallied to win from three runs down. Lucas Smith was also in the dugout for that win, the biggest in program history.
Three years later, those three are the team’s lone seniors, looking to help lead a young team to another crown against Forest City in Sunday’s opening game (1:30 p.m.), which also serves as the District 2-11 Class A subregional semifinals.
In Division 3 of the WVC, MMI played 12 games against 3A teams and two more against a 2A squad. That helped them earn the No. 5 seed in the subregional based on a power rating formula.
It also made them a better team down the stretch.
Starting with a league win over Northwest on May 9, the Preppers have now won four of their last five games overall, including a 15-2 smashing of Lincoln Leadership Academy in the quarterfinals.
“They’ve come a long way,” MMI coach Sean McLaughlin said. “We’re a really young team and it took a while to reach our potential. We’re hitting our stride now. They’ve really stepped up.
“We felt pretty confident going into the subregional that we could compete with anyone. It’s going to be a pretty tough test in Forest City.”
The Foresters won the Lackawanna Division 5 title at 10-2 and are led by do-it-all senior R.J. Kuruts, who is expected to be on the mound.
The winner will advance to the subregional final against District 11’s Tri-Valley on Tuesday with a spot in the state tournament on the line.
