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Pittston Area’s Taylor Baloga finished her high school career without a championship. Her accomplishments, though, couldn’t be measured by a trophy or a medal.
Baloga’s contribution her senior season was making Pittston Area softball relevant again, and that was a big reason she was selected the Times Leader Player of the Year.
Pittston Area finished 15-8 this season, marking the first time since 2005 the program ended the year with a winning record. Baloga was the winning pitcher 11 times, posting a 1.60 ERA and striking out 124 and allowing just in 121.1 inning pitched. She pitched five shutouts, including a perfect game and a no-hitter. Opponents batted just .184, and she was the only pitcher to shutout Nanticoke.
Baloga finished with a record of 11-6, but two of the losses were by 2-1 scores where she allowed a total of one earned run.
“This year, I thought she was the best pitcher we saw until maybe we got into district playoffs,” Pittston Area coach Vito Quaglia said. “And also, she was one of the most fearsome hitters around. She had tremendous power at the plate, and the season went on she continued to raise her batting average at the plate which tells you she got more selective.”
Oh yeah, Baloga could hit as well. She batted .418 — second-best on the team — and led the Patriots with 24 RBI, five triples and four home runs. One homer was a grand slam. But pitching is where she made her mark. Her fastball as been clocked at 63 mph, which is equivalent to a 89 mph fastball in baseball.
Baloga started as a freshman and those early years weren’t always easy or productive. Sometimes the offense or defense wasn’t there in a game and she tried to compensate in the circle with varying results.
“It was tough for the first couple years,” said Baloga, the daughter of John and Susan Baloga of Dupont. “We weren’t used to playing with each other. It was just different and struggled through some games. But a lot of us were young. We started five freshmen when I came in and just trying to get used to playing at that higher level was difficult.”
Baloga’s senior season started fine as the Patriots jumped out to a 6-1 record. But then came four losses in the next five games, including the two aforementioned 2-1 losses. The team was at a crossroads at 7-5 when it faced Nanticoke, an opponent with nearly all its starters back from a run to the Class 3A state semifinals in 2015.
Baloga handled the Trojanettes in the circle and at the plate. She shut out Nanticoke and was 2 for 3 with a two-run homer in the 5-0 victory.
“We were lucky this year to have several seniors as leaders with her definitely being one of the most outstanding senior leaders,” Quaglia said. “She let them know this is how you work the practice, this how you keep calm in games. She meant so much to this program it’s really going be hard to replace someone like that.”
Baloga’s last delivery for Pittston Area didn’t come on the softball field. She played guitar and sang the class song at graduation. Both have been a big part of her life as she’s participated in the school talent shows since third grade. She graduated 11th in her class and is a youth representative to the pastoral council at St. John Evangelist Church in Pittston.
And she’s still playing softball with her travel team, Rollin Thunder from Jessup, before embarking on a college career. She received an academic and athletic scholarship to Georgian Court University in Lakewood, New Jersey.
Baloga will head to Georgian Court in August facing with the same situation she did at Pittston Area as a freshman — making the softball program respectable again. She’ll have those fond memories as a Patriot as a guide.
“I feel it was a good start to get the program going in the right direction,” Baloga said. “It hadn’t been successful since 2005 and lacked some stuff. A lot of us worked really hard to make the program better and a lot of the underclassmen coming up are really motivated and see where the program is going and want to make it better.”
