Top senior softball talent from across Western Pennsylvania takes center stage in the second annual all-star showdown, highlighting future college stars
Pennsylvania State Baseball Coaches Association President Brian Jardine knew that attempting to assemble a baseball all-star game on a state level would be a logistical nightmare. In the spring and early summer, anyone playing those types of events have to navigate around graduations, vacations, summer teams, the prom and seniors leaving for military commitments.
Despite the challenges, a few organization’s have gotten new games off the ground in the past few seasons. The PSBCA’s first game was played last weekend at Medlar Field in State College.
The second annual Western Pennsylvania softball all-star game was played Tuesday at Plum High School.
Jardine said he was encouraged by the first PSBCA game and has been reaching out to other organizations to explore ways to grow the event.
“I’ve talked to other people from Georgia, New Jersey and Ohio,” said Jardine, who coaches at North Pocono High School. “They split the state into quadrants to get more people involved. That may be something we look at as we go forward.”
The PSBCA formed two years ago and has coaches from around 189 of the state’s 600 programs involved. There is a $100 fee to join the organization. All of the players in the all-star game were chosen from a pool of seniors from those schools.
Choosing 27 seniors for the East and West teams was a difficult process.
“You never want to leave anyone out, but pairing it down to 54 kids was difficult,” Jardine said. “It was nice that we could have the game in State College to help with travel. I don’t think anyone had to come more than 2.5 hours to get there.”
The East team won the first game 9-2. Nazareth’s Chase Kilareski, Abington Heights’ Thomas Lacoe and Bethelem Catholic’s Caden Degan all drove in two runs apiece.
“Overall, the reception we got was positive,” Jardine said. “We were hoping to put together something on the level of the Big 33 (football classic).”
Softball Game Gets Second Season
The Western Pennsylvania All-Star softball game came back for a second year at Plum High School. Plum coach Phil DiLonardo helped the game get off the ground last season.
While there is a lot of fluctutaiton with the rosters, he was happy with the amount of talented players they were able to get to participate.
Team Gold beat Team Black 7-5.
Franklin Regional’s Toryn Fulton and Cira Camacho both hit home runs to lead Team Gold and are committed to South Florida and Kent State, respectively. Team Gold’s offensive MVP, Penn-Trafford’s Cameron Ponko, also hit a home run and will play at Division II Indiana (Pa.).
“I think it's important because the girls deserve that last little bit of recognition,” said DiLonardo, who coached Team Black. “There’s a lot of talented kids here.”
Avonworth’s Sydney Savatt, who will attend Rider, hit a home run for Team Black. New Castle’s Olivia Hood, a Saint Francis (Pa.) commit, smashed a homer.
“I think it’s very important to recognize all these girls,” Ponko said. “There are a lot more girls who could have been here. There were so many talented girls. It’s important for us to get together one more time and recognize our talent and efforts.”
Keeping Things Together
Jardine knows that all-star games always have a hard time making things work with people scchedules. He noticed that local basketball games often have a hard time getting everyone involved because many athletes are involved in another sport.
With spring sports especially, getting recognition for athletes at the end of the season is difficult. The best teams have their seasons extend beyond when school ends.
“Spring sports get the short end of the stick with recognition, but it’s not anyone’s fault,” Jardine said. “With graduations and prom, there is a lot of chaos at the end of the year. Some of the recognition isn’t always there. I know football is king. But there is a lot of talent in the state with baseball and softball.”
--Josh Rizzo | [email protected] | @J_oshrizzo