State of the Lawrence Mercer County Church Softball League

When I was eating lunch at Panera today, Ryan Zippie gave me the state of the league heading into the 2017 season.

Lebanon B and Lebanon C have merged to form one single team at Lebanon Presbyterian in Lackawannock Township.  This move was made to cut rising costs from fielding two or three teams over the duration of this current decade.  With this news, it got me thinking that their coaching staff would have to weed out a bunch of players who played on the Lebanon B and C teams last season.  That is just one reason why we claimed Tyler Allen off waivers from Lebanon because I might be speculating that Lebanon, to put it biblically, had no room for him in the inn.

Also, defending champion New Life has decided to field a second team consisting of all new players.  This news got me thinking that New Life will follow Grace Chapel's lead and distinguish their two teams by the color of their uniforms just like Grace Chapel does.  You will recall last year that Grace Chapel cut down from three teams to two to cut costs of fielding three teams.  Grace Chapel Black disbanded, and Geri Truog, the best female pitcher that the league has to offer, was claimed by First Assembly in the dispersal draft, while Tom Dobos and Mike Wilson were claimed by New Life.  Some of the other players went to Grace Chapel Blue.

Prior to practice tonight, we discussed some of the rules with the rookies and also talked about changing our uniforms.  A black jersey was discussed, but Tay Robinson was concerned that they might fade in the hot sun.  I was concerned that they would clash with the black jerseys worn by First Assembly.  I feel that we should continue to wear red jerseys.

There is one minor change in the list of sponsors for this season.  Vector Security will no longer sponsor the top of the second inning, because we have not been living up to their expectations.  Thus, the top of the second inning will now be sponsored by ADT Security.

Our weather forecasts will be sponsored by State College-based Accuweather.

Also, the date of the league tournament will be on July 15 at the C.O.G. Softball Complex in West Middlesex, with a rain make up date of July 22.

I might consider calling my mentor Lanny Frattare before the week is out to let him know that spring training has started for the 2017 campaign.  If you do not know who he is, allow me to tell you about him.

Lanny Frattare is the former voice of the Pittsburgh Pirates.  He started out with the team as the number three to the legendary Bob Prince and Nellie King.  When both Prince and King were terminated, Frattare became the number two to Milo Hamilton.  When Hamilton left, Frattare was ready to take over the play-by-play duties.  He gave his voice to the 1979 "We Are Family" Pirates team that eventually won the World Series at the expense of the Baltimore Orioles.  He was also the man who lent his voice to the 1997 "Freak Show" Pirates team that hovered around first place in a mediocre National League Central Division for much of the season.  Frattare called more than 5000 Pirates games over a career that spanned more than 30 years before he retired at the end of the 2008 season.  Today, he is the public relations director as well as a lecturer in broadcasting at Waynesburg University.  In 2014, he wrote the foreward to the book of the 100 things that Pittsburgh Pirates fans should know and do before they die (a list in which he is a part of).  Every January, he makes an annual pilgrimage up here to Mercer County where he serves as the master of ceremonies for the annual Mercer County Hall of Fame induction ceremony at the Park Inn by Radisson.  I am hoping that in January 2018, I will be able to attend the ceremony so that I can actually meet him in person for the first time.

Observations from yesterday's spring training session

A tumultuous offseason for Covenant softball has ended with the first of several spring training sessions held yesterday.

I met the three new players who will be joining the team this coming season:  Bobby Marzano (who is the younger brother of my high school classmate Angie Marzano), Paul Fink (who is originally from Pittsburgh's northern suburbs), and Tyler Allen (who was claimed off waivers from Lebanon B).  Marzano and Fink are rookies, while Allen brings championship-caliber offense to a team that it was lacking in championship round losses to Lebanon B and New Life in the last two seasons.

This is the second consecutive year that a team in the Lawrence Mercer County Church Softball League has claimed a player off waivers from another team.  Last year, Bethany of Mercer claimed Shawn Bresnahan off waivers from First Assembly.  Also, you will recall that New Life claimed Mike Wilson and Tom Dobos from Grace Chapel Black in the dispersal draft, while First Assembly claimed Geri Truog, the best female pitcher that the league has to offer.

Tyler Allen will join the team's star contingent that currently consists of Jeff Newell, Tay Robinson, Matt Durisko and Dan Vanderslice.

With the addition of Allen to the team's star contingent, I believe that Covenant has the last piece that they need to complete the championship puzzle.  By the middle of July, the team will win its first league championship, and will not only have to give coach Jim Bombeck a Gatorade shower, they will also have to give me a Gatorade shower.

The start of spring training is the right tonic that this team needed after a tumultuous offseason.  Whether this will lead to Covenant softball taking its fans for the ride of a lifetime to its first championship remains to be seen.

State of the Team

Before practices even began, Jason Minter, who had a .944 OPS (on base percentage plus slugging percentage) in the 2015 tournament, was called by our Lord and Savior to lead His people in McDonough, Georgia.  It was also announced that Gina Riel would not be returning as team manager for 2016 following her graduation from Grove City College.

Recently, I found out that elder statesman Tom Phillips, who was part of the pitching rotation last season, would not be returning to the team.  This is a move that infuses more of a youth movement into the team.  Although we lost Minter, Riel and Phillips, we did gain four new players in Jacob Albright, Jeremy McNeill, Robert Mort and Ethan Davis (no relation to Jordan Davis, pictured below in action against New Wilmington last July).

 

 

I was at Panera for lunch on Wednesday before work and while I was waiting to enjoy a bowl of broccoli cheddar soup, I caught sight of Jordan Davis, but I don't know if he recognized me or not.

 

I have not seen a game schedule yet, but as soon as I see the schedule posted, I will input that information into my media guide which will go into a three-ring binder that I purchased recently for that purpose.

 

For those of you who are seeing these posts for the first time, you may be asking yourselves:  "You are giving great insight to this church softball team; but who are you and why are you doing this?"

 

Good question!

 

 

 

My name is Michael T. Mondak.  Although I am a member of Church of Notre Dame in Hermitage, Pennsylvania, I am the "Voice of Covenant Softball".  I always live for the period between mid-May and mid-July because that's when I take on my role as a church softball podcaster.  In the coming weeks and months, I will give insight to this team, post game audio footage, and even give some statistics on a periodic basis!  Everyone has or has had a mentor, and I have been blessed to have many of them.  When it comes to my role as the "Voice of Covenant Softball", my mentor is the former Pittsburgh Pirates broadcaster Lanny Frattare, who is a professor at Waynesburg University.  I will post in the future what Lanny tells his students in each of his classes.

 

Until next time, farewell and fair balls.

 





Observations from CPC Softball practice (27 April 2016)

After returning home from Erie after an interview and getting blue and yellow balloons for my neighbor Kristina David at Party City, I drove in my Jeep back to Holy Trinity Field near Speedways for tonight's CPC Softball practice.  During tonight's practice, I observed the following things from my view from behind the plate:

As I mentioned in my previous post, Jacob Albright tends to swing ahead of pitches, which hearkens back to his baseball playing days.  Taylor Robinson reminds me of Pedro Alvarez.  Like Pedro, Taylor is a power hitter.

Now I shall take a look at some of the players who joined us for the first time this season:

Julie Norris, our catcher, is working her way back from an offseason injury to her throwing arm which she has completely recovered from.  When she is at bat, she almost reminds me of former Pirates catcher Jason Kendall.  Like Kendall, Julie is more of a singles-hitting catcher and not much of a power hitter.  When she is behind the plate, she can be a quick study.  During games, she should signal orders to the pitchers to call for their pitches by slapping her throwing hand on the palm of her glove.  One slap calls for the pitcher's bread-and-butter pitch.  Two slaps call for the pitcher's secondary pitch.  Three slaps means she is calling for the pitcher's third option pitch.  And finally, four slaps means she is ordering her pitcher to throw their fourth option pitch.  She should mix them up during every at bat by opposing batters because the most number of pitches that every batter will face is four (each batter begins with a count of one ball and one strike).

Matt Durisko, one of our three power hitters along with Robinson and Jeff Newell, has a tendency to either pull his hits or send them towards the opposite field.  He can sometimes get away with those things as long as he hits them where opposing fielders are not.  These tendencies are a reason why he had an OPS (on base percentage plus slugging percentage) of 1.025 during last season's tournament.

Sean Zippie tends to pull his line drives.  His .688 OPS during the tournament last season will need to be better as the 2016 season goes on.  He is not much of a power hitter, however, what he lacks in power he more than makes up for with speed.

Ryan Zippie has a tendency to hit a lot of ground balls which leads to him being thrown out on a frequent basis.  His .473 OPS from last season's tournament means that he needs to be more aggressive when up to bat, which is something that our head coach Jim Bombeck is trying to instill into the team this season.

These are the insights from tonight's practice.  The next practice is Monday evening, however, I will miss practice on May 2 because I have a Knights of Columbus council meeting at the city building that evening.  I will give more insights on the 2016 squad at next Wednesday's practice.

And that is the end of this blog post.

Observations from Covenant Sharon Softball practice (25 April 2016)

Church softball fans:

Tonight I drove in my Jeep to Holy Trinity Field next to Speedways for Covenant Sharon softball practice and I came away with the following observations of the few players that showed up tonight from my view behind the plate:

Jacob Albright, our rookie from Single-A according to coach Jim Bombeck, has a tendency to swing ahead of pitches, which hearkens back to his baseball-playing days when he could get away with such actions.  However, in slow pitch softball, he needs to have patience when he is in the batter's box and wait for his pitches before he can swing.

Which brings me to switch hitter Jeff Newell.  He tends to swing at bad pitches out of impatience, which was something he was able to get away with during last season's tournament when he led the squad in OPS (on base percentage plus slugging percentage) with a 1.31, which was more than our 2015 team MVP Gray MacKenzie's 1.176 OPS.

Taylor Robinson, our cleanup hitter, is more of a power hitter, which is what is needed in a cleanup hitter.  He's like a slow pitch equivalent of Pedro Alvarez, a power hitter who is capable of whacking a long ball.

Jim Bombeck, who also is an extra hitter for the squad (batting left handed), is more of our comic relief in the batter's box, yukking it up with opposing fielders.

Eric Bombeck, Jim's brother, is our ace pitcher.  He throws a variety of pitches that can sometimes confuse opposing batters.  When he is on the mound, he is capable of going the distance.

Bob Mariotti, who is a part of the starting rotation, is trying to work his way back from an injury he sustained in the losers' bracket finals of last season's tournament against Grace Chapel Black.  With some extra practice before the regular season begins, he is capable of coming back from the injury that ended his 2015 season.

I'll give more insight to the remaining players at Wednesday's practice.  But first, you're probably saying to yourself:  "That's great insight to the players on the 2016 squad, but who are you giving these insights from behind the plate?"

Good question!

My name is Michael T. Mondak, and although I am a member of Church of Notre Dame in Hermitage, Pennsylvania, I am the "Voice of Covenant Sharon softball" from mid-May through mid-July.  I started calling games last year which led to me being discovered by none other than Eric Bombeck, who hosts a Wednesday evening radio show on News talk 790 WPIC.  He put in a good word for me with his station manager Bob Greenburg, and it led to me being hired as a board operator during local high school sports coverage (Friday night football in the fall, and boys and girls basketball in the winter).  The radio station is my second home away from home (my primary home away from home is at a sporting goods store).  But I always look forward to spring because soon it will be time for a new season of church softball coverage.

In the coming weeks and months, I will routinely post insights on the 2016 Covenant Sharon softball squad.  I will also post game audio footage after each doubleheader.  If that's not enough, I will post some statistics on this blog also, so that you, the followers of this blog, will know how the squad's players are doing to contribute to the success of the squad.

And that is the end of this inaugural blog post.  Until Wednesday, farewell and fair balls.