Thought for the day: Simple. A Happy Easter to all.
HEY Awards
Before we get to baseball, we go to basketball, where today’s first Higher Education Yahoo Award winner was also the first winner two weeks ago.
Pitt-Bradford senior basketball player Alicia Kimmel of Pine Grove has added another postseason honor to her already impressive list. Kimmel was named a 2015 Division III Honorable Mention All-American, one of only 67 D-III student-athletes nationwide, and the first Pitt-Bradford women’s basketball player to be so honored.
Previously, Kimmel had been named to the D3hoops.com second-team All-Great Lakes Region team and Player of the Year and first-team All-Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference. This season, Kimmel led the Panthers in scoring (15.8 points per game), and she is fourth all-time in scoring with 1,385 points.
On the softball diamond, Albright (9-6) freshman pitcher Riley Gerenda of Minersville was named Commonwealth Conference Pitcher of the Week for two consecutive weeks after
being near perfect in racking up a 5-0 record and a 31 scoreless innings streak. Gerenda was also honored as the Corvias ECAC South Pitcher of the Week.
After her selection, Arcadia finally scored an unearned run off Gerenda and defeated Albright 3-2, aided by three Albright errors late in the game. Gerenda hurled eight innings of three-hit ball — still without allowing an earned run — striking out seven and walking two.
Stevenson finally scored an earned run off Gerenda in her next start, defeating Albright 5-0.
Gerenda now has seven complete games, a 5-2 record, and an ERA of 0.15. She has allowed a lone earned run in 46 innings, striking out 51 and walking only eight, while opposing batters are hitting only .195 off her.
Another Schuylkill County freshman softball pitcher, Cassidy Pinchorski of Millersville and Williams Valley, was named Millersville’s Athlete of the Week after throwing two complete games against Shippensburg and West Chester, allowing just two runs over 14 innings and striking out 14. She and the Marauders defeated Ship 4-1, but suffered a 1-0 loss to the Rams.
On the season, Pinchorski has a better-than-it-looks 5-8 record. She has 12 complete games in 12 starts with a shutout, an ERA of 1.70, and 68 strikeouts in 86.1 innings.
In her latest start, Pinchorski had tough luck again, losing 2-1 to Lock Haven despite allowing only one run on one hit through six. A seventh-inning solo home run gave Lock Haven its second run and Millersville couldn’t score. Pinchorski gave up two hits, struck out eight and walked only one.
Our final HEY awards go to the local student-athletes from the Middle Atlantic Conference named to the MAC Academic Honor Roll and the Winter Academic All-MAC teams. The honor roll requires a minimum 3.20 grade point average. The academic team selections go to those with outstanding achievement on the field and in the classroom, as selected by the conference’s sports information directors.
Honor roll selections are as follows: LVC’s Kiely Chaklos of Nativity and Wilkes’ Kate Thomas of Blue Mountain and Chelsea Smelas of Jim Thorpe in women’s basketball; Misericordia’s and Mount Carmel’s Mikael Hause in men’s indoor track and field; the LVC trio of Pottsville’s Taylor Gerchak, and Tamaqua’s Alyssa Keich and Kelsey Patrick, as well as Widener’s Taylor Englert of Pottsville in women’s indoor track and field; LVC’s Brody Lipsett of Minersville in men’s swimming; and Lycoming women’s swimmer Alexia Follweiler of Panther Valley. Follweiler, Patrick and Keich were also named to the all-academic team.
Diamond Doings
Bucknell freshman Aaron Fritz of Minersville is seeing regular action (five starts, nine appearances) as the 15-12 Bisons’ designated hitter. He had a hit and drove in a run in his first career start, an 8-7 win over Mount St. Mary’s. He is batting .333 and went 2-for-3 in a 6-2 loss to Lehigh this weekend.
• Bloomsburg (and former Lehighton) pitcher Tyler Hill was named the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference East Pitcher of the Week, leading the Huskies to a 5-0 start with wins over Lock Haven and West Chester. Hill is 3-1 in four starts with a 3.91 ERA.
• Some locals are making noise for the 18-8 East Stroudsburg baseball team.
Freshman catcher Steve Zimmerman of Pine Grove has started 14 games and is batting .294 with an OBP of .409. Freshman pitcher Joe Cominsky of Hamburg is 2-1 in seven appearances and redshirt junior Cody Klinger (1-2) of North Schuylkill (a transfer from Northampton Community College) held University of the Sciences hitless until the fifth inning last week, a game ESU ultimately won 9-7. Freshman pitcher Austin Bashore (Hamburg) pitched a scoreless seventh in ESU’s 7-1 nightcap win over USciences.
• Susquehanna is 11-10 and sophomore outfielder Taylor Luckenbill of Nativity’s bat helped the Crusaders to a seven-game win streak. He’s batting .299 with four doubles, a home run and nine RBIs.
• Wilkes softball sophomore catcher/outfielder Lacey Bixler of Williams Valley has found her power stroke. Bixler slammed a two-run homer in a 7-2 win over Delaware Valley and a three-run round tripper in a 5-4 win over Misericordia. Bixler’s two dingers, two triples and 11 RBIs lead Wilkes.
• St. Francis (Pa.) sophomore pitcher and former Pine Grove standout Ethel Santai is having a fine season for the 20-8 Red Flash. In 61.1 innings, Santai has a 6-1 record, three saves and a 2.20 ERA.
• LVC freshman pitcher Jared McCabe (1-2, 2.77 ERA) of Pine Grove earned his first win of the season, throwing three innings of one-hit, shutout baseball in an 8-0 win over Maine-Presque Isle. In that same game, Marian alum and LVC freshman Frank Nietz went 1-for-2 with a stolen base, a run scored and an RBI in his first start and freshman Dan Doyle of Pottsville got his first hit.
Still another freshman, third baseman Matthew Smarkanic of North Schuylkill, leads the team in hitting at .359. Senior leader Phill Dohner of Schuylkill Haven has been hot of late, raising his batting average to .314 with several multi-hit games and playing an error-free center field.
Track Talk
Bloomsburg sophomore Jake Plachko of Pottsville won the men’s steeplechase in a tri-meet with Kutztown and ESU, while junior Meghan Hallick of Pottsville took third in the women’s shot put and hammer throw.
• Lipscomb freshman Paige Stoner of Pottsville finished fourth in the 5,000 meters at the Alabama Relays, joining the sub-17 minute club. Stoner set a personal record and ranks first in the A-Sun Conference, second in the East Region and sixth in the nation in the event.
• At the MAC Indoor Championships, LVC’s Alyssa Keich ran legs on the winning 4x800 and distance medley relay teams, and teammate Kelsey Patrick got silver in the 3,000 meters and bronze in the mile, earning both first-team All-MAC honors.
Teammate Taylor Gerchak, coming back from injuries, was 10th in the indoor pentathlon.
Icing
Defending national titlists Bryan and Shaun Schaeffer of Blue Mountain, members of the two-time defending champ Delaware Blue Hens intercollegiate figure skating team, will be defending their crowns at nationals, April 10-11 in Vacaville, California. Bryan skates juvenile men’s free style, while Shaun skates senior dance.
(MacLaughlin’s college notebook appears biweekly during the collegiate calendar. Send items to him in care of Sports Editor Leroy Boyer at lboyer@republicanherald.com.)