LVBA Prospects Tryouts/Evaluations for the FALL season on July 25...

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Prospects Fall Tryouts

LVBA 2016 Fall Tryouts/Evaluations

Date: MONDAY, JULY 25th

Location: ECTB Stadium (Inclement Weather - Evaluations will be moved to LVBA) 

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LVBA Prospects Tryouts/Evaluations for the 2016 FALL season on July 25...

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Prospects Fall Tryouts

LVBA 2016 Fall Tryouts/Evaluations

Date: MONDAY, JULY 25th

Location: ECTB Stadium (Inclement Weather - Evaluations will be moved to LVBA) 

For more information, click here: Tryouts 

Summer In-Season baseball training -- Registration deadline today, Monday June 20th

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LVBA Prospects Tryouts/Evaluations for the 2016 FALL season on July 25...

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Prospects Fall Tryouts

LVBA Softball Summer In-Season program starts June 29...

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Summer In-Season baseball training -- Registration deadline June 17

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Former LVBA player Brett Bittiger drafted by Oakland A's in 40th round...

Congratulations to former LVBA and Allentown Railers' player Brett Bittiger, who was selected in the 40th round by the Oakland Athletics in the MLB draft over the weekend...

Online article courtesy of the Pace University site here:

Pace Baseball’s Brett Bittiger ’15 Selected by Oakland Athletics in 2016 MLB Draft

SECAUCUS, N.J. – Shortstop Brett Bittiger (Saylorsburg, PA / Pius X) '15, who recently completed his final collegiate season with the Pace University baseball team as a graduate student in 2016, was selected in the 40th round of the 2016 Major League Baseball (MLB) First-Year Player Draft on Saturday, June 11, by the Oakland Athletics. The Saylorsburg, Pa. native was drafted by the Athletics back in the 2011 MLB First-Year Player Draft out of Pius X High School in the 41st round, but chose to pursue a collegiate career at Division I Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Bittiger was taken with pick 1192 in this year's MLB Draft by the Oakland Athletics organization. Bittiger has been the everyday shortstop for Pace since transferring from Fairleigh Dickinson prior to the 2014 season. He started 107 of the 108 games in which he played over three years for the Setters, locking down the left side of second base with an impressive .944 career fielding percentage at Pace. Bittiger led all Northeast-10 Conference shortstops with a .955 fielding percentage and 3.26 assists per game in 2016. Pace led the NE-10, and ranked eighth in the nation with a .973 team fielding percentage.

Bittiger's father, Jeff Bittiger, pitched professionally for 20 years, including four seasons in MLB. He was a member of the 1987 Minnesota Twins' World Series Championship team.

Pace University last had a student-athlete selected in the MLB Draft back in 2014 when David Pepe '14 was picked by the Toronto Blue Jays with the 924th overall pick in the 31st round.

For all information regarding Pace baseball, log on to www.PaceUAthletics.com and follow Pace Athletics on Facebook (T-Bone, Official Mascot of Pace University Athletics) and Twitter (@PaceUAthletics), and follow Pace baseball on Instagram (@PaceBaseball).

Direct link to Pace website article:

http://paceuathletics.com/news/2016/6/11/pace-baseballs-brett-bittiger-15-selected-by-oakland-athletics-in-2016-mlb-draft.aspx

Summer In-Season baseball camp -- Registration deadline June 17

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Summer Strength & Conditioning...

K.Shan Performance

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Railers baseball camp -- Registration deadline June 17

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Railers Summer Camps...Ages 8 to 18...

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Railers Summer Camps...Ages 8 to 18...

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LVBA Softball Summer In-Season program starts in late June...

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Rebuilt Allentown Railers go for a repeat in the ACBL's 50th season...

Rebuilt Allentown Railers go for a repeat in the ACBL's 50^th season


Pitcher Mike Kammerer (Central Catholic/Kutztown) returns for the Allentown Railers. (CHRIS KNIGHT / SPECIAL TO THE MORNING CALL)

Keith Groller -- Contact Reporter

May 30, 2016

The summer of 2015 provided a season for the ages for the Allentown Railers.

The team set an Atlantic Collegiate Baseball League record by going 37-6 and won the league title in just its fourth season of existence.

But the only thing harder than winning one championship is repeating the next year, and while the Railers remain the favorites in the eight-team ACBL, they will be hard-pressed to come close to duplicating last year's success.

"It's hard to tell right now what we have because we don't have a lot of guys back," said manager Dylan Dando, who has built a franchise that has now gone 92-31 over the last three years. "We have just five returning players and one of them played in just 10 games.

"A lot of stuff has got to happen to 37-6. We had James Bertolotti, who was our catcher three years, and we had Brett Bittiger, who was our shortstop for three years. They manned two key positions for us. We had a lot of guys who were there for three years and we had the best record in the regular season for three straight years. Now we have to replace a lot of those guys."

Dando said that he just doesn't know how the new guys will come in and compete.

"It's always hard to determine how good or bad you're going to be because you just don't know how they're going to play in the summer," Dando said. "I just want the guys to come in and play hard and focus on every pitch of the game. That's what you have to do to play baseball at the level these guys want to reach to play baseball."

The season begins this week with each of the eight teams set to play 40 regular-season games ending on July 31.

The top four teams (two division winners and the next two best records) advance to the playoffs in the first week of August. Each series will be a best-of-three.

The league's all-star game will be held on July 21 in Pomona, N.Y.

And the ACBL hopes to hit a milestone with its 100th alumni reaching the big leagues.

"We have 99 right now, and we are hoping to get No. 100 this year," said Dr. Tom Bonekemper, the ACBL's president. "And we've had over 2,000 go from the ACBL to professional baseball."

There's a good chance the league will have several players drafted again in June. The ACBL had 34 past or current players who are coming off winning all-conference honors at Division I schools, including Lehigh's Mike Garzillo, who was the Patriot League's player of the year.

The league also features 27 players who were Division II or III All-Region players this spring, including East Stroudsburg University's Robert Bennie, who was the PSAC's position player of the year.

"While it's very competitive with so many summer collegiate baseball leagues, we still get our share of high-level kids playing amateur ball," Bonekemper said. "We want to develop student-athletes so that they can improve their baseball skills over the summer. It's still a developmental league. It's not necessarily about winning. It's about making the kids better players and better people."

Here's a look at the three Morning Call-area teams:

ALLENTOWN RAILERS

•Manager: Dylan Dando (fifth season).

•Home: ECTB Stadium at Bicentennial Park, Allentown.

•2015: 37-6 (won Wolff Division, def. South Jersey Giants two games to none in the semis and Staten Island Tide in finals).

•Hitters to watch: C Derian Scarlat (Kutztown); SS Connor Crookham (ESU); C-OF Edward Posavec (Binghamton); INF Chris Rabasco (Parkland/U. of Pennsylvania); OF-2B Jason McCormick (Immaculata).

•Pitchers to watch: Sean Pavlik (Penn State); Mike Kammerer (CCHS/Kutztown); Gabe Mosser (Parkland/Shippensburg); Dan Zurowski (Misericordia); Brett Kosciolek (Tamaqua/Rider).

•Outlook: Dando was confident at the start of last season and predicted a very good season, although no one could have anticipated 37-6. This year, he's not sure what he has. He's got a couple of quality players returning, including Crookham, who Dando says has the potential to be the best player in the league. Posavec, a North Penn product, is coming off an American East all-conference season at Binghamton. This is the gold standard in the ACBL at the moment and while the Railers won't duplicate their 2015, they should have another good season.

LEHIGH VALLEY CATZ

•Manager: Dennis Morgan (pitching coach last year).

•Home: Easton High School and Hackett Park.

•2015: 8-28 (last in Wolff Division).

•Hitters to watch: OF Ryan Bonshak (Whitehall/Lehigh); OF Anthony Gaetaniello (Nazareth/Moravian); OF Austin Edgette (Bloomsburg); C Mike Kacergis (DeSales); 1B Thomas Schumacher (Lehigh).

•Pitchers to watch: Pat Carbone (Moravian); Tyler Forbes (Northampton CC); Michael Schwab (Lehigh).

•Outlook: The Catz, who have Morgan back in charge, figure to be improved. "We will be strong behind the plate and we'll have a good outfield," Morgan said. "I'm a little concerned about the infield and we don't have a lot of pitching depth." Edgette hit .440 for Bloomsburg and led the PSAC in hitting, but the team features a lot of unknowns.

QUAKERTOWN BLAZERS

•Manager: Dewey Oriente (first season).

•Home: Quakertown Memorial Park.

•2015: 20-20 (lost to Staten Island two games to none in the playoff semis).

•Hitters to watch: C Angel Lopez (Northampton CC); IF Jared Melone (La Salle); OF Jimmy Herron (Duke).

•Pitchers to watch: Chris Kachmar (Upper Perk/FDU); Pat Kelley (Chestnut Hill College); Dan Morrin (Moravian).

•Outlook: The Blazers feature a new manager in Oriente, a Saint Joseph's University product. He completed his first season at DeSales, where he served as the recruiting coordinator. Previously, he was the hitting coach at Widener. He has plenty of quality hitters to work with at Quakertown, including Herron, a La Salle College High School product, who hit .328 at Duke and led the Blue Devils in hits (66), doubles (22) and steals (24) in being named second-team all-ACC. Melone led La Salle University with a .321 batting mark as a freshman and was named to the Atlantic 10 rookie team. Lopez had a .387 averaging and .664 slugging average at NCC, where he was named the EPAC player of the year and a first-team NJCAA Region XIX selection.

Copyright © 2016, The Morning Call

Should high school baseball have pitch count restrictions in Pennsylvania?

Should high school baseball have pitch count restrictions in Pennsylvania?

Short Answer: Yes.

And apparently other states are going this route. At least four states have pitch count rules in place and other states are about to institute their own rules in 2017.

Take a look at the current PIAA rules at this link:

http://www.tedsilary.com/archive/piaapitching.htm

And most states have/had similar rules, and of course there have been pitchers going down regularly with shoulder and elbow injuries. Several Lehigh Valley schools have seen pitchers over-used to the point where Tommy John surgery was necessary in the last decade, not to mention other various shoulder injuries. This is no surprise when you consider the latitude high school coaches have with these antiquated PIAA weekly innings rules. A pitcher can throw 160 pitches in a 7, 8 or 9-inning game and then is allowed to throw again after just three days rest.

Ridiculous, you say?

It happens more than you think.

It is just a matter of time before every state has pitch count rules implemented.

Here are the four states who have had these rules in place for the 2016 high school season:

Alabama: The Alabama High School Athletic Association Central Board of Control unanimously approved a rule in October for the 2017 season. The rule requires a varsity pitcher to rest three calendar days after throwing 76-120 pitches in one day. Should a varsity pitcher throw 75 or less pitches in a day, two calendar days of rest are required. A pitcher can only return the next day if 25 pitches or less are thrown in one day. Junior-varsity pitchers are allowed to throw a maximum of 100 pitches and junior high pitchers are allowed 85.

Vermont: Varsity pitchers are allowed a maximum of 120 pitchers, while junior varsity is allowed 110 and middle school allowed 85. Should a varsity pitcher throw 76 or more pitchers, three days of rest are required. The same requirement applies to junior-varsity pitchers who throw 66 or more and middle-school pitchers who throw 56 or more.

Colorado: The rule allows a varsity to pitcher a maximum of 110 pitches. Three days of rest are required if 86 or more pitches are thrown. A pitcher is only allowed to return the next day if 35 or less pitches are thrown. Junior varsity pitchers are also limited to 85 pitches. No pitcher is allowed to throw more than 60 pitches over two days. If they throw 60, a day of rest is required.

Kentucky: Adopted in January, the mandate allows varsity pitchers a maximum of 120 pitches and junior-varsity pitchers 110. Three days of rest are required if a varsity pitchers throws 76 or more pitches and a junior-varsity pitcher throws 66 or more. Middle-school pitchers are limited to 85 pitchers, with 56 or more requiring three days of rest. The state also requires a designated pitch count recorder for each game. A violation results in an ineligible player and forfeiture of the game.

Here is a more detailed layout of the Kentucky rules via the (khsaa.org website):

KHSAA Pitching Limitation Rule (For all interscholastic play including scrimmages, regular season and all rounds of postseason) is based on the number of pitches thrown in a game with the following provisions:

1. The calendar rest begins on the day following the date on which the game began or a resumed game began regardless of the conclusion time of the game.
2. The pitch count is based on pitches thrown for strikes (including all foul balls); balls; balls in play and outs.
3. A pitcher at any level who reaches the pitch count limit in the middle of an at-bat will be allowed to finish that hitter.
4. Warm-up pitches allowed before each inning, warm up pitches allowed by the umpire in case of injury or game delay, and plays attempted against the batter-runner or any runner at first, second or third base do not count against the limit.
5. All NFHS Substitution and Pitching Rules must be followed.
6. The pitch count charts of both teams from prior contests are to be presented to the opposing coach BEFORE the game.
7. A Designated Pitch Count Recorder shall be designated by the home team (DPCR).
8. During the game, pitch counts will be recorded by the DPCR and are to be reviewed between innings. Any discrepancy shall be settled by the DPCR without umpire involvement and that record shall be considered final.
9. A protest over a discrepancy in pitch counts discovered in a later inning from an earlier inning in the game will not be permitted due to end of an inning verification.
10. At game’s conclusion, the KHSAA pitch count form will be signed by both head coaches or designated representatives.
11. Both schools have the responsibility to maintain every pitching chart form until the school season is complete.
12. Any discrepancy found after the game will be reported to the KHSAA and shall be treated as a potential eligibility issue to resolve.
13. For pitchers pitching multiple levels, the most restrictive rule shall apply when there is conflict.
14. The use of a pitcher not eligible to pitch by the pitch count restrictions shall constitute the use of an ineligible player and result in contest forfeiture and additional penalties per Bylaw 27.
15. A hard copy must be available upon KHSAA request at any point during and following the season.

DAILY LIMITATION
The limit on the number of pitches is based on the level of pitching. Specific rest periods are in place when a pitcher reaches a threshold of pitches delivered in a day. The rest periods required during the regular and postseason are listed below:

VARSITY LEVEL PITCHES THROWN IN ONE DAY REQUIRED REST
Maximum Pitches – 120
76 pitches or more – Three (3) calendar days of rest
51-75 – Two (2) calendar days of rest
26-50 – One (1) calendar day of rest
1-25 – No mandated rest

JUNIOR VARSITY/FRESHMAN LEVEL PITCHES THROWN IN ONE DAY REQUIRED REST
Maximum Pitches – 110
66 pitches or more – Three (3) calendar days of rest
41-65 – Two (2) calendar days of rest
26-40 – One (1) calendar day of rest
1-25 – No mandated rest

MIDDLE SCHOOL LEVEL RECOMMENDATION PITCHES THROWN IN ONE DAY REQUIRED REST
Maximum Pitches – 85
56 pitches or more – Three (3) calendar days of rest
36-55 – Two (2) calendar days of rest
20-35 – One (1) calendar day of rest
1-19 – No mandated rest

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Other states are getting on board, which is at least a step in the right direction.

Now do these rules do enough to protect high school pitchers' arms?

That is another discussion for another time.