Aug 29, 2025 By Rob Burchianti 6 min read

The year was 1975 when player-manager Alex “Pickhandle” Mercosky led the Buffington Buffs to the first Fayette County Baseball League championship.

Fifty years later the league has gone through many changes but is still on solid ground and recently handed out awards and listed leaders for the 2025 season.

“It was special to have a 50th-year celebration with all that’s happened since that first season,” said Ryan Encapera who has been the league president since 2016. “To be able to keep it going says a lot about who we are as a league and the people involved who have kept it strong over the years. There are different generations of players who have been a part of the league.”

The most coveted award is the Mike Susa FCBL Playoff Champion which was the Carmichaels Copperheads under manager Dickie Krause for a league-record 14th time.

Carmichaels’ surprising three-game sweep of the top-seeded Potomac Valley Mudcats in the final was mainly a result of the Copperheads’ outstanding starting pitching performances with three sterling complete-game efforts.

That led to the Tom Croftcheck Playoff MVP Award being split between those three pitchers – Gavin Pratt, Matt Bamford and Gianni Cantini – who combined to allow just two earned runs in 21 innings with 24 strikeouts.

The Copperheads also featured the Brain Sankovich Regular Season MVP Award winner (determined by league nomination and vote) in Santino Marra who was 17 of 40 for a .425 batting average with three home runs, 12 RBIs and one pitching win.

Potomac Valley and Carmichaels tied for the top spot in the seven-team, regular-season standings with 16-2 records but the Mudcats earned first place thanks to winning their season series over the Copperheads, 2-1, earning them the Tom Sankovich FCBL Regular Season Champion title. The Mudcats also garnered the Bob Nichols Playoff Runnerup Award.

Third-place Mill Run (10-8) and fourth-place Charleroi (9-9) also qualified for the playoffs. Yough Valley (6-12) was fifth with a tiebreaker over the Oakland Oaks (6-12) who were sixth and Brownsville (0-18) was the seventh-place team.

“I think we’re in pretty good shape to have just about everybody back,” Encapera said. “There could be some changes. If there are some people out there who want to put a team together, we’re always looking for new teams.

“I heard some chatter of Buddy Marra’s group of guys from Uniontown maybe coming back (Marra’s M&R Transit squad won the 2023 and 2024 championships) and that Connellsville’s Legion guys with Brian Sankovich could be a possibility. He had a good group of players that would be a good addition.”

The league currently only has two teams from Fayette County in Mill Run and Brownsville although Carmichaels of Greene County is obviously a long-established franchise. The FCBL has branched out to include Charleroi and Yough Valley as well as Potomac Valley and Oakland from Maryland.

“Potomac Valley came out of nowhere and ended up being a very strong team,” Encapera said. “Carmichaels got the best of them in the finals but those guys were good when you see their numbers. They had a solid team. I’d like to see them back again.

“The Yough Valley team showed a ton of improvement. It takes some time to establish a solid, consistent winning team year in and year out. Dickie Krause has been running Carmichaels since the late ’80s but he didn’t win his first title until 1996 and now look at them.

“That’s a testament to Dickie. He had a lot of good players this year and people want to play for a winner so they’re willing to sacrifice playing time and maybe be a role player or help contribute in the best way possible to help the team succeed.”

Encapera felt the 2020 season stood out in representing what the County League is all about. When most of the sporting world shut down during the COVID pandemic, the Fayette County Baseball League played its season and crowned a champion (Masontown).

“That COVID year definitely was a challenge,” Encapera admitted. “The bottom line was by that time in June everybody wanted something to do and all of our guys were in agreement that, hey, let’s go for it. Just about everything else had been shut down but thanks to a complete effort with everybody that was involved in the league we were able to make it happen.

“I think that year just says so much about our guys and our league. They love the game of baseball and that’s why we had a successful season that year. They all wanted to play baseball. They love the game. That’s why everybody involved in the County League does it, for the love of it.”

As for the future, Encapera is committed to staying on as league president for the foreseeable future.

“I’m happy to run the league and be the steward of what we do,” Encapera said. “You just hope to continue to make it something that can sustain itself and hopefully someone will come along some day and continue to do what we do, and follow our path.”

Other awards for the 2025 season are listed below.

The following were determined by league nomination and vote:

Joe Kurnot Top Pitcher Award – Gavin Pratt, Carmichaels (4-0, 1.53 ERA, 32 innings pitched, 34 strikeouts).

Arky Shaffer Comeback Player of the Year Award – Landon McAlpine, Potomac Valley (returned to play after fractured elbow, 19 of 45 for .422 batting average, 19 RBIs, 1 home run).

Nick Damico Rookie of the Year Award – Noah Broadwater, Potomac Valley (24 of 53 for .434 batting average, 9 RBIs, 1 home run).

Vince Zapatosky Mr. Baseball Award – Joe Volpe, Umpire Commissioner.

Paul Lancaster Umpire Sportsmanship Award (determined by umpire nomination) – Noah Mildren, Carmichaels.

Dan Kupets Manager of the Year Award – Dickie Krause, Carmichaels.

The following were determined by statistics:

Bruce Dal Canton Arm and Hammer Award – Lorenzo Glasser, Charleroi (5-1, 2.42 ERA, 36 innings pitched, 49 strikeouts).

John Kupets Batting Champion Award – Colton Brightwell, Charleroi (20 of 40, .500).

John “Preacher” Collingwood RBI Leader Award – Landon McAlpine, Potomac Valley (19).

Alex “Pickhandle” Mercosky Home Run Leader Award – Noah Mildren, Carmichaels (7).

Top Hitters (by batting average, minimum 31 at bats) – Colton Brightwell, Charleroi, .500; Noah Broadwater, Potomac Valley, .453; Connor Burkey, Yough Valley, .452; Seth Healy, Potomac Valley, .434; Alex Van Sickle, Carmichaels, .431; Santino Marra, Carmichaels, .425; Landon McAlpine, Potomac Valley, .422; JJ Charlton, Potomac Valley, .413; Noah Mildren, Carmichaels, .405; Gavin Roebuck, Yough Valley, .405; Tyson Shumaker, Potomac Valley, .391; Connor Blake, Potomac Valley, .361; Anthony Piasecki, Mill Run, .343; Chad Behrendt, Charleroi, .327; Alex Kennell, Oakland, .324; Dom Obiecunas, Carmichaels, .323; Wenkai Campbell, Oakland, .317; Remington Lessman, Charleroi, .308; Andino Vecchiolla, Carmichaels, .308; Geno Thorpe, Brownsville, .306.

Top Pitchers (by ERA, minimum 15 innings pitched) – Matt Bamford, Carmichaels, 0.00; Connor Tingler, Potomac Valley, 0.48; Bryce Snyder, Potomac Valley, 1.12; Gavin Pratt, Carmichaels, 1.40; Ethan Erhard, Carmichaels, 1.78; Brady, McNew, Potomac Valley, 1.86; Lorenzo Glasser, Charleroi, 1.92; Gianni Cantini, Carmichaels, 1.98; Andrew Catone, Oakland, 2.00; Matt Miller, Mill Run, 3.19; Ty Wickline, Oakland, 3.52; Gavin Roebuck, Yough Valley, 3.59.