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Into the Hall: PS Fayette baseball 2004

By Rob Burchianti 8 min read
article image - Submitted photo
The 2004 Penn State Fayette baseball team poses with its trophies after winning the Region 20 Juco championship. Members of the team, which finished with a record of 29-2, were (sitting, from left) Sam Petko, Jamie Kowalczyk, Ryan Guthrie, Earl Gilbert, Matt Fanase, Phil Gratchic, (standing, from left) statistician Fred Staley, assistant coach John Curtis, Bryan Dunn, Justin Corso, assistant coach Ray Smitley, Paul Metz, Mark Shallenberger, Ryan Gondak, Corey Watkins, Andy Mazur, Josh Null and head coach Joe Gessner. Assistant coach Joe LaPresta and athletic director Jennie Morrison are not pictured.

Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus didn’t have a baseball team when the 20th century was nearing its end.

The Roaring Lions established the program in 1999 and fielded its first team in 2000.

“In the first season we were two games above .500,” said Ray Smitley, who was an assistant coach on the team. “We never anticipated to be that competitive that early.”

Penn State Fayette would make an even bigger jump four years later, going 29-2 and winning the Region 20 Juco Baseball championship under head coach the late Joe Gessner.

The 2004 Penn State Fayette baseball team is part of the Fayette County Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2024.

Smitley and many former players and coaches from that championship team were overjoyed with the news of their impending induction.

“That’s something that everybody dreams about,” Smitley said of the Hall of Fame honor. “They were very overwhelmed that they were going to be inducted into the Fayette County Sports Hall of Fame.”

Members of the highly-talented team were Justin Corso, Jamie Kowalczyk, Andy Mazur, Josh Null, Bryan Dunn, Matt Fanase, Sam Petko, Phil Gratchic, Ryan Guthrie, Paul Metz, Earl Gilbert, Ryan Gondak, Mark Shallenberger and Corey Watkins.

An impressive coaching staff, led by Gessner, also included assistant coaches Smitley, Joe LaPresta and John Curtis.

Smitley recalled the formation of the new program.

“I had just left a coaching job at Frazier and Joe wanted me up there with him when he got hired,” Smitley said of being contacted by Gessner. “We started putting a team together. We sat down and decided we’ve got our work cut out for us here to get ready in one year to recruit, get kids to come in and convince them that Penn State Fayette was an opportunity to play baseball as a freshman instead of sitting for a period of time.

“It took a good bit of work but we finally got through it.”

Smitley was proud of the Roaring Lions’ winning record that first season in 2000.

“Some of the young men that we had brought in there, they were up to the task,” Smitley said. “It was just a stepping stone for the program.”

Curtis, the longtime coach at Jefferson-Morgan, joined the coaching staff for the 2004 season and played a key role in starting the formation of that year’s squad.

“Joe coached at Frazier when I was coaching at Jeff-Morgan,” Curtis recalled. “We became pretty good friends. He called me one day and asked if I’d be interested. I said I might be. I’ll give you a call back. I thought about it and I told my wife I always wanted to try college baseball, and I took the position.”

Recruiting was tough at the time for the Roaring Lions.

“Back then we played at Hutchinson Field in Hopwood,” Smitley said. “We weren’t allowed to give scholarships at that time. It had to be grant and aid.”

Corso, an outstanding player from Mapletown, was the recruit that started the ball rolling for the Roaring Lions.

“We had a young man, Justin Corso, who probably at that time was one of the best, if not the best, catchers in the CCAC,” Smitley said. “He had Division-I offers. He had Division-II offers. John Curtis talked to him and he decided to come in and sit down.”

Smitley handled a majority of the recruiting at the time and welcomed Corso in.

“We had a nice conversation and then he left the office and I said that’s going to be pretty tough to get this young man,” Smitley said. “He’s got some offers to pay for his education. Then the next day he called me back and said, ‘Coach, I’ve made my decision and I’m coming with you.’

“I was speechless at first because this was one of the first big-name young men that we had gotten. That led to Bryan Dunn from California, who was an outstanding pitcher and outfielder for us. That led to Josh Null (California), big-time thrower, lefty. Jamie Kowalczyk (Carmichaels), Matt Fanase (Jefferson-Morgan), Joe Gratchic (Geibel Catholic) … it just kept escalating.

“They just kept talking to each other and the next thing you knew we had a team put together, a dream year team for us.”

Penn State Fayette was almost unbeatable in 2004. Its only losses were to Beaver early in the season and a non-conference game in Florida.

The team was mainly a mix of Fayette County and Greene County players.

“When I went over there I thought we need some kids from Greene County on this team,” Curtis said with a laugh. “And we got some. Corso from Mapletown, Jamie Kowalczyk was a really good infielder from Carmichaels, Andy Mazur was a pitcher for Carmichaels, Matt Fanase was a Jeff-Morgan kid.”

“It was a good mix of local kids,” LaPresta said. “We had Uniontown, we had Laurel Highlands, we had Connellsville, we had California, we had Carmichaels, Albert Gallatin, Jefferson-Morgan, Beth-Center and we had some kids from Geibel and they just really meshed together and worked hard.”

“When you put together that kind of talent, we went there to try and win for our local area,” Gondak said.

“Essentially we put together a high school all-star team,” Kowalczyk said.

“We realized right away that we were going to be a very strong team,” Fanase said.

Smitley knew the team was special also.

“I’ve been around baseball a good while and the kids that we had that came in that year, it made my job and Coach Gessner’s job easy as far as the coaching staff,” Smitley said. “They knew the game. These young men were some of the best talent in the area at that time and we were very fortunate to land them.

“They wanted to learn. They paid attention. I told them before the season started, ‘The sky’s the limit with you guys. You guys have an opportunity to set a tone for what could happen with baseball out here at Penn State Fayette Campus.'”

Curtis agreed with Smitley’s assessment of the team.

“What I liked about it the most was the kids were all talented and they did whatever you wanted them to do,” Curtis said. “It was enjoyable.”

The Roaring Lions defeated Butler, 4-3, in the Western Championship of the CCAC to reach the best-of-three final against three-time defending champion Delaware.

“They were a senior-oriented team,” Smitley said. “They brought a ton of people to the game.”

Penn State Fayette had a much smaller roster than Delaware.

“I always told the guys, it’s not how many players you have but how many ballplayers you have,” Smitley said.

The Roaring Lions trailed late in the first game.

“We started our big lefty, Josh Null,” Smitley said. “Null ended up striking out 12 batters, walking nobody.”

Even so, Penn State Fayette was down 1-0 going into the fifth inning having given up an unearned run, and got a pep talk from Smitley at that point, which immediately paid off.

“We scored nine runs in the bottom of that inning,” Smitley said.

The Roaring Lions went on to win 12-2.

Curtis pointed out his team got an early edge in the game.

“Kowalczyk comes up to me in the second inning and says, ‘Coach I have their signs,'” Curtis recalled with a laugh. “He was like a 4.0 student. I said well great.”

Penn State Fayette romped to an 11-3 win in the second game to claim the title.

“We started Bryan Dunn who struck out 13,” Smitley said. “He just was phenomenal on the mound. We just took control.”

Kowalczyk remembered how his team celebrated.

“It was cold and rainy and then after we won we all just walked down to the Penn State Creamery and got ice cream,” Kowalczyk said.

That’s not all the players would receive.

“They gave us rings to celebrate the championship,” Corso pointed out. “It’s a memory we will have for the rest of our lives.”

“Just the overall experience is what I think of the most,” said Curtis, who would coach three years at Penn State Fayette before returning to Jefferson-Morgan where he remains as the head coach. “And meeting Joe LaPresta and working with Joe (Gessner) and Ray was a lot of fun.”

The mutual respect the coaches and players had for each other was a major factor in the success of the team, according to Smitley.

“We listened. They listened,” Smitley said. “We paid attention. They paid attention. It was a dream to coach a team like this because, as far as I was concerned as a coach, I could just sit back and enjoy watching the ballgame.

“These young men understood what needed to be done, how to play. They never got down on each other, they never talked about each other whether they were a starter or non-starter. It was just one of those seasons. These players will stick in my mind forever.”

The Fayette County Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2024 will be enshrined at the Hall of Fame Golf Outing/Luncheon/Social today, starting with golf at 9 a.m. at Pleasant Valley Golf Club in Connellsville. Luncheon tickets are sold out and all spots in the golf outing have been filled.

(George Von Benko contributed to this story.)

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