Penn State Fayette won juco title in 2004
Submitted photo
Penn State Fayette won the 2004 Region 20 Juco championship. Members of the team 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 Gondek, Corey Watkins, Andy Mazur, Josh Null and head coach Joe Gessner. Not pictured: assistant coach Joe LaPresta and athletic director Jennie Morrison.
Submitted photo
Ray Smitley
The 2004 baseball season for Penn State Fayette Campus was a magical one resulting in a championship.
The program was established in 1999.
“Our first season would have been 2000,” said Ray Smitley, who was an assistant coach on the team under head coach Joe Gessner. “We finished above .500 that year and we had a good foundation of kids. As it went on leading up to 2004, we made the playoffs three straight years. We were competitive.”
Things started building toward a championship as the coaching staff cobbled together a stellar recruiting class coming into the 2004 campaign.
“The freshman class in 2004 was probably the biggest impact that we had,” Smitley stated. “It was a big boost to get us on the right track and to give an opportunity for the other kids in the area to realize that they had another option to go to school at a lesser cost.
“The key player to that freshman recruiting class was Justin Corso. Justin had Division-1 offers and he had Division-2 offers. But when I talked to him, this is where he thought he should be.
“When Justin decided to commit he started talking to his other friends out there from Greene County from the other schools. Once he started talking to them next thing I know I was getting phone calls from players. Just about every good athlete from that area decided to come to Penn State.”
The players themselves talked each other into attending Penn State Fayette Campus.
“We all either played with each other or we played against each other,” Corso said. “It was really weird how we all ended up in the same place. A lot of us, we turned down scholarships to go to Penn State Fayette Campus. I gave up D-1 and D-2 to go there and play with guys I’ve been playing with ever since we were little. We were already a team before we were that team. We were already made. It just so happened that coach Gessner and coach Smitley put us together.”
“It was an amazing year,” former outfielder Ryan Gondack said. “For that kind of local talent to all get recruited and go to the same place was a lot of fun to play with all those guys. When you put together that kind of talent, we went there to try and win for our local area.”
“It was a good mix of local kids,” assistant coach Joe LaPresta recalled. “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. It was a great mix of kids.
“We took kids that were from good programs. Most of the kids we had were from winning programs and that always helps. When kids know how to win that makes things a whole lot better.”
“Essentially we put together a high school all-star team,” second baseman Jamie Kowalczyk stated. “We pretty much had all played against each other at some point. We knew what each other was good at and each others’ weaknesses and when we combined all that then every piece fell into place.”
Once the team was assembled the coaching staff — Gessner, Smitley, LaPresta and assistant coach John Curtis, who had been the head coach at Jefferson-Morgan — did some tinkering and turned them loose.
“You put the kids in a position where they are comfortable and you let him play,” Smitley said. “You tweak things and they know how to play the game. We just let them play.”
“I was a sophomore on that team,” Matt Fanase stated. “We had a great group and we all knew each other. We realized right away that we were going to be a very strong team.
“Ray Smitley, the top assistant, was a real take-charge leader as was Coach Joe Gessner. They had different coach styles, but they worked well together and the did bring the best out of us.”
“Pretty much the coaching staff let us go,” Corso offered. “We called are own game.”
Penn State Fayette fashioned a 29-2 record and captured the Region 20 Juco Championship.
“We lost to Beaver early and lost a game in Florida,” Fanase offered.
Along the way there was some adversity as Corso was hit by a line drive and suffered a fractured jaw.
“I was pitching and I got hit with a line drive in the face,” Corso lamented. “It was at Boyce Park and that ended my season.”
PSU Fayette faced Butler for the Western Championship of the CCAC and prevailed in a tough game, 4-3.
“The win over Butler was a great ballgame,” Smitley said.
“We beat Butler in the Western Championship game,” Fanase explained. “They had good pitching and played small ball very well. It was a nail-biter. Gondack hit a big home run the opposite way for us, he had a lot of power.”
The win moved Penn State Fayette into the Juco Region 20 championship series against Delaware.
“Delaware was three-time defending champs,” Smitley explained.
Penn State Fayette defeated Delaware 12-2 and 11-3 to win the title.
“We got great pitching from Josh Null and Bryan Dunn,” Smitley stated. “My shortstop Mark Shallenberger from Frazier had an outstanding game defensively in the second game. It wasn’t ideal weather — cold and rain — but we prevailed.”
“Our pitching staff was very, very good and we were very deep,” Fanase said. “We had Null and he was the ace. Dunn was a surprise and he moved up on the staff because of injury, but he really came on as a pitcher. We overcame the bad weather, it was very cold and damp.”
“The playoff run was amazing,” Gondack said. “We clinched at State College and it was a freezing cold day.”
“I will not forget that,” Kowalczyk offered. “It was cold and rainy and then after we won we all just walked down to the Penn State Creamery and got ice cream.”
“It is a great memory,” Smitley said. “We had a special group.”
“They gave us rings to celebrate the championship,” Corso stated. “ItĢƵ a memory we will have for the rest of our lives.”
The band of brothers remain close.
“Our kids are playing together and some of us are coaching our kids,” Corso said. “It is awesome.”
George Von BenkoĢƵ “Memory Lane” column appears in the Sunday editions of the ĢƵ. He also hosts a sports talk show on WMBS-AM radio from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.