Eagle Day set for Feb. 10 at Nature Center

Tai Chi classes offered

First Posted: 5/15/2013 12:47:58 AM <hardreturn>DALLAS - They met on a baseball field while teaming up to play American Legion ball. <hardreturn>Or was it Junior Legion? <hardreturn>Andrew Tressa can&#8217;t really remember that far back. <hardreturn>All he knows is that when he joined a lineup with Kenny Durling, on a pitching staff that included Evan Robaczewski, unparalleled success began to follow them all. <hardreturn>It never stopped, really. <hardreturn>And the three Misericordia University stars plan to celebrate one final run together through the NCAA Division III playoffs, beginning with today&#8217;s start of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Tournament at PNC Field. <hardreturn>&#8220;It&#8217;s been real fun,&#8221; said Durling, the Cougars cleanup hitter with 50 RBI and a .341 batting average. &#8220;We hang out on and off the field. We&#8217;re always over each other&#8217;s houses, we go right to the field. Or I&#8217;ll call one of these two and we&#8217;ll come up and lift. <hardreturn>&#8220;You try not to think about it,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;In the back of your mind, you know this could be it for all of us playing together.&#8221; <hardreturn>They&#8217;ve made a habit of playing their way to the top. <hardreturn>At Wyoming Valley West High School, Robaczewski helped pitch the Spartans to two consecutive District 2 Class 4A titles before Tressa and Durling won a third during their senior season. <hardreturn>The three were also teammates on the 2009 Plymouth American Legion team that won the Region 5 championship with a dramatic doubleheader victory against a team featuring stars from state high school champion Abington Heights, which included current top prospect for the San Diego Padres Cory Spangenberg. <hardreturn>Then they went off to college. <hardreturn>Tressa was the scrappy middle infielder and run producer for Valley West. Durling drove him in more than once with key clutch hits and had a knack for making dramatic catches in center field. <hardreturn>They were both hard hitters in that Spartans&#8217; senior class, and both high on Misericordia&#8217;s recruiting list. <hardreturn>&#8220;When you recruit kids off the same team, you never know,&#8221; Misericordia coach Pete Egbert said. &#8220;Sometimes they want to be together, sometimes they don&#8217;t.&#8221; <hardreturn>It was clear immediately how much Tressa and Durling wanted to sustain their success together. <hardreturn>&#8220;We took our recruiting visit here together and made up our minds together,&#8221; said Tressa, who carries a .367 batting average and has scored a team-leading 53 runs. <hardreturn>They were determined to take their winning ways to Misericordia. <hardreturn>Robaczewski was a different story. <hardreturn>&#8220;I wasn&#8217;t even looking at them at all,&#8221; said Robaczewski, a year older than Tressa and Durling and a fifth-year senior at Misericordia. &#8220;I didn&#8217;t really get recruited out of high school.&#8221; <hardreturn>He wound up enrolling at Lackawanna Junior College to pitch for two years. <hardreturn>&#8220;Basically it was my only option,&#8221; Robaczewski said. <hardreturn>That seems silly now, after Robaczewski was named the Freedom Conference Pitcher of the Year for the last two seasons and dominating this one with a 9-1 record and 2.47 ERA. <hardreturn>But early in that 2009 Legion season, Robaczewski tore a ligament in his elbow, underwent Tommy John surgery, and any interest colleges may have had in him immediately evaporated. When he recovered from surgery, Robaczewski felt like a new pitcher. <hardreturn>&#8220;It was definitely a big difference,&#8221; said Robaczewski, who will start today&#8217;s 4:30 p.m. regional opener against Ramapo. &#8220;I felt it in my velocity. In high school, I never lifted, never conditioned. When I got to college, I did those things and made a huge turnaround.&#8221; <hardreturn>It turned out his idea to pitch for the University of Pittsburgh was short-lived. <hardreturn>&#8220;Didn&#8217;t work out,&#8221; he shrugged. <hardreturn>Durling and Tressa didn&#8217;t really have to work hard to get Robaczewski to try throwing off the Misericordia mound. <hardreturn>&#8220;They basically talked me into it,&#8221; said Robaczewski, who joined the Cougars for his junior year in 2012. &#8220;It was a very quick decision when those guys were playing up here.&#8221; <hardreturn>In two seasons, Robaczewski won 19 games and set the school&#8217;s all-time record for pitching victories. <hardreturn>&#8220;We got very fortunate and very lucky to get Evan into the program for two years,&#8221; Egbert said. &#8220;You give him the ball every Friday and he does it. <hardreturn>&#8220;And he does it well.&#8221; <hardreturn>They all do, really. <hardreturn>They&#8217;ve helped 36-9 Misericordia capture three consecutive Freedom Conference titles and make three straight appearances in the NCAA field. <hardreturn>&#8220;Me and Kenny coming here, after having success in high school, wanted to try to bring that to college,&#8221; Tressa said. &#8220;But we had a lot of good players in our recruiting class.&#8221; <hardreturn><del>OVERSET FOLLOWS:</del>Misericordia&#8217;s influx of talent four years ago included hard-hitting catcher Steve Sulcoski from Hanover Area, along with pitcher Pete Doggett from Abington Heights. <hardreturn>But it&#8217;s been spearheaded by a trio of Spartans who long ago began building a connection that&#8217;s hard to beat. <hardreturn>&#8220;All three of them have a great baseball background,&#8221; Egbert said. &#8220;They have all been very well-coached. All three are tough kids, both mentally and physically. The word I keep going back to is competitor. Nobody likes to lose. <hardreturn>&#8220;These kids really don&#8217;t like to lose.&#8221;

Trio of Spartans lead Misericordia’s surge