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2015 WVC baseball capsules

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Penguins fall flat against Lehigh Valley

A parking lot. An elementary school playground. The track by the high school. Berwick has had to get a little creative with its venues to prepare for the start of baseball season.Plenty of Wyoming Valley Conference programs are dealing with changes with opening day for the league scheduled for Monday, weather permitting. But the Bulldogs top the list as they stare down the possibility of playing the entire season on the road.The installation of a new complex with a synthetic turf surface at the same site of their usual field on Heights Road was slowed by the frigid winter.As a result, Berwick has already switched the first portion of its WVC schedule to play on the road and coach Brian Pinterich said he has &#8220;a gut feeling&#8221; that all 13 of his league games will end up being played elsewhere.&#8220;We&#8217;re going to be road warriors,&#8221; Pinterich said. &#8220;We&#8217;re preparing as a team to play everything on road. We don&#8217;t mind doing that, but the biggest thing is preparing for the games.&#8220;There&#8217;s only so much you can do in a parking lot, or on the turf at the track.&#8221;In recent years, Wyoming Valley West played a season at Roosevelt Field in Swoyersville during renovations to the Spartans&#8217; adjacent football stadium. Wyoming Seminary also relocated for a year while upgrades to Nesbitt Stadium were made. Dallas played multiple seasons at the Back Mountain Little League complex before their new field at the high school was ready.But Berwick doesn&#8217;t have an alternative site in the district that has suitable dimensions for varsity play.&#8220;It&#8217;s a unique situation,&#8221; Pinterich said. &#8220;There&#8217;s just no place to do it. The junior high plays on a field that&#8217;s too small for varsity and (junior varsity).&#8220;The only time we&#8217;ll be on a field will be actual game day because there&#8217;s no other field here.&#8221;On the plus side, the complex could end up as the league&#8217;s best when it is finished. Pinterich said he was kept in the loop for the design.&#8220;The layout is gorgeous,&#8221; Pinterich said. &#8220;First class. You feel a little like Arnold Palmer putting together a golf course.&#8220;I just feel bad for our seniors,&#8221; who may not get to play on it. &#8220;But we&#8217;re not making any excuses. We&#8217;re going to go out there and see what we can do.&#8221;Next to that, the new divisional alignment for the league doesn&#8217;t seem so daunting.With sports across the WVC moving to divisions based on enrollment, the end result for baseball is Berwick moving down from Division 1 to Division 2 and Holy Redeemer going from Division 2 to Division 3.The top two divisions of five teams apiece will all play each other. Each team will face their other four division foes twice and the schools in the other division once for a total of 13 league games.Division 3, now with eight teams, will continue to be self-contained. Each school there will play a 14-game game schedule, going home-and-home against the other seven.While Berwick will still be facing the same opponents &#8212; just with a different frequency &#8212; Redeemer ends up facing the biggest change.Since the school was formed in 2007-08, Holy Redeemer had been the lone Class 2A program to play up in competition against 4A and 3A teams during the regular season. That often led to poor results in league play but made the Royals a formidable group in the playoffs, reaching three straight district finals from 2010-12 and winning the title in 2012.&#8220;I think it will definitely be a good thing for the kids,&#8221; Redeemer coach Chris Ritsick said. &#8220;The last few years, we&#8217;ve had three- and four-win seasons, and it&#8217;s difficult for kids to adjust sometimes and deal with the losing. Hopefully we&#8217;ll straighten that out this year and earn a decent seed for districts.&#8220;We&#8217;ll play wherever we&#8217;re put. It&#8217;s going to be a competitive league from the looks of it, and we&#8217;re looking forward to it.&#8221;Indeed, the division races look to mostly be open this year. That&#8217;s certainly a change for Division 3, which had been dominated by Hanover Area to the tune of 40 straight league wins and three consecutive crowns without a loss.With the core of that impressive run for the Hawkeyes having graduated, however, the division could be up for grabs. Nanticoke took second a year ago and returns its top pitchers.Things should also be tight in Division 2 with the addition of Berwick. Dallas rolled off a scorching hot May to win the title a year ago, edging Wyoming Area by a game. Wyoming Area, Tunkhannock and Lake-Lehman all return sizable chunks of their lineup from a year ago.Up in Division 1, Hazleton Area has the majority of it district championship lineup back and will look to defend its WVC and D2 crown. Several of Wyoming Valley West&#8217;s returning players helped Swoyersville win a state title in Legion ball last summer, setting up another interesting division race.

A season of change for Wyoming Valley Conference baseball