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Body found in woods behind WB building; no criminal activity suspected

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Luzerne County eyeing insurance brokers

<p>MOOSIC &#8212; When Tyler Wade started discussing his International League Postseason All-Star nod as shortstop on Wednesday, one of the first things he did was thank his manager, Al Pedrique.</p><p>It just so happens that the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders manager was also named the league&#8217;s Manager of the Year on Wednesday. It was the second straight season he&#8217;s taken home the honor, becoming just the fourth manager to do so in the International League&#8217;s history.</p><p>&#8220;I just want to thank Al, for kind of dealing with me all year and putting in a lot of work in with me. It&#8217;s great,&#8221; Wade said.</p><p>However, while his 2017 campaign has been full of memories &#8212; finding immediate success in his first season at the Triple-A level, making his MLB debut and spending two extended stints with the New York Yankees and being named to the league&#8217;s postseason all-star team &#8212; Wade said that there are still plenty of goals left ahead of him this season.</p><p>The 22-year-old wants to continue to help the RailRiders win while he&#8217;s here and then when he&#8217;s back in the big leagues, he wants to help the Yankees win a World Series.</p><p>&#8220;I want to keep working hard and accomplish those goals,&#8221; Wade said. &#8220;Both clubhouses, they have a great group of guys and we have a great group of guys here, and I think we have similar mindsets. We just want to keep winning games and I&#8217;m going to do whatever it takes to win those games. It&#8217;s a very exciting time.&#8221;</p><p>Pedrique said he was humbled and thankful to be named the Manager of the Year for the second straight season. To him, it starts with his staff.</p><p>RailRiders pitching coach Tommy Phelps has led the pitching staff to league-low ERAs in back-to-back seasons. Hitting coach P.J. Pilittere has continued the success from last year &#8212; a first-place finish in batting average &#8212; into this season. The RailRiders&#8217; .273 batting average ranks first once again.</p><p>&#8220;I cannot do this by myself,&#8221; Pedrique said. &#8220;I said it last year all along, and this year, that you have to have a good coaching staff that knows their job, their responsibilities and you let them do the work. Players, you have to have players that are willing to go out on a daily basis, prepare themselves, play the game the right way. The trainer, conditioning guy &#8212; it&#8217;s going to sound silly &#8212; but even the clubhouse guy. You have to have the right people in order be successful in this job.&#8221;</p><p><ins>While both the 2016 and 2017 squads had their fair share of talent, Pedrique said that this year&#8217;s youth has stood out. </ins></p><p><ins>Twenty-, 21- and 22-year-olds playing large roles in the RailRiders&#8217; success this season has taken him aback. Look no further than Wade. The 22-year-old shortstop was named an all-star in his first year in the league.</ins></p><p><ins>&#8220;I&#8217;m impressed how they got better on a daily basis,&#8221; Pedrique said. &#8220;Some of the guys &#8212; you all know &#8212; got called up, went to New York, contributed, helping the team to win games. I guess when you get players that come back down, your concern is how they&#8217;re going to take it, how they&#8217;re going to react, but I guess we&#8217;ve been lucky enough this year and last year that guys, when they come down, they&#8217;re very professional. They always take one day to kind of mope around, but after that they go right after it.&#8221;</ins></p><p>Sporting a league-high 85 wins heading into Wednesday&#8217;s tilt against Rochester, Pedrique couldn&#8217;t help but wonder if more of his players deserved to be recognized this season.</p><p>Outfielders Dustin Fowler and Clint Frazier each had impressive first halves for the RailRiders. Ben Heller and Chance Adams have been two of the league&#8217;s more impressive pitchers this season, as well.</p><p>&#8220;When you&#8217;re in first place and you have the record we have, I&#8217;m here for a reason,&#8221; Pedrique said. &#8220;Like I say, &#8216;You don&#8217;t win races if you don&#8217;t have the horses,&#8217; and I&#8217;ve been lucky for the last two years that I&#8217;ve had a good staff, good players, but yes, I thought that we&#8217;d have more guys on the all-star team.&#8221;</p><p>When it comes to the minors, most fans draw to the top prospects and their paths to the big leagues. But Pedrique, a former interim manager for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Major League bench coach, would like another shot in the bigs too.</p><p>&#8220;We all want to get to the big leagues. I want to get back. That&#8217;s the goal,&#8221; Pedrique said. &#8220;The time will tell. God&#8217;s time is perfect. I love what I&#8217;m doing right now, helping these guys to get better and when the time is right, if I get another opportunity, I&#8217;ll be happy and if it doesn&#8217;t happen, I&#8217;ll keep working hard. This game, you learn something every day. That&#8217;s why you have to stay humble, and I&#8217;m really, really appreciative for the organization.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">RailRiders shortstop Tyler Wade reacts after hitting a bloop double to the left-field gap as Rochester&#8217;s Niko Goodrum moves in on the play during Wednesday&#8217;s game. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/web1_TTL083117RailRiders_4.jpg</photo0><caption0>RailRiders shortstop Tyler Wade reacts after hitting a bloop double to the left-field gap as Rochester&#8217;s Niko Goodrum moves in on the play during Wednesday&#8217;s game. </caption0><photoCredit0>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By DJ Eberle</p><p>djeberle@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach DJ Eberle at 570-991-6398 or on Twitter @ByDJEberle</p></shirttailMeta></div>

SWB RailRiders Tyler Wade and Al Pedrique take home International League postseason awards