With large roster and young talent, Young Twp. is ready for Westmoreland County American League competition

There is good reason for the excitement surrounding the Young Township Westmoreland County American League baseball team.

Made up of players from Sharpsburg, Apollo-Ridge, Armstrong and a few other small school districts, the team recently has struggled with numbers, playing with rosters of 10 or 11. But at the first practice, coach Barry Thomas had close to 20 kids.

“You wouldn’t know how tough it’s been because with 11 players, you don’t make the lineup, the lineup makes you,” Thomas said. “You have to make sure everyone is happy and everyone gets in.”

The Westmoreland County American League was created by Latrobe coach Jason Bush after the American Legion season was canceled. The league is made up of District 31 teams, which will return in name next season, along with the American Legion league.

When Young Township found out it would be able to join the new league, Thomas said there were a lot of happy baseball fans in the area.

“This is a tradition out here in Young Township,” Thomas said. “We are actually in a county league. We have a junior legion and a senior legion, so when we thought we weren’t going to get to play no baseball, our fans were a little depressed. We don’t get big crowds, but we have some dedicated baseball fans.”

“So everyone was happy to hear when this game together. We are ready to go.”

The team’s talent level also has the longtime baseball coach/manager excited.

After the 16U team had a good run in the American Legion Division II state tournament last season, a lot of those players will contribute to this year’s team, making the roster deeper and more talented.

“We have basically a 17-year-old team this year, along with a couple players that are older and a couple that are younger,” Thomas said.

Young Township’s lineup should have strong hitters throughout and a pitching staff that goes three or four starters deep with three or four guys who could pitch two or three innings.

It starts with a talented group of returners led by Brady Yard and Blake Fairman. Thomas said Ethan Prugh plays a solid shortstop, and Nate Slapinski will roam center field, with Anthony Bertilino in right field. Thomas said no matter who plays where, the run production will be solid.

“It’s going to be a tough lineup to break with the 20 players we have,” Thomas said. “I’m not going to say we’ll be dominant in comparison to the big schools we’ll be playing. But for our area, which is all small schools, we have the best of the small schools around here.”

Young Township open its season by hosting Derry on Sunday at 2 p.m.