Announcement
The Morning Call Article: Parkland, Liberty among LVC baseball favorites
Click on the link to read the full Article in March 20th edition of The Morning Call. Read excert below...
The Lehigh Valley Conference will feature a new divisional alignment for the 2009 baseball season.
The same teams that met in last year's league title game are still expected to be among the LVC's elite.
Parkland, which won the Lehigh Division and overall league title last season, and Liberty, last year's Northampton Division co-champion, were the teams most often mentioned as contenders in a preseason survey of LVC coaches. Parkland will head up the North Division in the LVC's new three-division baseball format, while Liberty will play in the East Division.
The three four-team divisions, which are the same ones used in the recently completed basketball season, group teams by geography. The three division winners (East, North and West) plus a wild-card team (the non-division winner with the best league record) will play in a four-team tournament to decide a league champion.
PARKLAND
Coach: Tony Galucy (seventh year, 102-34)
Last year: 21-1 overall, 16-0 LVC
Postseason: Won LVC title game against Liberty; lost to Whitehall in District 11 Class 4A quarterfinals.
Top returnees: Jr. P Casey Cooperman (1-0, two saves, 2.27 ERA), jr. OF Andy Brandstetter (.313, .529 OBP), jr. OF/C/2B Joe Abeln, sr. P Jeremy Smith, sr. C Jon Gabriel, sr. 2B Luke Jaindl, sr. 1B/P John Torok, sr. OF/P Ryan Korp, sr. 3B MJ Miorelli (.318, 16 RBIs), sr. 1B Sam Zaccaro, sr. P Ernie Stiegler, sr. SS Dan Klem (.459, 18 RBIs).
Key newcomers: Jr. C JR McAllister, jr. 3B/P Mike Tenaglia, jr. SS Ryan Carlon, jr. P Matt Smith, jr. OF Matt Tulio, jr. P Dan O'Leary, sr. P Andrew Kulp.
Outlook: The Trojans lost three pitchers who went a combined 19-1 for last season's LVC championship squad. They have the returning position players to challenge for the league title again but will need a few arms to emerge.
