The Monroeville Junior Legion baseball team won its first Westmoreland County Youth Legion championship last year in the program’s third year of existence.
Monroeville is looking to make it two titles in a row this summer.
The Junior Gators ended last week on a 10-game winning streak and with a 10-1 overall record.
“The catalyst behind the winning streak is the team,” coach Matt Dunsmore said. “This group of boys is truly a family. I taught most of the kids at Gateway Middle School, and I love these boys. They are such an outstanding group of young men, and I am not shocked at all by their success.
“We lost our first game because everyone was still learning their role on the team. Now that everyone knows their niche, we are playing well as a team.”
Monroeville and Plum are battling for first place in the North Division. Plum stood at 10-2, with both losses to Monroeville by scores of 5-3 and 5-4.
The only other club in the division with a winning record was Lower Burrell (7-2), followed by Baldwin (4-5), Murrysville (4-7), Kiski (3-6), Penn Hills (2-6), Riverview (2-7) and Bethel Park (1-7).
Dunsmore, who teaches math, is in his first season as coach of the Monroeville Junior Legion team.
“I coach at the middle school with coach (Harold) Hanford. Coach (Mark) Wardzinski had an idea to start building the high school program through the legion levels,” Dunsmore said. “The guys before me (Jim Jackson, Ken Stancovich and Rich Otterman) did a great job getting the legion team up and running. I’m just trying to keep the momentum going.”
Dunsmore offered a three-pronged expectation for this year’s squad.
“We have a few goals,” he said. “The short-term goal is to win each inning and then each game. Intermediate goals are to win the North and qualify for regionals. Long-term goals are to win regionals and states.”
There are 17 players. They are Tyler Mathias (C/SS), Jaden Brown (OF/2B), Nathan Demchak (OF/C/3B), Alex Majocha (2B/3B), Dominic Puzzanchera (3B/C/OF), Will Roper (SS/OF), Brody Clemens (3B), Noah Colberg (OF/3B), Alec Dunsmore (OF), Justin Longo (OF/1B), Bryce Neundorfer (OF), Nick Pachete (P/1B/OF/C), Dom Pascarella (1B/OF/P(, Maximus Rocco (3B/OF), Angelo Ross (3B/1B/C), Joey Sides (OF/2B) and Dylan Vojnik (3B).
“We mix things up a lot,” Dunsmore said. “Most of the boys attend Gateway High School or middle school. We have one boy who attends Central Catholic and one from Serra Catholic.”
The players have enjoyed the team’s success so far.
“Nobody knew exactly what this team was going to be capable of,” Mathias said, “because we lost a lot of good players that moved up to Senior Legion. We were a young team going into the season, but our goal was and will always be to win the division and go to states.”
Mathias said the team’s strength is offense, and he was adamant.
“Hitting, hitting, hitting,” Mathias said. “And the fact that we play as a family. Every player is important to our success, and we all play hard to not let our brothers down. We have to remember that every team in this league is good, so we cannot have any off days.”
Through 11 games, the Junior Gators’ team batting average was .366. Nine players were hitting .300 or better.
Also, Monroeville held a 101-44 scoring advantage, averaging nine runs per game.
The team ERA was a respectable 3.03. Defensively, the Junior Gators had committed only 17 errors.
Longo, Roper, Ross, Clemens and Pachete have been starting pitchers.
“Dom Pascarella has been great in relief, as have Jaden Brown, Nate Demchak and Alec Dunsmore,” said coach Dunsmore. “I’m excited to see what Puzz has since joining us from Serra’s state championship run.”
Jim Ross and Chaz Puzzanchera are Dunsmore’s assistants.
“(Jim) has such a wealth of baseball knowledge. He played on the last Gateway team to play in the WPIAL semifinals,” Dunsmore said. “Chaz just joined the staff because his son was playing for Serra. I’ll probably have something good to say about him once I get to spend some time with him.
“Coach Hanford has been the middle school coach for awhile, 10-plus years. He is another big part of this successful program.”
Meanwhile, along with the stated team goals, Mathias began the summer with one individual objective on his mind.
“Leadership,” he said. “I really wanted to show I was capable of leading a team if given the chance.
“I love being a Gator baseball player, because nothing beats a Gator.”
