A season of maybes for Washington County Pony team
Maybe, just maybe, the long drought of Pony League World Series frustration might be coming to an end for the Washington County Pony League team.
The last time a team from Washington County won the title was 1955, 65 years ago.
But the field for this year Pony League World Series, which begins Friday the 13th and runs until Wednesday, Aug. 18, at Lew Hays Pony Field in Washington Park, is missing three entries.
Not able to play because of the COVID-19 pandemic is the Asia-Pacific Zone champion, which has won the past two world series titles, the Mexico Zone champion and the European Zone champion.
“We feel like we have as good a chance as any other team,” said Ben Miller, manager of the Washington County team.
In order not to make it an odd number of teams, the top two squads from the Host Area Tournament – Youngstown, Ohio, and Johnstown – were included in this year’s field. Normally, only the winner makes the field.
The North Zone championship was won by Bay County, Mich., and the South Zone champion is Brownsville, Texas. Those teams join host Washington County and Caribbean Zone winner Bayamon, Puerto Rico, in the eight-team field.
The East Zone and West Zone winners will be determined this weekend.
Washington County opens 8 p.m., Saturday, Aug.14 against Youngstown.
For the past five years, Canonsburg has been added to the reach of the Washington County team. This year, Chartiers-Houston was added and next year Fort Cherry comes in on a trial basis.
That’s led to a wider pool from which to draw talent.
Everybody on the roster can play more than one position but the five starting pitchers should be Khi Bouman (Trinity), Massimo Falconi (Canon-McMillan), Brogan Meighan (McGuffey), Kole Olszewski (Chartiers-Houston) and Jonah Williamson (Trinity). The order won’t be decided upon until later in the week.
“One of the things we’ll look at is who can handle the pressure.” Miller said. “Two years ago, Mason Fixx started for us and that was his second start all summer. But we knew he could handle it between the ears and we didn’t want our most talented pitcher to go out there and have struggles.”
This is the second time Miller has coached the Washington County team, guiding the 2019 club to a 2-2 record.
“I was going to do it last year but it got canceled,” said Miller. “I just felt bad for the guys. Selfishly, I was looking forward to coaching. The 2019 team was my first year as a head coach and there was a lot I struggled with, like practice planning and pitching. Selfishly, I wanted to see how much I grew in that area.”
Jake Perchinsky (Chartiers-Houston) plays all the outfield positions and some infield spots.
“I’ve known these guys since I was seven,” Perchinsky said. “I watched on the Internet just to see what the pitching was like.”
Perchinsky is one of the faster players on the team. In the running drills, he went from second base to third in 3.5 seconds. Look for him as a possible left fielder or center fielder.
Jase Hartley also plays outfield and some infield, mainly shortstop. He has speed too, and tries to find the gaps.
Hartley had a border collie named Shelby who used to retrieve the balls he threw while practicing in his yard.
Falconi is playing the middle infield spots for this team.
“I didn’t get my hopes up,” said Falconi of his tryout. “But I was hopeful.”
Falconi said he’s been playing since age 3. He too has a dog that returns balls to him when practicing at home.
Falconi, like the rest of the team, knows the atmosphere will change once the world series is underway.
“It’ll be different,” Falconi said. “But you just go out there and play the game of baseball.”
No. 1 Jake Perchinsky
No. 2 Kole Olszewski
No. 3 JR Rieg
No. 5 Jonah Williamson
No. 7 Khi Bouman
No. 15 Derek Falvo
No. 16 Brogan Meighen
No. 17 Zeke Watkins
No. 18 Massimo Falconi
No. 23 Lincoln Johnson
No. 25 Marco Faieta
No. 27 Cameron Dames
No. 34 Jase Hartley
No. 55 Devin Henderson
No. 82 Lucas Burt