Gonglik ready to lead Bentworth softball into the playoffs
Sydney Gonglik has done her best to block out any outside noise.
Even if she has been making plenty of it all on her own while pitching for Bentworth this season.
Just ask anybody that’s faced her.
“Everybody knows Sydney Gonglik and the reputation she has,” Wash High softball coach Michael McCort said after his Prexies faced Gonglik earlier this season.
Gonglik, an LSU recruit, has put up eye-popping numbers this spring. After spending most of last season recovering from injury, she’s healthy and ready to lead Bentworth into the WPIAL Class 2A playoffs.
The third-seeded Bearcats open the playoffs against No. 14 Burgettstown, 5 p.m. Thursday at Trinity Middle School.
“I’m definitely going into it with more confidence, because I’ve been pitching all year,” Gonglik said.
Gonglik posted a 14-2 record in the regular season with a 1.07 ERA over 92 innings. She had 200 strikeouts and only 15 walks. She allowed 28 and only eight extra base hits, while throwing multiple no-hitters.
She can hit too.
Gonglik has a .482 batting average with a team-best eight homers, six doubles and three triples. She drove in 22 runs.
Veteran Bentworth coach Jack Cramer seen too many players like Gonglik in his time in softball.
“I’ll take her over anybody,” Cramer said.
Gonglik burst onto the scene as a freshman, leading Bentworth to the WPIAL Class 2A championship game, where the Bearcats lost to Neshannock.
She was hoping for an encore in her sophomore year, but a shoulder injury sidelined her from pitching for nearly the entire regular season. She was able to return to the circle for the playoffs and Bentworth made a run to the WPIAL semifinals and state playoffs.
She’s back and even stronger now as a junior and said she learned plenty during the time she wasn’t able to pitch last season.
“I just know who I am and I try to not let the outside noise bother me as much,” Gonglik said. “Just being able to stay inside myself has been a huge improvement. My parents have helped me a lot with confidence issues. My coaches have talked with me a lot and have helped me with queue words to help settled me down.”
When it comes to mentality, Cramer said he hasn’t seen too many players with a competitive nature like Gonglik.
It’s part of what’s made her so successful and a future softball player in the SEC.
“She hates to give up a hit,” Cramer said. “She wants to strike everybody out. With all the freshmen we have, our offense isn’t as good as it could be or will be, but we don’t panic if we’re winning 2-1 or 1-0. We’ve won plenty of those games. The girls know that if we play solid defense behind her we’ve got a good chance and our defense has been pretty solid.”
Nora Lindley is one of the defenders that plays behind Gonglik. She’s the Bearcats’ third baseman and enjoys watching Gonglik work in the circle.
“It’s nice, because I don’t have to worry about too many hard hits at me,” Lindley said. “I just have to worry about bunt coverage. It’s nice to be able to relax a little bit, knowing how well she pitches every game.”
Gonglik combines heavy velocity with a lot of spin, making it difficult to catch up to her pitches.
Before Wash High faced Gonglik earlier this season, McCort said they worked on trying to adjust to her velocity, but said it’s hard to simulate it.
“She’s a fantastic pitcher for sure,” McCort said. “There’s only so many things you can do to prepare for her. You can crank the pitching machine up and have the girls stand a little closer to it, but nothing really substitutes for live pitching with the kind of spin she’s throwing with. You can try to replicate it in the cage, but you can only get close and not exactly what you’re going to see.”
Gonglik has her younger sister, Makayla, on the team with her for the first time. Makayla has had a strong freshman year with a team-best .556 batting average and 20 RBI.
Their dad, Marty Gonglik, is an assistant coach for the Bearcats. He works closely with Sydney on pitching. For a while Sydney called her own pitches, but now her dad has taken that off her plate.
“When I used to call my own pitches, there were so many numbers on the card that I was taking too much time to call the pitch I wanted, because I was trying not to call the same number a bunch of times,” Gonglik said. “My dad and I work well together. If I don’t like something, I’ll just call him off and call my own pitch. He tells me all the time to trust my pitch.”
Now the time has come to unleash her arsenal in the playoffs.
“I’m excited, because this is what I’ve been waiting for all year,” Gonglik said. “This is the team to do it with too.”