TEAMS STAY SHARP PLAYING OUT OF STATE
Like many other rising high school seniors with hopes of playing college baseball, Trinity’s Brandon Robaugh knows the summer is a crucial time for players hoping to get noticed — especially after having his entire junior season wiped out by the COVID-19 pandemic.
After spending more than two months training from home while following social distancing guidelines, Robaugh finally got to lace up his cleats and take the field for his first practice of the summer with the Pittsburgh Spikes on Monday — although something was a little different.
The Spikes typically hold their practices at La Roche, about 45 minutes away from Robaugh’s home in Washington, Pa. But this time, his drive was a bit farther, just across the Ohio border.
“It’s all weird. That’s the only way I can explain it,” Robaugh said. “None of us have really been through anything like this. All the local fields, we can’t get on. We can maybe get into a batting cage here and there, but we can’t get together as a team.
“Once our high school season got shut down, we were very curious about our travel season, and a few weeks to a month ago, [Pittsburgh Spikes owner/director Chase Rowe] mentioned going to Ohio, and my household was very happy about it, and I’m sure other households were, too.”
With Pennsylvania still awaiting the impending green light to reopen from Gov. Tom Wolf, Rowe refused to allow his players and coaches to begin meeting or practicing in person — in Pennsylvania, that is.
“There needs to be some kind of guidelines, and we don’t have any, so we’re going to go somewhere that does,” Rowe said.
With no access to fields in the state and no desire to disobey Gov. Wolf’s restrictions, Rowe rented out a five-field complex just across the Ohio border to hold the Spikes’ first official practices of the summer. The Spikes have 17 different teams with age groups ranging from 9 to 17, and Rowe made sure there were time slots for each of them to get back out onto the field, although attending the practices wasn’t mandatory.
“If we’re going to be opening as things are trending around here and we can’t work out here, we have to give at least the option,” Rowe said. “If people want to practice, they can come over. If they don’t want to, they don’t have to.”
As far as the practice itself, Robaugh said everything went smoothly — although it was strange having to remain six feet
apart and not being able to high-five the coaches.
“We had a bunch of swings, a bunch of ground ball reps, throwing reps from your infield spot — just to get the muscle memory back, just to break off the rust, just keep breaking it off,” Robaugh said. “It was just mass reps of everything. We threw bullpens, catchers threw down to bases, it was everything you needed.
“It felt like I got on the field and got right off.”
Allegheny County is entering the green phase of its reopening stage Friday, along with most of Western Pennsylvania. But players and coaches in the area still don’t know exactly when summer baseball leagues can officially begin play, let alone what new guidelines and restrictions they will need to adhere to.
Rowe, who also serves as the Detroit Tigers’ minorleague hitting coach, said it has been frustrating watching other states begin the reopening process with a clear plan in place while Pennsylvania’s status remains up in the air.
“Everybody is in a holding pattern,” Rowe said. “No one is really telling us what to do in Pennsylvania. All these other states are opening, but they’re also providing guidelines for when we do open, what is safe and what’s not.”
In order to ensure the health and safety of the players, Rowe believes they need ample time to properly work themselves back into game shape, and he doesn’t envision most of his teams resuming live competition until July at the earliest.
“It’s not really even a competition thing,” Rowe said. “We’re a player development organization. These kids need practices and they need to be developed the right way. Just because they say we can start playing, doesn’t mean kids are ready to play.
“We’re not in a hurry to play baseball. But we are going to make sure that they’re safe and healthy and prepared to handle the games they should be.”
The Spikes may be trying something different, but they aren’t the only local travel team that has been making the drive across state lines to get some swings in.
Beaver Valley’s 17-andunder travel ball club, which features WPIAL standouts such as Drew Lafferty (Seton LaSalle), Gavin Miller (West Allegheny), Jonathan Wetherholt (Mars) and Christian Zilli (Hempfield), spent the better part of last weekend driving to Ohio and back while competing in four showcase games over a three-day period.
“It’s just really to get us acclimated for the summer season, because no one has played a baseball game since the beginning of the WPIAL season, or even before that,” Zilli said.
Lafferty will play his college ball at Kentucky, while Miller will play for Auburn and Wetherholt will play for West Virginia. But for players like Zilli and Robaugh who aren’t recruited by every school in the nation, now could be the most important time for them to gain exposure from college coaches and scouts after missing out on their high school season.
“I’ve been trying to keep the mindset that everyone is on the same playing field as me,” Zilli said. “No one can really get out there and play. So now it’s up to me to do my work, so when we do get back out there, I’m a step above the competition.”
The NCAA extended its “quiet period” to Aug. 1 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, meaning coaches aren’t permitted to view players’ practices or games in person in June or July. Still, that doesn’t mean players are losing hope.
“I’ve had friends and heard stories of people committing like a month before they end up going to school,” Robaugh said. “I feel like whenever we do get to play, kids — especially juniors — everybody is going to have to perform.”
For Zilli and his Beaver Valley 17U teammates, the feeling of putting on a uniform once again and taking the field at the home of the Lake Erie Crushers was something they won’t soon forget. Not because of the atmosphere at the minor league stadium, mind you, but simply because it had been so long.
“It was so relieving and almost soothing in a sense, that we’ve been waiting and waiting and waiting and then it was finally there,” Zilli said.