First Posted: 7/24/2014
AUGUST 2004
The Greater Pittston American Legion team posted a 23-3 win over Mansfield to claim its third straight Region 5 Tournament title. The game was stopped in the fifth inning because of lightning.
Pittston scored 12 runs in the first inning. Bret Sokirka hit a grand slam in his second at-bat of the inning. Brad Tucker also had a first-inning home run.
Eatlier in the week, GP played 38 innings of National League baseball over four days that saw a 24-hour rain delay, an 8-7 extra innings win in a game with four lead changes and a win over the best strikeout pitcher in the tournament in Scranton.
Jared Wright, of West Snyder, went to the mound against GP with the reputation as the pitcher who struck out 15-of-15 batters in a relief role and 21 batters in a seven-inning game in high school. Greater Pittston struck out 19 times, but got the win 6-4 in the winners’ bracket final.
AUGUST 1994
The Babe Ruth 14-15-year old Greater Pittston All-Star team finished fourth in the state tournament in Yardley. The team finished 2-2. They advanced to the state tournament by defeating District 5 champion Mountain Top.
In the first game, GP lost to Southeast Philadelphia, 6-3, to drop to the losers’ bracket. Charlie Goff, Steve Loyack, Chuck Montagna and Charles Sciandra were the top hitters for GP.
Greater Pittston then won two consecutive games in the losers’ bracket. It beat Lewistown, 2-1, and Hazleton, 5-4, in extra innings. Goff pitched five innings of no-hit ball against Lewistown. Goff and Sciandra knocked in the runs.
Greater Pittston eventually fell to Phoenixville bu a count of 5-4. Brian Wnenta had a two-RBI double.
AUGUST 1984
A Little League field in New Jersey was dedicated to area native Michael Mulcahy in this week in 1984. The new field was named after Mulcahy after he was killed in an auto accident. He was 40 years old.
Mulcahy, the son of Ruth Dougherty Cordier, Exeter, was president of the South Hunterdon Little League and a local high school teacher of science and astronomy. The Michael Mulcahy Sr. Memorial Little League Park is at Dayton Park in Raritan Township, N.J.
AUGUST 1974
The Division 1 Girls Softball team of West Pittston romped to the Sectional Championship, downing Mountain Top South, 35-5, and earning a right to play for the state title.
The locals tallied 21 runs on 19 hits, including three home runs, three triples, two doubles and a host of singles – and that was just the third inning.
West Pittston was actually down, 4-0, after the first inning, but the local girls really exploded in the third stanza as they batted around four times. In that third frame, Gina Granteed had two triples and a single, Lori Mundy had a home run and a double, Debbie Jones slammed a home run and Sharon Manganiello drilled a homer and a triple and Donna Panzetta hit a double.
AUGUST 1964
The North All-Stars earned a 2-0 win over South in the Second Annual Greater Pittston Teen-Aged Baseball League All-Star game played at Green Field in Inkerman.
In the first inning, North’s Phil Prail drew a walk and Vince O’Hop followed with a single. Jimmy Jumper then drove in Prail with another single. The North tallied its second and final run in the fifth inning when Prail’s double drove in George Waytack.
The North got a shutout pitching performance from Waytack, Steve Shemanski and Pat Clifford. The South pitching chores were ably handled by Pat Cawley, John Drouse and Terry Kozal. Each team recorded 10 strikeouts.
