The Wyoming Area varsity baseball team improved one win in conference play from Rob Lemoncelli’s first season to his second as a head coach, making it into the District 2 playoffs in the process.
There was also progress shown this summer in the growth of the Wyoming Area Summer Baseball Camp for Lemoncelli’s second year.
Lemoncelli, his assistant coaches, current Warriors players and some recent players who are currently in college hosted players 14 and under Monday through Thursday 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Atlas Field.
“We ran it the same way because last year was a pretty big success,” Lemoncelli said. “Last year, we had 44 kids. This year, we had 63 kids.”
“We added some games, we added some staff and we had Champ, the RailRiders mascot there.”
Champ made a surprise appearance on the final morning of camp.
Matt Wright, Mike Bonita and Joe DeLuca, who played at Pittston Area, were the college-age players who spent time instructing at camp. Sam Parente, Dominic Bartoli and Jay Lemoncelli, Rob’s father, were the other coaches.
Potential future Warriors were joined by some neighbors, with youngsters from the Pittston Area School District, Plains and Kings also attending.
The camp’s timing fell when most youth baseball players are done for the summer, with the exception of the Greater Pittston Area majors team that was away at the state tournament.
“We like to have it first to have kids in the community come out and play baseball a little bit more,” Lemoncelli said. “ … It gets kids out playing for a while and they meet new friends.
“They make new relationships, they learn things and they get to play baseball for a week.”
A Home Run Derby was held in conjunction with the camp. Alex Vacula won the 10-14-year-old division while Aaron Marshalonis won the 9-and-under division.
Lemoncelli likes the signs he sees from the camp’s increased turnout.
“The program’s going in the right direction as evidenced by more kids coming out,” he said. “My players are doing the right thing; my coaches are doing the right thing and it shows in the fun that the kids had throughout the camp.”
