What could have been: Carmichaels baseball, softball teams had high expectations
Carmichaels coach Dickie Krause (left) talks with Zach Gamble during a game against Brownsville last season. Gamble and four other Mikes lost their senior year due to the coronavirus. (Photo by Ed Thompson)
Carmichaels鈥� Dylan Wilson fires to first in an attempt to turn a double play during the Mikes鈥� WPIAL playoff win over Jeannette last year. Wilson was expected to be a key player on a strong Mikes team that won a section title last year and was looking for bigger things in 2020 until the coronavirus pandemic short-circuited the season. (Photo by Darnell Graham)
Carmichaels鈥� Kylie Sinn goes into her windup against Charleroi during a Section 3-AA game at Carmichaels on April 4 last year. The cononavirus pandemic wiped out the Seton Hill recruit鈥檚 senior season. (Photo by Ed Thompson)
Carmichaels softball coach Dave Briggs had high expectations in 2020 for a Lady Mikes team that defeated eventual state champion Frazier and won one WPIAL playoff game last year. (Photo by Rob Burchianti)
The following is one in a series of stories featuring local high schools which lost their spring sports seasons due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Carmichaels is a perennial power in spring sports with programs that have won numerous section titles and multiple WPIAL championships in both baseball and softball. Optimism for the 2020 season was particularly high, especially in baseball, until the COVID-19 pandemic washed those dreams away.
鈥淚n baseball, they had a lot back and they were in for an exciting season,鈥� Carmichaels AD John Krajnak said. 鈥淭hey had tied Chartiers-Houston last year for the section title. I feel real bad for not only the seniors but the whole team because they had very high expectations. Dickie Krause had them very well prepared.
鈥淚n softball, they were in a real tough section with Frazier, which was the PIAA champion last year, and Chartiers-Houston, but they were right there with those teams last year.
鈥淚 feel particularly bad for Kylie Sinn. She made all-state her sophomore and junior years and we thought she was going to come back and have a terrific year, and she was really excited about it. They had high expectations, too. They beat the state champs once last year. They had a big fundraiser and they were going to go south for a trip in about three days and then it was all canceled.鈥�
Krajnak has been involved in Greene County sports for decades and has never seen anything like the coronavirus pandemic.
鈥淭his is my 51st year that I鈥檝e either been a coach or an athletic director,鈥� Krajnak said. 鈥淚鈥檝e never been exposed to anything like this. It鈥檚 got to be so difficult for the kids.鈥�
It鈥檚 no one鈥檚 fault, Krajnak stressed.
鈥淭here鈥檚 nothing you can do. It鈥檚 a very concerned time for everybody,鈥� Krajnak said. 鈥淵ou feel bad about it. For the seniors, it can鈥檛 be made up, their last season is lost.鈥�
Baseball
The Mikes were coming off a 16-3 campaign that included a section crown and a playoff victory, and had many key pieces back this year.
鈥淔rom purely a baseball standpoint we had the potential to have a very special year,鈥� Carmichaels coach Dickie Krause said. 鈥淲e went in knowing we had a lot back. We thought we had good pitching. We knew we were going to be pretty solid defensively. I thought, one-through-nine, we were probably going to be the deepest offensive lineup we鈥檝e ever had. So, we had some pretty high expectations.
鈥淚 think what even made it worse for us is we had a really good early part of the season. Our optional workouts went really well, the kids were really engaged and then the first few weeks we were getting outside and had great practices. We were so far ahead of where we were at the same time last year on March 12. We had one scrimmage and looked really crisp.鈥�
Then it all came to a sudden halt.
鈥淭here鈥檚 never a good time for something like this to happen,鈥� Krause said. 鈥淲e all understand that.鈥�
Carmichaels鈥� players, especially seniors Zach Gamble, Logan Mayhle, Michael Robison, Taggert Shea and Dylan Wilson, were crushed.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e not taking it well,鈥� said Krause, who pointed out the program鈥檚 journey to the 2020 season was a long one, not just a spring happening.
鈥淲e do a lot of conditioning and a lot of optional things and we had a winter program in place and we had fall baseball,鈥� Krause explained. 鈥淲e played all the bigger schools in fall ball, like Uniontown, Connellsville, Belle Vernon, Albert Gallatin. Everything was well attended and working.
鈥淭he first couple weeks in March we started having formal practices, we looked good. We had more in than any other year that I had been coaching. We scrimmaged Monessen and it went really well for us, we threw about four or five kids and they all pounded the zone with strikes, hit the ball well, and I felt really good about it.鈥�
The coronavirus effect was starting to take hold, however, and Krause and his players were well award of the situation.
鈥淵ou had this lingering in the background, you knew it was going to happen,鈥� Krause said. 鈥淲e were putting equipment away after the scrimmage and one of our seniors, Dylan Wilson, who would鈥檝e been a four-year starter, he just said, 鈥榊ou know Coach, that鈥檚 probably it for me.鈥�
鈥淚 knew he was probably right, but I was trying to be encouraging and I said 鈥業鈥檓 hoping not, I鈥檓 hoping we鈥檒l get back on the field later in the spring.鈥� But he said, 鈥楴o, this was probably my last game.鈥�
鈥淭hat was just heart-breaking. You have a kid who鈥檚 in his senior year, had started for three years, he had been interested in playing in college.鈥�
Krause had two seniors who had worked their way into the starting lineup.
鈥淗ere are kids that were each waiting three years to get a chance to be an everyday player,鈥� Krause said. 鈥淥ne of them, Taggart Shea, worked really hard. He was a golfer on the really good team they had in the fall and he still did fall baseball, too. He never missed a winter workout. He would鈥檝e been starting every game as either an outfielder or a DH. You work that hard all that time at something and then your season is taken away.
鈥淟ogan Mayhle was a good pitcher for us in the past, but he was going to start for the first time for us somewhere in the infield.
鈥淵ou have these kids who put in so much time and were so excited about their senior season, and then, poof. It鈥檚 gone. Just like that.鈥�
Krause had no qualms about the WPIAL and PIAA decisions.
鈥淚 thought they both handled this perfectly,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey gave it a lot of time, they didn鈥檛 make any premature, inappropriate decisions, they let it play out, and I really appreciate them doing that. They did everything in their power to keep the winter sports alive and then the spring sports, but the virus just didn鈥檛 let them.鈥�
Softball
Carmichaels went 14-6 last season, including a win over eventual state champion Frazier, and won a playoff game. The Lady Mikes only returned three seniors, but all were impact players led by ace pitcher Kylie Sinn, a Seton Hill recruit and WPIAL James Collins鈥� Scholar-Athlete Award winner.
鈥淲e were looking forward to the season,鈥� Carmichaels coach Dave Briggs said. 鈥淥ur seniors worked really, really hard in the offseason. We were ready to accept the challenge of our section. We competed last year with the top teams.鈥�
The Lady Mikes now must wait until 2021 when they鈥檒l need someone new in the circle to replace Sinn.
鈥淪he鈥檚 probably one of the most recruited players I鈥檝e ever had,鈥� Briggs said. 鈥淭hey all took it tough but she probably took it the toughest. Kylie worked so hard this offseason.鈥�
Sinn, who had a 1.97 ERA with 153 strikeouts in 121 innings pitched last season, was a two-way threat for the Lady Mikes.
鈥淎 lot of people talk about her pitching, which of course she鈥檚 very good at, but her bat has really improved over the four years she鈥檚 been here,鈥� Briggs said. 鈥淚 thought she had a break-out season last year at the plate. I think she was going to have a great year as a hitter with power and driving in runs and average. She was underrated batting-wise.鈥�
Sinn hit a team-high .492 last year with five doubles, four triples, three home runs, 16 RBI and 28 runs.
鈥淚 was looking forward to the season,鈥� Sinn said. 鈥淥ur team was ready to make a big impact in our section. I know we could have gone a long way and done a lot.鈥�
Abigail Fordyce was a solid catcher who worked well with Sinn and Emily Conklin, an outfielder, was the team鈥檚 second-leading hitter in 2019.
鈥淚 expected big things from them also,鈥� said Briggs, who recalled how the season ended.
鈥淲e had a last practice on a Friday when everything was still up in the air. I don鈥檛 think any of us then thought it was going to get to this point. You really didn鈥檛 know what was going to happen.
鈥淚t鈥檚 just sad. You don鈥檛 have much closure. Those three seniors really love softball. They just loved to play.鈥�
Joe Tuscano contributed to this story.