Cleaning out the notebook: - Tim Latham, one of the better baseball pitchers to come out of Belle Vernon Area in recent years, will be going to the Junior College World Series for the second straight year. His Potomac State College team swept a doubleheader from Louisburg (N.C.) College, 5-0 and 6-3, Sunday in Keyser, W. Va., to repeat as Eastern District champs. The Catamounts (32-12), who had some 20 rainouts, are the only repeater headed to Grand Junction, Colo. Potomac State, which went 0-2 a year ago in the Series, will open against St. Petersburg (Fla.) College (44-14-1) at 7:30 p.m. Sunday. Latham was used as a relief pitcher during the campaign and made three appearances with a save in the 10-9 victory over Cecil Community College earlier this month. Latham also teamed with infielder J.T. Osburn on a baseball diary during the season on the school's Web site. Rounding out the 10-team field are Texarkana (Texas) College, Hutchinson (Kan.) Community College, New Mexico Junior College, Wallace State (Ala.) Community College, South Mountain (Ariz.) Community College, Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College, Walters State (Tenn.) Community College and Iowa Western Community College. Rich "Goose" Gossage, an intimidating closer for the New York Yankees who also pitched one season in Pittsburgh (1977), is scheduled to speak at the opening banquet Friday. Gossage attended last year's JUCO World Series to watch his son, Todd, play for Seward County (Kan.) Community College. The younger Gossage is now playing at the University of Central Arkansas. - Penn-Trafford's WPIAL Class AAAA baseball semifinal game with Upper St. Clair, which started Tuesday and ended Wednesday at the John DiVirgilio Sports Complex in Rostraver Township due to a rain delay, was a homecoming of sorts for Warrior assistant John Shusteric. Shusteric was the Belle Vernon Area boys' basketball coach for three seasons (1989-92). His son, Dan, was one of the top hitters for Penn-Trafford, which lost 4-3 Wednesday with Upper St. Clair scoring the winning run on a wild pitch in the seventh inning. n Former Uniontown High basketball player and coach Emile Etheridge Sr. has two more publications out, "Good Coach?Bad Coach?" and "The Spotlight and The Magnifying Glass." The books can be purchased at locations in Uniontown and Connellsville with Etheridge signings set at the Uniontown Library (5 to 7 p.m.) June 13 and two days later at Connellsville Library (6 to 8 p.m.). n Ken Fusina's successor as the Penn State-Beaver men's basketball coach will be Marcess Williams. A three-year starter at New Brighton and a standout on the 1997 team which lost to Quaker Valley in the WPIAL championship game, Williams was an assistant at LaRoche College after being an All-American in 2002 at the Division III school. - And thanks to Jerry Stasicha of Belle Vernon who defines diplomacy as the art of letting other people have your way!

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