Plum opens league play against Springdale

As May transitions into June this weekend, the Plum American Legion baseball team kicks its season into high gear.

The team will dive right into Allegheny East league play Friday evening with a game at 6 against Springdale at CCAC-Boyce Field in Monroeville.

New Plum manager Mark Dargay, who takes over the reigns of the team from longtime manager Bill Holmes, is excited to see what his players can accomplish.

“I think we're going to have a good season,” Dargay said.

“There is a lot of talent and experience in Plum. There are a lot of young guys ready to show themselves on the field that might not have gotten a lot of playing time on the Plum varsity team.”

Several of the Plum High School team's top players, such as seniors Zac Manuppelli and David Cross, junior Nick Stotler, sophomore Brian Albert and freshman Alex Kiriloff, are playing on other travel teams this summer.

But a good chunk of the Mustangs varsity and JV teams will be playing together on the American Legion squad.

Included in that group are varsity starters Eric Bellisario (catcher), Andrew Dawson (outfield), Zach Sansonetti (outfield) and Ethan Winesburgh (outfield).

Mike Maleski, a varsity starter at second base, continues to recover from a lower-leg injury suffered during the varsity season.

Nick Sekerka, a 2012 Plum graduate, has one year of eligibility left for American Legion baseball, and he returns to the Plum team this summer.

He is expected to be in the outfield, at catcher or as a member of the pitching staff.

“The guys on the team have really accepted their roles,” Dargay said.

“I am impressed with that.”

Dargay said the pitching staff will be an important cog in the machine this season, especially with a compacted league schedule that needs to be completed by July 11.

Plum faced Uniontown in a doubleheader last Saturday, and it lost both games by 2-0 scores.

Dargay said the pitching and defense were strong, but the bats were a little slow to come around.

American Legion players in Pennsylvania are using wooden bats for the first time this summer.

“It was a factor in their batting,” he said.

“There were a lot of little dribblers. But by the end of the second game, we were hitting the ball much harder.”

Plum returns to the Allegheny East league with Springdale, Monroe- ville, Penn Hills, Shaler and Swissvale.

Each team will play the other five teams three times and one team one extra time for 16 total league games.

Plum's extra game is against Swissvale.

Plum will host Uniontown in a doubleheader on Saturday and return to Allegheny East play Monday against Monroeville at 6 p.m. at Boyce Field.

Dargay said Holmes has been very helpful in getting him up to speed as the new manager.

Mark Roessler, Dan Miller, Clint White and Bill Stoops will be assistant coaches.

Miller is a JV coach at Norwin, while Stoops is an assistant at North Allegeny.

White is a Plum American Legion and Mustangs varsity baseball alumnus who also enjoyed a strong collegiate pitching career at Seton Hill University.

“We have some good baseball minds on the staff,” Dargay said.

Michael Love is a staff writer with Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-388-5825 or at mlove@tribweb.com.