Mike Zwanch is the manager of the Moosic Mets 17 and under travel baseball team. Zwanch works with his pitchers at the Covington Township community park baseball field. So far this year two underclassmen pitchers have Division I scholarships and a third is heading to Indian River Community College in Florida-the same school Cory Spangenberg from Abington Heights attended before being picked 10th overall by the Padres in the 2011 major league baseball draft.
"I have to give credit to some of the local academy's. You have Baseball State Academy, Electric City Baseball, and the Sandlot where these pitchers are able to get work in year round and it's showing. Obviously with the success of Papi and McCarthy (at Virginia) are area is a hot bed right now, and that's the opportunity we try to provide for these kids," said Mike Zwanch.
Billy Nelson from North Pocono heads to Indian River in the fall, after four seasons with the Moosic Mets.
"When I first came I just threw hard and had no idea where it was going . Throughout the years he's been helping me with my mechanics and making me throw more strikes also gaining more velocity," said Billy Nelson.
Dave Manasek from Abington Heights just finished a great junior season pitching for the comets. Fordham liked what they saw and offered him a full scholarship.
"It's incredible. It's like a big weight off your shoulders going into your senior year knowing where your going you can focus on class. I don't have to focus on the recruiting," said Dave Manasek.
Hard throwing lefty Joey Baran from Hazleton tops out at 90 mph on the gun. Boston College is high on this junior and so far Joey is full of joy.
"Zwanch is stressing first pitch strikes and getting ahead of batters then putting them away. Don't mess around with pitches-don't waste pitches. Throw first pitch strikes and you'll get ahead of batters."
This Moosic Mets team will be in Rome, New York next week playing in the Syracuse Sports Zone Invitational and for a lot of these kids they'll have a chance to pitch in front of 30-40 coaches from Universities up and down the east coast.
"Their doing a great job of representing our area and when we go away like I said we we're in Georgia we're getting a lot of positive feedback and I think that's what it's all about."