Reminder - Zoned Baseball training will begin on Sunday Jan. 6, 2019 and all participants who signed up should have payment to Coach LaDuca by Thursday Jan. 3 at my classroom B220 or no later than weight training that day. 8th graders who do not train with us at the school may bring payment on Jan. 6.

Cost is $200 payable to "Easton Baseball Diamond Club" for Zoned Training.

Workout is held at Zoned Training Center from 11:30am -1:00pm

EASD school bus is provided by the Diamond Club boosters for transportation for the players at no cost - Bus leaves EASD lower parking lot near baseball field by 10:20am and returns near 2:00pm.

We ask that you bring only necessary equipment, glove, bat, helmet, batting gloves, etc., due to space limitations on the bus. Catchers may bring large bag. Turfs or sneakers are fine. Please wear a baseball hat and long pants (sweats or baseball pants). Baseball attire is expected.

Note - should anyone have questions or someone not be able to make the workout on a given Sunday - please notify Coach LaDuca through email at laducac@eastonsd.org

Easton Baseball is offering a Cookie Sale Fundraiser for the Christmas holiday period.

Please see the attached order forms for details on price. All orders must be given to any baseball coach by Friday, December 7th. Pick-up scheduled for Wednesday, December, 19th. Site details to be announced at a later date.

Any questions should be directed to Coach LaDuca at laducac@eastonsd.org

Click here to download the Cookie Fundraiser Product Details
Click here to download the Cookie Fundraiser Order Form

The Easton Area High School Baseball Team is selling Christmas Trees as a fundraiser this holiday season. Trees are sold right off the Easton High Baseball Field located off the Route 22 Exit Ramp and 25th street entrance to EAHS.

Douglas and Fraser Firs are available in various heights.
$35 for 6-7 foot trees, $40 for 7-8 ft. trees (Douglas or Fraser)
$50 for Douglas 8-10 ft. and $55 for Fraser Fir 8-10 ft. trees.

Hours: 4-8pm Week nights / 10am-7pm Weekends

Sale begins – Wednesday - Nov. 28, 2018 until stock is gone.

Support the EAHS Baseball Team and have a great Holiday Season! Visit www.roverbaseball.com for details and news!

The following announcement is to honor the 2018 Varsity Baseball team. The team was not able to get together in the summer to gather and honor their fellow teammates due to a variety of reasons including Legion Baseball, Travel baseball, vacations, etc… So to honor the team and all of our seniors we would like to gather on Saturday – November 24 at noon at a place to be determined for a brief luncheon and recognition ceremony. Being the Thanksgiving holiday – it will give us the best chance of most all the players being home. Senior gifts will be given out with photos from senior day and team awards recognized. Parents are welcome to attend. A communication will be sent out about the details sometime in the fall. Please follow us here at www.roverbaseball.com and at Twitter @roverbaseball.

The 2018 Varsity baseball season was one to remember! The season showed us what the word "team" means as all of the members of the team contributed in so many ways to make the 19-4 season a success. They were able to respond to adversity, keep their heads up in tough times, and represented EAHS very well making all of us very proud.

The team worked very hard in the off-season and it paid great dividends as our success showed on the field! The team was the Steel Division Champion and had a 17-2 overall record in the regular season along with a 15-1 conference record for the number one seed in the EPC tournament. We would go onto defeat Emmaus in the EPC Semi Finals and eventually lost to Parkland in the EPC Championship to garner the silver medal.

While this team always had "Team" goals in mind – there were some individual achievements that should be recognized. As I stated earlier – all members of our team were instrumental in our success but here are the award winners and moments to highlight from 2018.

Zach Spray, Scott Poulson, Chris Hess and Eddie Olsen – Captains Leadership Awards - These four young men were tremendous leaders by their performance on the practice and game field throughout the season but also were influential in keeping our team focused and directed towards our goals and will receive recognition for their leadership role.

Zach Spray – Selected 2nd Team OF in the EPC – Honorable Mention Morning Call and Lehigh Valley Live
Chris Hess – Honorable Mention – Infield – EPC, Morning Call, and Lehigh Valley Live
Scott Poulson – Honorable Mention – Pitcher – EPC, Morning Call, and Lehigh Valley Live
Eddie Olsen – All - EPC Conference Pitcher – First Team, 1st Team Morning Call, and 1st Team Lehigh Valley Live
Luke Storm – 2nd Team - EPC – Infield, 2nd Team Morning Call and 2nd Team Lehigh Valley Live
Cam Hubbard – All- EPC Conference MVP – Outfielder, 1st Team Morning Call, and 1st Team Lehigh Valley Live

EAHS Scholar Athlete Nominee – Baseball - Chris Pambianchi – excellence in academics. Chris Hess was runner- up in Athletic and Academic combination award – Collin Campbell also had a great academic year.

Terry Bartolet – MVP Award – Cameron Hubbard
This award given to the player who has the most complete numbers and considered to have the best year on the field. This is an award that is strictly based on field performance. Cam was selected as the EPC Most Valuable Player by the coaches and First team All Area by both papers. Cam was injured in early May but prior to that posted a .587 batting average getting 27 hits with 5 doubles, 7 triples, and 2 home runs. He scored a remarkable 28 runs from the leadoff spot and did all of this in 15 games.

Eddie Snyder Award - Christopher Hess
Eddie Snyder was an outstanding athlete, respected teacher, and a successful coach. He taught his players to be aggressive, to be devoted to the game, to respect teammates and coaches, and to have high ideals in sportsmanship. Coach Snyder also stressed high standards in academics and leadership both on and off the field. Chris was our Scholar Athlete Runner - up academically, served on the EPC 18 Character Council of High Schools in his junior and senior years representing EAHS, and also was a captain in his senior season. He performed very well on the field receiving Honorable Mention from the Morning Call, The Express Times, and The EPC Coaches hitting a solid overall .350 and .395 in the EPC and manning a solid second base. All of the above factors – academically, character council, team captaincy, and his on field performance make Chris Hess an excellent selection for the meaning of the Eddie Snyder Award.

Pete Violante Pitching Award – Eddie Olsen
This award embodies the best pitcher in the program each year by record, ERA, wins, etc. The award is named after Pete Violante’s 9 win season in 2016 for the District 11 Champions and top 8 in the state Red Rovers in Classification 4A.

This year’s winner is Eddie Olsen who crafted a 6-0 league regular season record with a 0.72 ERA. Overall he was 7-2 with a 1.77 ERA and had 61 strikeouts to 11 walks on the season in 43.1 Innings pitched.

Mark Cooley Teammate Award – Bailey Bevins
This award is for a player who is the essential teammate – one whom works selflessly to support the others around him and has one thing in mind – team success. He is coachable, polite, and has all the attributes of supporting his teammates at all times. Bailey Bevins has been a great teammate throughout his career in the baseball program and is being honored for this award.

Please look for a future announcement regarding our team meeting in November to celebrate and honor our seniors and award winners and the special 19-4 team!

Coaching Staff

Fall Baseball practices will be held this coming week for players who signed up with Coach LaDuca prior to the registration deadline and games will begin in the next week after Labor Day.

Please follow the below listed practice schedule:

Varsity / Grades 11-12 will practice Tuesday and Thursday after school from 2:45-4:30pm

Grades 8-9-10 will practice Wed. Aug 29th at 3:30-5:00 and Thursday 4:30-6:00pm

Coaches will explain the upcoming game schedule for each level and all other details.

Please have a check made to "Easton Baseball" for Insurance , baseballs, umpires, league registration fees, etc... the league is run independently of any school affiliation and the EASD provides no financial resources or transportation because it is outside of our PIAA season and rules that exist for Out of Season sports. Please provide this check to the coach during this coming week of practice.

Thank you and we look forward to a great fall baseball season.

Fees
Varsity - $125 per player
JV - $85 per player

By Michael Blouse | Freelance Writer | Special to The Morning Call

SCRANTON — Kurt Weber informed his team that they'd be departing Parkland High School at 6:30 a.m. Friday for a long trip, and if all went well, a long day of baseball.

"We expected to hear grumbles," Weber said. "There were no grumbles. They were like, ‘OK, let's go.' We've been a pretty resilient team."

And now, the Trojans are resilient champions — thanks to a strong pitching performance from Adam Smith and lots of timely offense.

Second-seeded Parkland knocked off No. 1 Easton 8-0 to clinch the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference championship almost eight hours after the Trojans tamed Stroudsburg 8-3 in the semifinals.

Friday's EPC tripleheader was held at the University of Scranton's Charles J. Volpe Family Field, with the first of two semifinals starting at 9 a.m. and the championship game ending at 4:30 p.m. Conference officials opted to shift the semifinals and finals from Easton's Hackett Park to the six-week-old Scranton site after heavy rains postponed play for three consecutive days.

After Parkland topped Stroudsburg in the opener, players refocused and refueled while watching Easton eliminate Emmaus in the second semifinal. Then, Weber and the Trojans sent out Smith to square off against the EPC's other all-star pitcher — Easton's Eddie Olsen.

Smith stymied the Red Rovers for six innings, scattering four hits — three singles — and two walks. The junior struck out five.

Koby Staivecki entered in the bottom of the seventh inning and induced three groundouts to close out Parkland's second straight conference championship and its fourth in five years.

"Going into it, obviously they're a really good team so there were some nerves," Smith said. "But after an inning, we settled in and it was just another game.

"I was able to locate my fastball pretty well today. My curveball felt pretty good, too. I used it to try to keep them off balance. And the defense made all the plays to help me out."

Parkland (19-3) struck for two quick runs in the top of the second inning. Olsen walked William Algard and then hit Dylan Miller to ignite the Trojan rally. Matthew Ervolina scored both runners with a line-drive double into the left-center field alley.

A three-hit third inning produced another two runs for Parkland. Jeremy Piatkiewicz contributed an RBI single to the rally.

The Trojans scored another run in the fourth frame and three more in the sixth. Cullan Wadsworth went 2-for-3 with two RBIs. Ervolina and Piatkiewicz collected two hits apiece, while Miller and Joseph Weber scored two runs each.

Easton's Chris Hess had two hits. The Red Rovers played without EPC co-MVP Cam Hubbard, who is out indefinitely with an injury.

"Every time there were guys on base we did our jobs," said Wadsworth, one of five senior starters in the lineup. "We kept scratching out runs throughout the game."

The story, though, was the combined pitching performances of Smith and Staivecki. They were in top form while Easton's Olsen struggled in the second and third innings.

"The No. 1 thing about Adam is he doesn't get rattled and he's very, very consistent," Weber said. "He's going to give you this type of effort every time he goes out."

"He did a great job," Easton coach Carm LaDuca said of Smith. "He hit the corners; he was efficient and effective. I was very impressed." LaDuca praised Parkland and offered no excuses after the long trip and long day.

"We're not going to use that as any excuse. Parkland had to play two games, too," he said. "Give Parkland credit, they came out ready to play and we didn't make some plays we needed to make. Quite frankly, we didn't look like a 19-2 team. No excuses. Parkland deserved to win the baseball game."

For Parkland, which earned the top seed for the upcoming District 11 Class 6A tournament, the win was especially satisfying after a long week of waiting out the weather.

Easton (19-3) will be seeded second.

"It was very annoying," Wadsworth said of the postponements. "We were always ready to play, then we'd find out it was cancelled. It was frustrating but it made us, I think, come out with a little more fire today."

By Stephen Miller | The Morning Call
Photo courtesy of April Gamez | The Morning Call

Eddie Olsen and Kellan Tulio forced a succession of hitters back to their dugouts shaking their heads.

Olsen gave Emmaus nothing for free. That set the senior right-hander apart Tuesday afternoon.

Olsen walked no one while striking out 11 Green Hornets over 5 2/3 innings. Easton, meanwhile, capitalized on Tulio's bouts of wildness to collect a 5-3 EPC interdivisional baseball win at Richards Field.

The victory solidified the Red Rovers (12-1 overall, 11-1 EPC) as the frontrunner for the EPC tournament's top seed. They have ripped off 10 straight wins, nine in the EPC, since a 4-1 loss to Freedom on April 10.

Easton has won most of its games with a relentless lineup. It entered Tuesday averaging 11.6 runs per game. It had scored at least eight runs in all but one game.

The Red Rovers managed only three hits Tuesday, two against Tulio. They turned them into four of their runs, taking advantage of the baserunners Tulio allowed via walks (five) and hit batters (three).

"We've had that discussion, that we were going to face some very good teams this week, starting with Emmaus," Easton coach Carm LaDuca said. "We know Emmaus is for real. Their pitcher was fantastic, one of the best around.

"We knew we would have to face them in a tough situation, and to get some key, clutch hits in some big spots against great pitching, and to actually hold that team down hitting-wise, Eddie did a great job."

Luke Storm and Cole Heitzman delivered Easton's needed hits. Storm rapped a two-run, opposite-field single in the first to put the Red Rovers in front to stay.

Emmaus had clawed within 3-2 after an RBI double by Tulio (two hits, two RBIs) and an RBI single by Adam LeMaster in the top of the sixth. Heitzman answered in the bottom of the inning with a two-out, two-run double off Jude Negron. Heitzman's hit came after Tulio (5 2/3 innings, 11 strikeouts) had hit a batter and issued his final walk, both with two outs.

Olsen kept Emmaus in check with his control. He retired the leadoff hitter in each of his first five innings and didn't allow a runner past second base until the sixth.

"Coming out here, home field, everything mechanically felt good," Olsen said. "I just felt great throughout the whole day." Easton has three more games over the next four days after playing Monday and Tuesday. The Red Rovers have ample reason to feel good about their trajectory despite their schedule challenges.

"Our confidence, we're getting in teams' heads right from the start," Storm said. "We're putting up runs early, and that's really helping us."

The Varsity team will make-up the Phillipsburg game that was cancelled today, tomorrow night at Hackett's Park beginning at 7pm.

The JV team will not play, the make-up date is still to be determined.

The Freshmen team will host JT Lambert (MS-ESS) at Richards Field beginning at 4pm.

Thank You to the Diamond Club and all of our parent volunteers for their hard work to make sure the Baseball Bingo was such a success this past weekend. Thank you to the 350+ supporters that attended and participated at our Bingo! Thank you to all of the businesses and families who sponsored our Bingo as well!

Yesterday's Liberty at Easton Varsity Game was suspended after 8 innings with the score tied 3-3.

The game will be completed at a later date. This date has yet to be determined.

The First Pitch Banquet will be held this evening as scheduled at LaDolce Vita restaurant in Palmer Township. The Banquet will begin at 6pm with doors opening at 5:30pm. Players are reminded that a coat and tie are required for this event.

Practices for today are postponed due to school being closed.

Friday Practices are as scheduled :

Varsity and JV are 6:00-7:30 pm - please report at 6:10pm for warm up in wrestling room Freshmen Team will not practice Friday.

Saturday times will be relayed to you through Twitter, Remind App, and from coaches directly

Click here to access the Online Apparel Store

Spike and Turf Order Store Link - Order #2 Open until March 15

Varsity - Grade 11-12 Required for all players - Team spike and turf for all players who make the team. It is recommended that you do so in order #1 to assure you get your shoes prior to first game. All players need to order the Red and White model spike for varsity. The Black Adidas turf must be ordered as well.

JV - Required team spike - you may order either red and white or the black mid or low spikes dependent on your preference. Turfs are not required but recommended.

Freshmen/Grade 8 - We offer you the opportunity to buy the shoes and or the turfs and strongly suggest the spike. If you buy your own shoes they must be predominately black or approved by your coach.

All players coming out for our program are welcome to purchase the spikes. In the event you do not make the team you will have spikes for your summer season at a discounted rate. Spikes may be picked up at SVSG once the ship date is posted on the website and Twitter.

Helmets must be Matte Red finish and have no other colors. Rawlings from previous year or Demarini Helmets in online store are permitted.

Questions may be sent to Coach LaDuca at laducac@eastonsd.org

Click here to access the Player Shoes and Turfs Online Store

Monday March 5 - Tryout practice schedule will be Grades 11-12 at 2:35pm after school - Grades 9-10 should report at 4:00pm. Grade 8 does not practice Monday. Continue to follow here on the website and Twitter for daily updates. Time to get after it! baseball Season is here!

Please be prepared for either indoor or outdoor practice. Have sneakers or turf shoes, sweatshirts, and all of your equipment.

• Tuesday - Feb. 27 - 8th Grade hitting date at EAHS 3:30-5:00pm
• Wednesday Feb 28 - Grade 9-12 - Intramurals - Pitching and Hitting Outdoors 2:30pm
• Thursday March 1 - Coaches Meeting 5pm EAHS Gym followed by Parent Meeting for Spring Sports at 6pm
• Monday March 5 2:45pm - First day of Official Practice

Watch official announcements of practice times on the site and Twitter

The Easton Baseball Diamond Club would like to announce the 2018
COACH, VERA BRADLEY & MICHAEL KORS BINGO/TRICKY TRAY
SUNDAY-April 15, 2018 at EAHS

See the attachment below for sponsorship and donation letter for local businesses.

The Diamond Club will be having a meeting in February and March regarding the Bingo. Stay tuned to the website and email for that date. If anyone has an email that needs to be added to the Baseball parent list please send an email to the website contact and we will have you added.

Any questions regarding the bingo may be posted to the contact on the site here also.

Click here to download the business donation letter.

ALL PLAYERS who signed up for the workouts with Coach LaDuca should report. Players who asked me about any available spots may come also as there are several available spots. If you have questions please contact me at laducac@eastonsd.org as soon as possible.

With the cancellation of school Thursday and Friday due to weather related issues we were unable to meet as originally scheduled for the St. Luke's Workout on Thursday after school. As I explained in our Tuesday meeting we would begin the workout program on Sunday as scheduled.

1. There will be an Easton Area School District Bus provided for all players for transportation at no cost to you. ALL PLAYERS are to take this transportation unless previously arranged with Coach LaDuca and your parents. It will pick us up in the Lower parking lot at 10:15 am Sunday. Please be prompt and ready to board at 10:10am. The workout is scheduled for 11:30am-1:00pm. We will immediately return to EAHS and should arrive for pickup at 1:45-2:00pm.

2. Players who have not paid fro the workouts MUST bring a check or money as they board the bus Sunday. This was due Thursday Jan 4 but with no school the past few days Sunday will be fine.

3. Bring your bat bag with helmet, glove, turf shoes or sneakers, and bats. Please try to wear sweatpants or baseball pants, an Easton Baseball shirt if possible or some sort of Easton clothing and a baseball hat. We will talk about some sort of uniform dress code at a later date.

4. This is a tremendous opportunity to participate in a highly regarded instructional program as a team of guys from Easton. Let's represent our school and program in an excellent fashion. Please hustle, listen to the instructors, and be prepared to give your all for the workout. Again - questions regarding the workouts or on financials please see me or write me an email at laducac@eastonsd.org