NTL BASEBALL: WYALUSING EXCITED TO BRING HOME FIRST NTL TITLE IN A DECADE (2022-05-10)

BY CHRIS MANNING
Northern Tier Sports Report
It’s been 10 years since Wyalusing baseball was last on top of the NTL, and coach Nick Vanderpool couldn’t be happier with how his team has played this year to capture their first league championship in a decade.

“It feels really good,” said Vanderpool. “I’ve coached these boys for a long time. When I took the job here I wanted to finish what we started - win a league title in our second year. We’ve got a lot of youth.”

In their loss to Wellsboro on Tuesday they had four freshmen and three sophomores in the starting line-up.

“You know the future looks good,” said Vanderpool. “The league’s pretty solid, so to win this league is a testament to how hard these guys have worked.”

They didn’t expect to undefeated as long as they did - their initial goal was to split with league powers Wellsboro and Athens, then take care of business elsewhere - but after a close win at Wellsboro they were able to sweep the Wildcats. Wellsboro’s loss to Athens was enough of a window to allow the Rams to take the top spot, and hold it. 

They clinched the title outright in their 4-0 win over Troy last week.

“Our goal was to make 10 wins, get to the playoffs, and then we’ll try to win a league title, and set ourselves up good for districts,” explained Vanderpool. “I still fee like we got a good shot to finish the one or two seed.”

With this it out the way they can focus on their main goal - bringing home Wyalusing’s first District IV baseball title. They couldn’t have picked a tougher field to do it again, though.

Sayre, whom they play on Friday, are the defending district champs, and have only lost to one team in PA all season. South Williamsport, the current third seed, beat Sayre to open the season, while Muncy and Southern Columbia are both tough, too.

“I would say AA is the hardest title to win in District IV,” said Vanderpool. “There’s potentially 9-10 teams that are going to be in the tournament, so, obviously, we’ve got to go play our best ball, but it’s good to get in these tight games, and figure it out, and then figure out how to win.”

PHOTO CAPTION: The Wyalusing Rams are the 2022 NTL Division-I baseball champions…PHOTO BY CHRIS MANNING

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