It’s a reversal of fortune for the Altoona entry in this year’s AAABA National Tournament.
A year ago, manager Kurt Farabaugh was enjoying a pitching rotation of seven 20-year-olds to go with an inexperienced core of bats.
But as Johnston Realty enters this year’s tournament, Farabaugh’s squad is going to be much better at the plate, but won’t have nearly the experience on the mound.
“I like our team, it’s better hitting than in years past,” Farabaugh said. “We’re young with pitching, but we show signs that we can play with anybody. I just hope they can pull it together for the tournament.”
“You can only hope to have a good draw,” he said. “You don’t know what you’re going to get and how good the teams are. The tournament is how good the draw is and the kids have to play at the top of their game.”
Altoona’s young pitchers made a nice charge through the regional the organization hosted, but fell short against one of this year’s best AAABA teams, Washington.
Already limited in the number of available arms, injuries cost Johnston Realty a couple more. So when it came time for Washington, it was just too much as Altoona was down to throwing position players.
Among the players leading Johnston Realty is Austin Homan, who had a 27-game hitting streak broken in the final game of the season. It was the only contest this year that Homan didn’t hit safely.
The East Carolina University player compiled a .523 average (45-for-86) and scored 28 runs.
A.J. Czap (.475 avg.), Matt Adams (.435, three home runs), Brett Weibley (.406) and Josh Farabaugh (.400) all hit .400 or better this season for Johnston Realty, which had a 17-11 regular season record.
Adams is a returnee for Coach Farabaugh, and was named PSAC player of the year as a catcher for Slippery Rock.
On the mound, Altoona picked up Tyler Neff and has Ryan MacNamara, Caleb Fleck and Mike Peirce among their hurlers.
Local Sports
Altoona brings big bats to tourney
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