Derek Smail Starting First Baseman For West In Inagural PSBCA East/West Game

on 26 June, 2025 at 09:22

Above photo courtesy of Brendan Ricciardi – both squads gather for a photo prior to the game

The Pennsylvania State Baseball Coaches Association (PSBCA) held their Inaugural East/West Baseball All-Star Game on Sunday, June 22nd at Medlar Field in State College, with Clarion Area’s Derek Smail starting at first base for the West Squad. The event is scheduled to take place at 12:00 Noon, at Medlar Field in State College, the home of the Penn State Nittany Lions and State College Spikes minor league team.

**Photo courtesy of the Smails – Derek manning first base**

The game featured some of the top senior players from programs in the in all classifications, 1A-6A, from across the commonwealth. The West Squad included players from Districts 4-10, while players from the East Squad hailed from Districts 1-3, 11 and 12.

To be considered players must be in programs that are members of the PSBCA. Registration is open year round on the PSBCA website:

https://pastatebaseballcoaches.com/memberships

Derek, who is committed to play for the Division II PennWest Clarion Golden Eagles, had a very solid game. Clarion Area Coach Rob Jewett shares those highlights as well as the highlights from others below.

Several players from the region, joined Derek on the West Squad, pitchers Coy Martino from Punxutawney and Lakeview’s Maddox Bell, outfielder Brayden Fox from DuBois Central Catholic; designated hitters Aiden Snowberger from DuBois Central Catholic and Owen Dye from Lakeview and infielder Jaxon Covell from Titusville. Aiden and Maddox did not play due to injury.

This was a fun experience for Derek. He had a blast, on his West team, knowing most of them either by playing on same summer teams or by playing against them throughout his high school career.

Derek also knew a few of the East players because of playing summer baseball over the last few years.

There were pregame introductions for each player.

The game was nine innings long, to give all the players ample opportunity.

Each pitcher threw a maximum of one inning, while position players had at least three innings in the field and at least one at bat.

There teams had a nine man batting order, with no extra hitter throughout the contest and a designated hitter being used. Free substitution was allowed in the field, including allowing the designated hitter to play the field for any length of time.

There was free substitution for defensive players, so there was no true box score.
The linescore looks like this:

East- 3 runs in 1st, 2 runs in 5th, 4 runs in 7th. Their totals were 9 runs on 13 hits with 4 errors.
West- 2 runs in 9th. There totals were 2 runs on 3 hits with 1 error.

**Photo courtesy of the Smails – Teams and umpires lined up for the National Anthem**

PSBCA President Brian Jardine had this to say, “The PSBCA was very excited about this inaugural PA High School All-Star game. The amount of talent that each roster possessed was incredible.

“We are hoping to have even more programs as part of the association next year to afford more players an opportunity to compete on this stage.

“A special thank you to the State College Spikes as they created a big game atmosphere for this event.”

Clarion Bobcat head coach Rob Jewett shared, “Derek started at 1st base for the west team that consisted of 7 other D9/D10 players (2 were not able to play due to injury… Aiden Snowberger [DCC] and Maddox Bell [Lakeview]).

“Derek made a nice play with bases loaded and one out in first inning, taking a sharp ground ball to him playing in and getting the out at home, unfortunately the catcher threw wide to him at first for a potential inning ending double play.

“He had 2 at bats.

On his first at bat, Derek faced a pitcher from the East, throwing consistently 93mph and grounded out sharply to first on a 1-2, 95mph fastball (the pitcher is a Wake Forest Commit).

“On his second at bat, Derek faced another East pitcher throwing low 90s and worked a walk from a 1-2 count, fouling off some really good pitches.

“It was an awesome game although West lost 9-2. It was really cool seeing all the players from every classification battle against each other.

“Derek definitely held his own and showed he belonged amongst the best in the state, as did the other 5 area players.

“Brayden Fox (DCC) had 2 great at bats, getting on base with a hard hit grounder to third that was an error and then later stole second base. Coy Martino (Punxy) threw a great 9th inning, facing 4 batters striking out one, hitting one batter, and letting up no hits or runs.”

**Photo courtesy of the Smails – Derek (14) and other West and East players sharing handshakes after the game**

(Congratulations to Derek, Coy, Maddox, Braden, Aiden, Owen, Jaxon and all of the others from both squads, of the Inaugural Pennsylvania State Baseball Coaches Association East/West All-Star Game!!!! Thanks to Brendan Ricciardi and the Smails for their photos!!)