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Elite basketball camp opportunity for 4th- through 9th- graders

5/9/2023

A chance to learn some hoops from the coach of the four-time Class 3A District 10 champion Franklin Knights.

The three-day camp which is open to Titusville and surrounding kids, is designed for boys and girls in fourth- to ninth-grade. The camp dates are July 5 through 7 and will be held at Franklin’s Central Elementary and the YMCA which is next door from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.. The cost is $75. More information: Contact Jason Fulmer at jefulmer29@gmail.com.

Sign up here.

Looking for information

4/22/2023

Eight & 27 and The Titusville News-Journal are looking to make contact with the local little softball and baseball organizers. We'd love to get league standings, schedules and announcements to share. The best way to connect with us is via email at either sportseditortnj@gmail.com or 8and322@gmail.com.

Please share around so we can really start highlighting these kids.

The Rockets and the major leagues

4/21/2023

Editor's Note: The story has been updated to reflect an error in the ticket voucher price. We previously reported they are $25. They are actually only $20. We also switched the order of the story to Brin the voucher part of the story to the top.

Photos are official head shots of the Oakland Athletics organization and team photo courtesy of Uriah Sampson.

The Titusville Rocket baseball team has been having quite the brush with the Major League Baseball so far this year.

The Rockets were among a handful of high school teams to have the opportunity to play on a big league field when they played last week at PNC Park.. “It was pretty surreal being on the field.” Sampson said

The team now has to sell $20 vouchers for limited Pirates' home game tickets, can't be used on concert nights or certain holidays.

Schweitzer said they have until the end of the season to sell the tickets. He said contact any member of the baseball team, their family or the coaches for more information. More information: Email Roy Schweitzer at royschweitzer54@gmail.com

Their game at PNC was shortened because the ground crew said the game was over. They were down 3-1 against Athens High School, a very good baseball team from up in the northern center of the state. Athens' has played at PNC a couple times before.

Kasen Neely, the starting pitcher, only gave up three runs on four hits in his three innings of work. Kam Mong held Athens to only one hit in his two innings.

Jaxon Covell had the one RBI in the first.

Earlier this season the team got some unexpected gear thanks to alum J. J. Bleday. Bleday sponsored them through New Balance to get the team shoes and the school knew warm up gear.

According to assistant coach Uriah Sampson each player got shoes they can keep and warm up gear that will stay with the school for years to come.

"We were fortunate J.J. sponsored us with New Balance,” Rocket head coach Roy Schweitzer said after after a recent practice.

Bleday currently is playing Triple A ball in the Oakland Athletics organization, but just last year played for the Florida Marlins against the Pittsburgh Pirates in PNC Park.

Rockets Rollin'

4/13/2023

Coach Roy Schweitzer says he gets nervous before every game. Wednesday's game in Oil City his team eased his nerves right off the bat jumping out to a four nothing lead in the top of the first.

And if his nerves weren't totally quelled by then, they added two more in the second and another in the third.

Meanwhile the defense did it's job helping their starting pitcher Drew Wheeling get out of a first inning bases loaded jam by turning a tough double-play to end the inning.

Oil City left seven runners on base in the game.

The Rockets added three more insurance runs in the top of the seventh.

Wheeling pitched five innings giving up only two hits and striking out eight on 73 pitches.

"I think he pitched one his best games in high school today," Schweitzer said adding Ashton Burliegh did a great job in relief.

Burliiegh pitched the final two innings striking out four while only walking one.

Offensively Landon Baker went four for four driving in two runs and scoring once.

Mason Titus went three for four scoring three times and driving in one. Burliegh also had two RBI's on one hit.

Seven Rockets recorded a hit in the game. "We were putting the bat on the ball," Schweitzer said. "We were pretty consistent at the plate with our approach, being aggressive going after strikes and laying off the off speed outside pitches."

Schweitzer said the team played a well rounded game offensively and defensively. He said the last inning runs were probably the first seventh inning runs of the year praising his players for staying focused and aggressive.

"We put together a pretty good ballgame," he added.

Next up is Franklin on Friday. "Franklin's got the program everyone is envious of, I don't care what their record is right now, I think they're .500, but they're pretty good," Schweitzer said. "They got the big guy (Luke Guth) down there. Not sure if we'll face him or not, but they are good and we respect them. We're expecting a good game and the best team is going to win Friday."

Below are more photos from the Oil City game. See even more Titusville baseball photos from this year at: https://sayerrich.zenfolio.com/titusvillerocketbaseball2023

Titusville's big offense not enough up in Meadville

4/12/2023

Editor's Note: We are currently working with the Titusville News-Journal providing Titusville Rocket sports coverage. We don't always post in a timely manner on our page to give the paper first publishing when appropriate. We love local collaborations with our friends in journalism. This game was first published in the News-Journal March 31st in their sports roundup.

"We lost today on a cold and blustery day," said coach Roy Schweitzer. "Pitchers had trouble feeling the baseball and we struggled with command."

Schweitzer said it was the same for Meadville and they just handled it a little better. The Rockets had a chance in the end with the bases loaded but couldn't plate the go ahead runs losing 9-7.

Kam Mong went 4-4 with an RBI double and Jaxon Covell was 3-4 with a two-RBI double as well.

Hunter Thomas started on the mound and had 8 strikeouts in 3 innings.

Schweitzer said later that it's been their only real hiccup this season. Since this loss they have rattled three straight wins to bring their record to 5-1 on the season and remain undefeated in the region.

To see more photos of the Rockets games please visit:
sayerrich.zenfolio.com/titusvillerocketbaseball2023

“We have a good group too… they just have to believe it”

4/4/2023

View more photos at: https://sayerrich.zenfolio.com/rocketsoftball2023

For five innings Titusville's freshman pitcher Jordan Wynn seemed to be in complete control. Though she walked five, she would battle her way out of inning after inning. Her opponent, Oil City left seven runners stranded.

Heading into the sixth inning it was 2-0 in favor of the Rockets who had scored in the first and third innings on RBI's from Wynn and Kyra Adkins.

In the first inning Adkins, the third batter came to the plate with two outs. She drilled a single up the middle. Wynn then came to the plate and drove one deep into the outfield for a double. The fleet footed Adkins scored the games first run.

In the second inning Gabriella Peterson lead off with a single, but Oil City’s starting pitcher Shalyn Whittemore struck out the next three batters. Peterson made it to third on a couple pitches that got away from the catcher but was stranded there.

The third got going whenTitusville's second batter Briana Wynn tripled. She was quickly plated on a fielder’s choice to shortstop by Adkins. It looked like Titusville would mount a rally after loading the bases bringing a visit to the mound by Oiler head coach Michelle Hoovler. Whittemore struck out the next batter and retired the side with a ground out back to her at the mound. The rockets left three ducks on the pond.

Jordan Wynn continued to pitch well. She had eight strike out in the contest but around the end of the fifth inning Hoovler noted something with the young pitcher.

"We felt (Wynn) was starting to struggle a little bit," Hoovler said. "She was starting to throw more balls. So we were trying to wait her out.” Hoovler told her players to be patient at the plate and don't chase pitches. The strategy worked.

Oil City clawed away and got a run in the sixth to trail only by one going into the final frame. Titusville couldn’t add any insurance runs and Oil City got a lead off single followed by two patient walks to load the bases with no outs.

In an attempt to change the momentum, Titusville’s strong-armed catcher, Adkins, threw a laser down to third to catch an unaware Oil City runner off guard. The throw was in plenty of time but wasn’t handled by Briana Wynn and it trickled into the outfield allowing Libby Arnink to score the tying run.

Then freshman Sophia Garmong came to the plate and hit a fly to right that just couldn’t be handled and the Oilers scored the winning run.

“It was a tough loss,” Titusville head coach Megan Green said after the game.

She said her pitcher just wasn't getting the calls on the edge of the plate like she usually does and the frustration on Wynn’s face and in her body language was plain to see.
“She is young and she has to learn how to battle out there,” Green said. “And she will. Varsity ball is way different from travel ball.”

Green tells her team that they can't let someone else dictate whether they win or lose and to put themselves in positions to win.

A few key errors cost them in the end, the throw to third and a dropped pop fly. She pointed out the play late in the game when Oil City’s Nysa Hanlon line drive nicked the top of Riley McGarvie’s glove at second bace and ended up in right field. “One more inch,” Green lamented.

“They are close,” Green said of how good her team is. “They need to learn how to embrace adversity, and how to handle that, and how to cope with that. We need to keep them engaged and in it for seven innings”
Green complimented Oil City who is now 3-0.

“They seem to have a good group and they are capitalizing on that,” she said. “We have a good group too… they just have to believe it.”

Long time assistant takes over Rocket softball, sees good things in young team

3/29/2023

First year head coach Megan Green has been in the Titusville Rocket softball program as an assistant for 16 years.
In taking over as head coach, she is very matter of fact about assessing this team which has won one and lost one so far in this postponed riddled season.

“I have to figure out my game plan with Mother Nature,” she said.

Their first game was a success easily defeating AC-Valley 15-3. Then another postponed game before hosting one of the best teams in District 10, the Franklin Knights.

Against AC-Valley, Green said they were glad to get up against live pitching in a game situation. She said the team played well and if there was a mistake they didn’t let it spiral out of control.

She saw something similar against Franklin, but admitted one bad inning where the Knights just exploded.

“We’re young, we graduated three seniors, one was a pitcher, we have a freshman on the mound,” she said not as an excuse, but as base for learning.

“They need to get used to each other and it’s hard to do that in a gym and to give them the simulation of dirt off a gym floor and when we do get outside it is on Carter field so we’re on turf which is a different bounce,” she said about the challenges of early season with a young team.

“I think they have a lot of potential, I see the potential, the other coaches see the potential, but now (the girls) have to buy into it.”

Green knows experiencing these games against tough teams will only make them better.

“Every game they go out there and they put up a couple runs , that’s a build, and we can build off of this, it might not be a win, we can’t win every game, but we can build off this. They have the talent, they have the training, they have the experience, they just have to believe in themselves.”

They will play Oil City on Thursday.

“The thing that girls have to remember is just keep coming at them, no matter how many times you have a disappointing time at bat, you just have to keep coming back and don’t let one at bat set the tone for the rest of the game,” Green said.

And she should know, in her senior year at Titusville in 1994, the Rockets made it all the way to the state championship game.

Titusville again has influence in Franklin theater

3/24/2023

The Titusville and Franklin theater communities have a long standing connection. Currently some thespians are taking to the stage in the Barrow-Civic theatre production of "Pride and Prejudice."

Read more about the production and see full cast list here.

Here is another story from the show about a retiree taking to the stage for the first time to act along side his granddaughter before she heads off to college.
Click here.

New school record in Titusville

3/15/2023

Joe Herman etched his name into the record board at Titusville High School this morning at Bucknell University in the PIAA State Championships. "Joe swam great this morning. He broke our school record previously held by Zach Titus with a 52.95 (time.) " The time was also good for 14th place in the heat, he was seeded 25. Though he cannot medal he is swimming in the consolation finals tonight. Only the top eight finishers medal.
Read more about his hopes going into the tournament here http://www.8and322.com/eight--27/lone-rocket

What a season for Wood

3/15/2023

Before Tuesday night’s loss in the girls PIAA Class 2A playoffs at Slippery Rock University, the Maplewood Tigers won their first state playoff game in over 29 years.

The Tigers hosted Aliquippa Saturday night and took it to the Quips winning 65-47. It was quite a team effort with different players seemingly putting the team on their shoulders when someone needed to step up. Bailey Vandell was first looking like a one woman wrecking crew in the first quarter. When she grew a tad cold her teammate Sadie Thomas took over.

The first quarter, sans a Madison O’Hara bucket, was the Vardell/Thomas show. They each scored eight.

When the Tigers came out cold in the second quarter, it was Maggie Means, who despite being one of the shortest players on the court nabbed a huge offensive rebound, tried to put it back up but got hacked. She then sank one free throw to break the two-minute scoring drought. Moments later she got the ball on the outside and drilled a three. Her efforts thwarted any Aliquippa momentum who only managed to come within six.

The Tigers all contributed buckets at key moments, but was crystal clear from halfway through the second quarter until the final buzzer, the plan for success was to get the ball in Thomas' hands. The senior poured in 24 on the night.

Varndell chipped in a solid 14, Madison O'Hara and Maggie Means had six each and Madison Eimer pitched in seven. Rhaelynn Joelle had four and the last Tiger points were two free throws from Megan Woge.

Their 65-47 victory was a good rebound from the 73-33 loss to Kennedy Catholic in the District 10 finals the previous week.

The win then pitted them against Greensburg Central Catholic Tuesday in Slippery Rock.

The Tiger unfortunately came pout cold and listless in the contest with Greensburg scoring every time they had the ball through the first seven minutes of the contest building a 17-3 lead. Other than Vardell’s one off the backboard three-pointer they were cold as ice including a normally very good foul shooting Thomas who missed five in a row. Varndell then hit her second, then third three. Thomas finally got a bucket and Vardell drilled her fourth three of the quarter.
At the end of one the Tigers, miraculously were only down by 10.

In the second quarter everyone seemed to begin pitching in, but they couldn’t seem to stop Greensburg and ended up down 12 at the half.
In the third quarter they dominated and marched back to life on the back of senior Thomas who scored 11 third quarter points. With around 20 seconds left in the quarter the took a 41-40 lead. The quarter ended tie at 41.

With eight minutes to go this was a ball game. But the Tigers came out much the same way they entered the game and looked slow and listless. In just a couple minutes they found themselves again down by nine. Other than another Varndell three that brought within six they couldn’t find a rhythm again.
With less than two minutes left on the clock, down ten and desperate nothing seemed to be working.
Varndell ended with a team high 18 while Thomas had 17.

The terrific 20-6 Tigers season, that they were undefeated in region play and at one point winning ten straight games, ended to Greensburg Central Catholic 61-48.
At the end of the game the Maplewood fans who made the trip in the wintry weather rose to their feet to give their team a standing ovation as they walked off the court.

To the left is a sports story written for the weekly newspaper - The Titusville News-Journal.

The TNJ is a weekly paper that came in to fill the void left when the Titusville Herald ceased to exist any longer.

I am trying to help them out by learning new skills and writing about sports while doing what I love to do, which is photograph life.

These photos are from their season ending game against Greensburg Central Catholic.

Below are more photos from Maplewood v. Greensburg.