JEFFERSON TWP — Stush Antoszyk is expanding his baseball horizons.

Knoch's senior second baseman will be one of 12 players representing Pennsylvania at the annual King Kamehameha Baseball Classic in Honolulu, Hawaii, June 17-24.

Antoszyk received an invitation in the mail to try out for the Pennsylvania squad.

"They get a list of players to invite through college recruiting lists, all-conference teams, stuff like that," Antoszyk said.

The King Kamehameha Classic, a tournament of high school seniors, is a product of Elite Sports International. Teams from 15 states — Texas, Oklahoma, Iowa, Kansas, North Dakota, Indiana, Oregon, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Michigan, Ohio, Colorado, Georgia and Pennsylvania — will compete in pool play before a championship medal round.

Mike Patroski, a baseball coach at Division IILackawanna College will coach the Pennsylvania entrant.

"Pennsylvania kids play with and against other Pennsylvania kids all the time," Patroski said. "It's exciting any time you have a chance to compete against kids from other parts of the country."

Lackawanna College hosted tryouts for the Pennsylvania team in October.

"The tryouts were held on different days at different times,"Antoszyk said. "There were 150 invitations sent out and they only keep 12, so I treated the whole thing as a shot in the dark.

"I thought I did pretty well during tryouts, but I have no idea how good the other guys trying out might be."

Tryouts consisted of hitting against live pitching, being timed running sprints, fielding grounders and throwing the ball into a net.

Antoszyk learned he made the team in late November. He must raise his own money for the trip.

A second-year starter at Knoch, Antoszyk was one of the Knights' better hitters last year .

"He had a solid year,"Knoch coach Curt Schnur said. "Defense is his biggest strength. He makes the average plays and the above-average plays.

"He's a contact hitter who hits line drives to the opposite field."

Antoszyk will be one of three senior starters for the Knights this spring, joining pitcher David Govan and catcher Brandon Wissinger.

Patroski hopes to have a couple of practices with the Pennsylvania team before it leaves for Hawaii.

"These kids will be involved with their high school teams all spring and we went pretty far in postseason play last year ourselves," Patroski said. "By late May, first week of June, I hope to get everybody together, just so they can get to know each other and so I can assess what we have.

"There will be a lot of college coaches at this tournament and I want to put kids in the best position to showcase their talents."