From winless to champions
BUTLER TWP — Tyler Slepski would like to forget the first season he spent in the Chicora Area Softball League.
“We were 0-24 in our first year,” said Slepski, a Butler High graduate. “That was the worst team I've ever been on.”
Slepski and his teammates, many of whom played with him on the Butler High School baseball team, were undeterred.
Five seasons later, the team won the USA Softball of Pennsylvania Class C modified fastpitch championship.
And last week, the team with largely the same roster, won the state title again, this time in Class B.
“We stuck to it,” said Slepski, who enjoyed a stellar career with the Golden Tornado and also pitched for the Butler BlueSox before injuries forced him from baseball to softball. “We really worked hard at it and added on some other good guys.”
The core of that team: Slepski, Adam Steiner, Dustin Defrancisis, Doug Defreancisis, Luke Slater and Marc Hunka, will shoot for another championship next year in Class A.
If a team wins a championship in class, it must move up to a higher class the next season.
The team, which has had several sponsors over the team but is currently sponsored by Down Range Supply, will now play in the elite league.
Not bad for a team that struggled to just win a game during its formative years.
“It's exciting,” Slepski said. “I know we're really looking forward to it.”
For Slepski, this softball team has allowed him to keep his competitive juiced flowing.
“I played baseball for a long time, but I just couldn't play anymore,” Slepski, 25, said. “This has let me still be able to compete.”
Hunka has been the manager for the team since its inception in 2009.
He said the team doesn't have a real weakness.
“We hit a ton,” Hunka said. “We play strong defense and we have two good, stud pitchers.”
The key to the team's rise has been pitching.
Pitching has actually been the key to the team's rise — and Hunka found one of them in an unlikely place.
“Dustin Defrancisis and Tim Dietrich have pitched very well for us,” Hunka said. “Tim is a really good cornhole player. That's how we knew he'd be good pitcher.”
The pitching motion in modified fastpitch is similar to the motion used to pitch bean bags at a raised platform with a hole cut out in it.
Down Range Supply won the title game over High Street, 14-10, in Meadville, after cruising to the final with a pair of mercy-rule games.
Members of the team range in age from 19 to 35.
“The big one will be (Class A),” Hunka said. “We're pretty excited to go to the next level next year. There were more teams we had to beat when we won the C championship, but winning B or C is still a thrill.”
