MEMORY LANE: Meeting his goals: Geibel grad Smith was 2-sport star who played Division-I baseball
Submitted photo
Connellsville has always had a rich baseball heritage. Former Geibel Catholic High School two-sport standout Keith Smith is just one of the many players produced by the city along the Youghiogheny River.
Smith, like many athletes, got his start in sports at an early age.
“I got a start in basketball in the church league,” Smith recalled. “St. Rita’s had a team and Immaculate Conception had a team so I started all the way back then. Most of us, Dave Timko, Sean Scarry, Eddie Staines, Pat Malone and Scott Martray, all played together from seventh grade on.”
That formed the nucleus for some very competitive basketball teams at Geibel during the 1980s under the guidance of head coach Ken Misiak and his able assistant Bob Fedorko.
“I had a good relationship with both,” Smith offered. “They were both good coaches. They pushed us, but they made us better.”
Smith was on Geibel hoop teams that went 18-6 in 1980-81, and 16-2 in section play and 20-5 overall in 1981-82, beating Bentworth in the WPIAL playoffs, 65-61, and then falling to California, 54-52.
In 1982-83 the Gators went 18-3 during the regular season and finished 20-5. In the WPIAL playoffs they downed Braddock St. Thomas, 44-43, and lost to Rochester, 68-60. In the PIAA tournament they got by Cochranton, 74-72. They were then ousted by undefeated Johnsonburg, 74-60.
“I was on the freshman team,” Smith reported. “I was on the varsity as a sophomore, but didn’t start. My junior year I started and then started as a senior.”
Smith saw limited time in 1980-81. As a junior in 1981-82 he tallied 55 points. In his senior campaign the 6-foot, 165-pound Smith scored 86 points, including a career-high 16 points against German Township.
“I had some injury problems,” Smith lamented. “I always seemed to be coming down on someone’s foot and spraining my ankle. That is probably why baseball worked out better for me, I wasn’t stepping on anyone’s feet.”
Indeed, baseball was a sport that Smith excelled in at Geibel for four years as a pitcher and a second baseman.
Geibel was not a playoff team during Smith’s junior and senior seasons. In 1982 the Gators went 15-11 and went to the WPIAL playoffs and were beaten in the first round by Charleroi, 12-3. Right-handed hurler Smith had a breakout season, posting a record of 7-3. He pitched the Gators to a Section 13 title, beating German, 10-0, on a one hitter with 11 strikeouts. Smith was named All-Section 13 as a junior.
Smith recorded 76 strikeouts for the Gators in 1983. Geibel beat Frazier, 7-5, in a Section 15 tiebreaker to capture the section title, but playing in the WPIAL playoffs the very next day they were dispatched by Bentworth, 12-0.
“We had a pretty good baseball team and a lot of us grew up playing Little League,” Smith stated. “We had some crossover with basketball. Timko played for a year and Greg Lonigro played baseball and went up to Triple-A in the minor leagues. We had Mr. Renzi as a coach and then Bob McGuiness. Baseball was a good experience at Geibe. It was a lot of fun.”
Smith was recruited for baseball after graduating from Geibel in 1983.
“I had a few small schools around the area that wanted me to come there,” Smith explained. “I know I wanted to play Division I and I know I wanted to play a lot of games, so I started looking South. I was at Old Dominion, but the major I wanted to get into was computer science and they wanted me to start that summer and I didn’t want that. Then I looked at James Madison, but I didn’t go there and I looked at Clemson but I wasn’t going to get to play my freshman year.
“I picked Western Carolina and Jack Leggett was our coach and two or three years later he ended up being the coach at Clemson. We played a great schedule against Clemson, Georgia, Georgia Tech, North Carolina and North Carolina State, but that made us a better team.”
Western Carolina went 25-20 and 9-5 in the Southern Conference in 1983-84, 37-35 and 11-6 in the conference in 1984-85 and 33-28 and 12-5 in the Southern Conference in 1985-86.
Smith was a relief pitcher in 83-84 and then posted a mark of 4-3 with a 4.58 ERA and 56 strikeouts as a starter in 84-85. He had a fine season in 85-86 going 10-5 with a 5.53 ERA and 54 strikeouts.
“You had to eat, drink and sleep baseball under Coach Leggett,” Smith recalled. “He made you good, but it was all or none. We played in the NCAA tournament all three years and that was amazing. We played at least three games every year. I met my wife at Western Carolina so things worked out perfect for me.”
Smith following his junior season decided to play summer baseball in The Valley League for Waynesboro.
“I played and got noticed there,” Smith said. “I got picked up by the Atlanta Braves. And they shipped me to rookie ball in the Pioneer League at Idaho Falls. I was 21 years old. It was a good experience. Greg Lonigro was out there at that time.”
Smith went 2-2 with Idaho Falls with a 6.35 ERA and 39 strikeouts.
“I got called back to Spring Training the next season and the last week they were dividing up the minor league teams and I was released,” Smith stated. “I tried a few camps, but it didn’t pan out. I went back to school at Western Carolina and got a degree in Manufacturing Engineering.
“I was married my senior and got a job right out of college and bounced around to seven or eight jobs to where I am now with Texwipe in North Carolina.”
Smith, 59, resides in Oakridge, North Carolina with his wife Cathy and they have been married since 1987. They have two adult children, Brittany and Garrett.
Looking back, Smith is very happy with his lot in life.
“Everything worked out perfect for me,” Smith offered. “It all came together nicely.”
George Von Benko’s “Memory Lane” column appears in the Sunday editions of the 无毛视频-Standard. He also hosts a sports talk show on WMBS-AM radio from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.