On Monday, April 25, 2022, Pennridge senior Robbie Pliska was recognized for committing to continue his baseball career at Juniata College.
Robbie Pliska – Juniata College (Baseball)
Major: Business
Final list of college: Juniata, Centenary, Eastern
Reasons for choosing Juniata: “Good campus, nice coaches and a great business program.”
Coach Craig Whitten says: “Robbie is true definition of a baseball guy. He never complained, he never said, ‘No, I don’t want to do that. No, I don’t want to hit in this spot in the lineup.’ I’d see him school, and I’d say, ‘Robbie, I might need you in relief today,’ and he’d say, ‘Oh yeah, no problem.’ He’s like a coach’s dream because he just wants to get on the field. When he played jayvee, there would be times when he would get to the pitch count in the fifth inning, and we’d say, ‘Robbie, we need you to play shortstop,’ and he never complained about his arm, he never complained about anything. He’d throw 92 pitches the day before, and he’d have no problem playing shortstop the day after when he was on jayvee.
“The whole offseason me and my coaches were figuring out if we moved (Joey) Calabretti to third base – who could we put at short? The darkhorse in the race was Robbie. One of my coaches, Tim Taggart, was saying, ‘I think Robbie’s going to be your guy. You can put him one or two in the lineup, or you can put him eight or nine in the lineup. He’s going to produce for you, and he’s going to do the right thing.’
“The best thing in the world was when we played Abington in that rain game. Robbie’s mom was the booster club president. It was Senior Night, so she’s getting ready for Senior Night, but she’s also recruiting parents to help with the field cleanup because we got so much rain, and we didn’t want to push the date. She was just so good about it even though she was going to walk her son on the field in five minutes. Then Robbie got the game-winning RBI in the bottom of the eighth. Just trickled in a single and we scored the winning run.
“I’ve been following the American Legion Tournament, and he hit a three-run walk-off home run against Quakertown in the Bux-Mont Championship. It was his second home run of the game. He homered in the first inning, and he homered to walk off. I think the sky’s the limit for him in college and what he’s going to be doing, whether he’s playing infield or whether he’s going to be pitching.
“He started against CB West this year, which was an 11-inning game. We got to the point where we had to hand the ball to Aidan Fretz, and we said, ‘Robbie, can you play short?’ He said, “Heck yeah, I can play short. I just want to stay in the lineup.’ Robbie took us to the fifth or sixth and Aidan Fretz finished the game. Again, it was one of those things that Robbie had five or six at-bats and got on base four of those at-bats.
“He’s such a great kid. He’s always smiling on the field. We always say – he’s sneaky athletic. When you see him doing things at practice and when you see him running the bases, he doesn’t look that athletic, but he gets the job done because he’s sneaky athletic. He’s a real smart guy. I’m really proud. When he was talking to me last summer about potential landing spots, there were some juco guys reaching out to me about guys that could fit their program to pitch. I was like ‘Robbie can do that – he’s a middle infielder.’ He was the jayvee MVP when he played. He just got the job done. We were really excited when we moved Calabretti to third – okay, I think Robbie can play short. He took the spot and didn’t lose it the whole season.
“I’m excited. I think he’s going to wind up being a pitcher at Juniata, but again, in Division 3, it’s pretty much all hands on deck, so I’m sure he can sneak his way into the lineup if they need him to play second or short.”
About Robbie:
Favorite food: Pizza
Favorite TV show: Outer Banks
Favorite music: J.Cole/Rap
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