ZACK JENEY
SCHOOL: California.

WHO IS HE? A 6-foot, 195-pound senior and one of the top baseball players in the WPIAL. Jeney is a pitcher/first baseman/outfielder.

THE PAST WEEK: Jeney had four hits in a 7-6 victory against Carmichaels Monday. Against Bentworth Friday, he pitched the first eight innings and struck out 14 in a 10-2, nine-inning loss. The score was tied, 2-2, after eight innings when Jeney exited. Last Thursday, he had two home runs and seven RBIs in a 15-4 victory against Mapletown.

CLOSE TO 30: Jeney, a left-hander, has been the ace of California's staff since his freshman year and has a 27-6 career record, including a 3-0 mark this season. He was 12-2 last year and helped the Trojans win the WPIAL Class A championship. Jeney also has 373 career strikeouts.

Jeney has been playing baseball since he was 5, but said, "I really didn't come around as a pitcher until high school. I just didn't really have the control and mechanics. Once I got to high school, coach [Don] Hartman taught me the mechanics."

THE FUTURE: Jeney has made a verbal commitment to Louisburg College, which has a highly successful junior-college team. Twelve former Louisburg players have gone on to play in the major leagues.

-- By Mike White

TRISH MELVIN
SCHOOL: Vincentian Academy.

WHO IS SHE? One of the top softball players in the WPIAL, Melvin is a junior pitcher for the Royals and has accumulated 180 strikeouts and a 12-1 record to lead Vincentian to a 13-1 record and a 10-0 record in Class A Section 3 through Tuesday.

THE PAST WEEK: The hard-throwing pitcher who also has a penchant for being able to locate the ball had a 5-0 record this past week, striking out 70 batters.

CAREER: Melvin is in her third season as a starter, but her first as a pitcher as she slid out this year from behind the plate where she was the Royals' starting catcher the first two years of her high school career.

SISTER ACT: Trish Melvin's sister, Casey, was a standout pitcher and potent offensive weapon for a Royals team that reached the WPIAL championship last season and lost to Chartiers-Houston. This year, Melvin's younger sister, Nina, is a freshman and Vincentian's starting catcher. "Yeah, the Melvin family has been good to us," Scanga said. "And they have a couple more little ones coming up, so look for them to be very good too."

NICE MUG: Trish was featured in this week's Sports Illustrated Faces in the Crowd column.

FUTURE: Melvin is a good student and has garnered interest from some of the country's top academic institutions. She is planning on visiting Harvard this weekend and Princeton and Penn have also showed interest.

-- By Colin Dunlap