The Allegheny Valley franchise in the Greater Pittsburgh Federation League has its sights set on winning the league's regular-season title.

"We know we've got to win 95 percent of our games," Allegheny Valley manager Kevin Giza said. "We know we have to win every time we play."

Matt Freed, Post-Gazette Russ Conners is safe at second, beating the tag from Mt. Lebanon's Anthony Talotta Click photo for larger image.

Giza was referring to the task at hand: to catch St. Johns Lambros, the league's premier team in recent seasons. Last season, the Saints went 26-1 en route to winning the league championship. That earned the right to participate in the National Amateur Baseball Federation's regional tournament in Youngstown, Ohio.

Allegheny Valley, which plays its games at Mayor Dougherty Memorial Veterans Field in Etna, was 7-2 heading into the week, one game back of St. Johns in the loss column. Allegheny Valley handed St. Johns its only defeat.

The top four teams in the Federation League qualify for the playoffs, with the official league champion being crowned through those means. The regional tournament qualifier comes from regular-season record, however.

"We really want to win this year, and I think we've got the guys to do it," said Giza, who started the program four years ago and has been the only general manager and field manager the team has had.

"I felt like we had the guys before, but we were pretty young the last four years. Now we're at the point where the players are seasoned and have played in the league for a while."

Giza also enhanced his recruiting efforts. He stresses that the team holds open tryouts every year and that jobs are always open.

The vision, Giza said, is long term. He refers to the franchise as a "program" and hopes to add teams at younger levels. He wants Allegheny Valley to become the leading developer of talent for the college and professional levels.

"That's why I run the team differently than a lot of other organizations," Giza said. "It's not easy trying to break into the St. Johns roster. They have the same nine guys on the team. That's how they run the team, and I can appreciate that. But that doesn't give these guys the chance to get better. That's why we have wide-open tryouts every year.

"Out primary goal is to give everyone the tools and building blocks to get better and maybe give them one more opportunity they wouldn't normally have."

Giza paused before adding an important caveat: "But we definitely plan on winning."

With only two defeats heading into scheduled games Monday and Wednesday, Allegheny Valley has been doing plenty of that. A playoff team in 2005, Allegheny Valley appears poised to return.

The roster includes pitcher Mike Dukovich, pitcher/outfielder Steve Long, pitcher Nate Buttenfield and third baseman/outfielder Russell Connors.

Long, a North Hills High School graduate and Seton Hill University player, serves as the team's captain. A fourth-year AV player, Long had two home runs already this season after posting a 0.93 ERA last season.

Giza called Buttenfield "our best pitcher right now." The North Hills High School team coach, he played at IUP and professionally for a time in the Seattle Mariners organization and in the Frontier League and Texas-Louisiana League.

Dukovich hadn't given up a run during his first 13 innings of the season and his brother, Ryan, had a team-high .542 batting average through the team's first six games. Ryan played at Cleveland State and Mike at Duquesne University.

Giza calls third baseman Bobby Flukas, a Chartiers Valley graduate and Thiel College "a great pure hitter and team leader."

Luke Katich and his brother, J.P., pitch for the team and Hampton graduate Josh Campenella led Pitt-Johnstown in hitting as a freshman this past season.

"The last couple of years, the competition has been really good," Giza said. "We try to bring in a lot of college scouts. It's about getting a lot of these guys exposure"