SCRANTON — Paul McGloin gets numerous phone calls every May from local college players looking for a place to play during the summer.

“They ask, ‘Do you know of anybody who needs somebody?’” McGloin said. “Something fell through or they were going to go away and decided to change their mind. Or it’s too expensive and they want to stay close to home.”

Unfortunately, not many options existed. McGloin sought to change that.

He fondly remembers his playing days in the Collegiate Summer Baseball League and the Scranton Association, as well as coaching with the Scranton Red Sox in the Atlantic Collegiate Baseball League in 2001. Wanting to give local kids that same opportunity, he formed the Electric City Express.

“For me as a coach, it was a great experience and I thought it was a good experience for the kids to get reps,” McGloin said. “In recent years, it seems all that stuff has fallen off. There’s really not leagues like that anymore. I’m of the opinion that players, especially position players, need to play and get reps in the summer.”

The Express play in the East Coast Collegiate Baseball League, a nine-team summer wood bat league started last year by Elite Championship Travel Baseball (ECTB) Holdings. The North Division consists of the Express, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Miners, Pocono Timber Rattlers and two former ACBL mainstays, the Quakertown Blazers and Allentown Railers — who now go by Southside. The South Division features four New Jersey teams: Mercer Mammoths, Trenton Capitals, Trenton Generals and South Jersey Kings.

Last season, Quakertown defeated the Miners in the championship game.

Beginning in late May, the league plays a 32-game schedule over eight weeks, which concludes Tuesday. Playoffs are scheduled for July 25-27, culminating in the championship game at Arm & Hammer Stadium in New Jersey, home of the Trenton Thunder.

A 3-1 loss to the Miners on Thursday night at the University of Scranton’s Volpe Field dropped the Express’ record in their inaugural season to 5-23. While it might not be a success from a wins-and-losses standpoint, McGloin accomplished what he set out to do.

“It all comes back to wanting to create a team that gave preference to local kids so they can get their reps in during the summer,” McGloin said.

Miners coach Kyle Turonis agrees.

“It’s a good opportunity for a lot of guys, especially locally, to get to play competitive baseball,” said Turonis, who is an assistant coach at Pittston Area. “You get to travel a bit and play some baseball, meet some guys you never met before. It’s a fun little seven, eight weeks we get to spend together.”

The Express and Miners rosters are stocked with former Lackawanna League and Wyoming Valley Conference standouts, as well as players from local colleges with a few out-of-towners mixed in. Teams are responsible for recruiting players. The league allows seven rising freshmen on the roster, so that is why you see recent graduates such as Dunmore’s Max Forgione and Pittston Area’s Silvio Giardina playing for the Miners and Wallenpaupack’s Mark Nilsen playing for the Express.

Each player signs a contract that locks him to that team. Rising freshmen sign the contract themselves, but college players must have their college coach sign the contract. And the team will work with a player’s college. For example, a college want to try a player at a different position, so it will ask to play him at that spot.

Or, take the case of Jake Lenahan, the Abington Heights graduate who just completed his freshman season at the College of Holy Cross. He led the Crusaders in appearances with 19 and had a 4-2 record with four saves, a 4.47 earned-run average and 46 strikeouts in 44.1 innings. He was the winning pitcher in the Patriot League championship game. The team then lost in the NCAA Regionals to North Carolina and Nebraska.

“He was going to be a limited amount of starts and once he hit 60 pitches, he was out.” McGloin said. “We followed it and once he hit his max, he was done for the summer, which we fully accept.

“We reached out to every college coach via email, text or phone call and said, ‘We’re excited to have your kid this summer, what do you want us to do with him or not do with him?’”

Among the players on the Express roster are Scranton Prep graduates Xander Condeelis, who recently transferred from Canisius to East Stroudsburg University, and Blake Decker, who just completed his first season at Neumann University. The team is coached by Holy Redeemer’s Ryan Knowles. Since McGloin is the hitting coach at Marywood University and there are Marywood players on the Express, he is prohibited from coaching the team. So he serves as general manager.

“There’s a lot of great competition around here, so it’s good exposure and great reps for college,” Decker said. “If this wasn’t around, I’d probably have to talk to my coaches at college and play either in a league in Philly or up in New York. So this is a huge help that it’s here and it’s local.”

Condeelis originally looked at summer leagues in New York and Virginia. Then he got a phone call from McGloin.

“I really wanted to stay local for my first summer ball for college, so this was a good opportunity,” Condeelis said. “It’s been great. Playing with your buddies from back home and it’s competitive baseball. It’s a good spot.”

One of the players on the Miners is Nanticoke Area grad Brandon Wozniak, who just concluded his freshman season at Bloomsburg University. Last season, Wozniak was the ECCBL Pitcher of the Year and ERA champion. On Thursday against the Express, he threw six shutout innings, retiring the final 10 batters he faced.

Other Miners include Hazleton Area grad Grant Russo (St. John’s), Holy Cross grad Tom Rohan (Lock Haven), Old Forge grad Joe Granko (University of Scranton), Riverside grad Casey O’Brien (Bloomsburg) and Abington Heights grad Gavin LaCoe (Wilkes). Mike Guy, head coach at Wilkes, is the team’s general manager.

“It’s definitely a good time playing with a bunch of guys from colleges that are local,” Granko said. “Guys that you never played with before, sharing the diamond with them is a lot of fun. If this wasn’t here, I’d probably have to go play in New York or down in (New) Jersey. I love playing with these guys.”

Perhaps the biggest adjustment for the players is using a wood bat.

“A lot of the high school guys who just graduated are incredible baseball players,” Turonis said. “But they come here and see that increase in pitching talent and the difficulty with the wood bats takes a little bit to adjust. But it’s cool to see them adjust as the year goes on and they really start to improve. But it adds a little more of a challenge.”

Granko said with the wood bat, sometimes your best swings result in outs. Decker agrees.

“The balls sometimes are a little dead in this league,” Decker said. “It definitely is a different feel. You think you got every stitch of it and you fly out to the center fielder. You just have to keep the same swing, though, and you’ll be all right.”

During his lengthy career, McGloin has coached in the Northwoods League, a collegiate summer wooden bat league featuring teams from the Upper Midwestern United States, as well as the Cape Cod League, the nation’s premier collegiate summer wooden bat league. He would like to see the ECCBL possibly reach that level.

“I wouldn’t have gotten involved if I didn’t think this thing was going to be good for the area and that it wasn’t going to grow,” McGloin said.

Originally Published: July 18, 2025 at 4:36 AM EDT