Former Pioneers To Lead Twin Tiers Squad In 2009

The Elmira Pioneers of the New York Collegiate Baseball League have announced that former Pio Ryan Giblin (Elmira '06-'07) has been hired as the team's field manager for the 2009 summer season. Former Elmira hurler Jeremy Gulich (Elmira '06) will act as the club's pitching coach. Giblin replaces three-year Pioneer skipper Matt Burch.

Giblin, a 2008 graduate of Mansfield University, is an assistant baseball coach at Millersville University. He was thrice named to the all-conference squad in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference's East Division while playing for the Mountaineers. As a senior captain, Giblin hit .425 with four home runs and 41 runs batted in. He totaled 74 hits, 49 runs scored, 11 doubles, two triples, eight stolen bases and a team-high 149 defensive assists. The 2008 first-team all-league choice was second on the team in runs scored and hits and third in batting average and runs batted in. The captain also was tabbed first-team all-region and was an NCBWA Division II honorable mention All-American. Giblin was a second-team all-star in 2006 and 2007. In addition to winning all-conference accolades on the baseball field, Giblin was a Manfield University Presidential Scholar in the classroom.

After graduation, Giblin spent time in the Frontier League with the eventual league champion Windy City Thunderbolts.

The Featersville, Pa., native spent two years as a player with the Pioneers in 2006 and 2007. The 2007 Pioneers won the NYCBL championship. On the title team, Giblin was the only player to compete in all 42 regular season games. He batted .231, drove in 14 runs and contributed 100 defensive assists. Through two years in the Twin Tiers, Giblin played over 80 games between the regular season and the playoffs.

Jeremy Gulich was an assistant coach at William Penn University in 2008. The Statesmen went 26-15 overall, finished second in the Midwest Collegiate Conference with a 20-3 loop mark and appeared in the NAIA Region VII tournament. Gulich pitched for the Statesmen in 2007. He struck out 14 in seven appearances. Prior to William Penn, the Horseheads, N.Y., native pitched for the University of Pittsburgh-Bradford and Hudson Valley Community College. Gulich was 12-4 over two seasons for the Vikings of HVCC and he is second all-time in school history with 129.2 innings pitched. He was a first team All-Mountain Valley Conference choice in 2003.

Gulich pitched out of the Elmira Pioneers bullpen in 2006. He was second on the team in innings pitched for a reliever (18.2) and he tied for second with 12 relief appearances.

Both former Pio players took the field under three-year manager Matt Burch. Burch guided the Elmira squad to back-to-back playoff appearances (2006, 2007), a co-division title (2007) and a league championship (2007). The departed bench boss also skippered the Western Division all-stars to a 9-5 win over the Eastern Division all-stars in the 2008 NYCBL All-Star Game.