Penn-Trafford grad Mario Disso minimizes mistakes in field, at plate for Pitt-Johnstown baseball

When Carmen Disso would take his son, Dominic, to the baseball field to practice snagging grounders, his other son, Mario, tagged along. Mario Disso might have been six years younger than his brother, but he didn’t get any special treatment when it came to the grounders that were sent his way.

“When I was 7 or 8, I was getting smacked the same ground balls as my brother was at the age of 15,” Mario Disso recalled.

That experience served him well as he came up through the baseball ranks at Penn-Trafford. Now in his fourth year with the Pitt-Johnstown baseball team, Disso has become arguably the team’s most reliable fielder.

Last season, in 47 games (46 starts), mostly at shortstop and second base, Disso committed only 1 error for a .994 fielding percentage. This season, he has committed four errors but only one player — besides UPJ’s catchers — has handled more chances.

But fielding isn’t the only area where Disso minimizes his mistakes.

Last season, when the left-handed hitter posted a .268 average with 10 doubles, 21 RBIs and 28 runs, he ranked fifth in the PSAC and 48th in the nation among the toughest players to strike out. He fanned once every 12 at-bats.

Through the Mountain Cats’ first 21 games this season — 8-13, 2-2 in the PSAC — Disso has struck out only three times in 66 at-bats, which, at once every 22 at-bats, ranks 10th in Division II.

That aspect of his game, he said, also goes back to his days working out with his father and older brother, who played at Westmoreland County Community College.

“Anything that looks like a decent pitch, swing at it,” he said. “You don’t want to leave it in the umpire’s hands.”

As efficient as Disso has been in the field and at the plate, the best news for him and for UPJ is, though he is in his fourth season with the program, he might just be scratching the surface of what he can achieve at the college level.

His freshman season (2020), naturally, was cut short by the pandemic. Then, in 2021, he was sidelined by a torn labrum, which he hurt in practice while turning a double play.

“I knew it wasn’t anything good because my entire hand went numb,” he said.

The injury occurred in late January 2021. His family took him to see Dr. James Bradley, the Pittsburgh Steelers team doctor, for the diagnosis, but because of Bradley’s crowded schedule, Disso had to wait nearly three months to have the procedure.

Disso played through the injury, appearing in seven games, before he was advised by Bradley to shut it down. Nearly nine months of rehab followed, but, upon his return, Disso responded with a solid season at the plate and a nearly perfect one in the field.

He started at second base but the moved over to shortstop as he got stronger in the aftermath of the injury. He even played in the outfield when injuries left the Mountain Cats short-handed there.

“He just consistently makes routine plays,” said UPJ assistant George Roberts, who has been overseeing most of UPJ’s activities while head coach Todd Williams recovers from knee replacement surgery. “He’s the most consistent of our infielders, especially this year. He just does all the little things right.

“He’s really good in the outfield, too. He gets really good reads.”

The 2022 season hasn’t gone exactly the way Disso had hoped. In addition to his errors being up, his batting average is down (.227 through March 29).

But Disso isn’t hitting the panic button. He simply chalks it up to a “sophomore slump,” even though, at 22, he is one of the team’s oldest players.

“This is really my second full year playing,” he said, noting the covid and injury disruptions to his freshman and sophomore seasons. “I had high expectations coming into the season because of what I did last year. I think a lot of that playing last year was just like playing on adrenaline, not really thinking too much. I had nothing to lose.

“This year, it really hasn’t gone as I thought it was going to go. But it hasn’t been terrible, either. … I’ve just been trying to keep a positive mindset. It’s baseball. Everyone struggles. It’s just how the game is.”

On the bright side, Disso hit his first collegiate home run this year. That came in the fourth game of the season against Glenville State.

This season still has a long way to go, so there’s plenty of time to get his numbers back to where he wants them. But Disso said he is not finished. With his redshirt season from the injury and the extra year granted by the NCAA because of the pandemic, he has two more years of eligibility, and Disso plans to use them.

As one of the team’s elder statesmen, he is among the players the younger players come to for advice, along with his roommates Jake Ansell (redshirt senior, Connellsville) and Dylan Broderick (redshirt senior). Being so invested in the younger players, he said, makes him eager to see how they develop.

Moreover, he knows his time in the game is limited. A career as a high school history teacher awaits after he hangs up his spikes for the last time, so he wants to milk his time on the diamond as long as he can.

“I tell my parents this all the time — and they’re fine with it — you only play this game probably one more time in your life, so I do plan on using the two years of eligibility,” he said. “A lot of people call me nuts for that. … There’s only a certain amount of people who get to go on and play after (college), so I might as well enjoy it while I am here.”