When Evan Petravicius was in high school, baseball was significant to him.
Today, however, it’s his life.
The 2017 Riverview graduate is putting in 12-14 hours days – sometimes more – living his dream in the sport that has become his passion.
“Basically, my whole life since I’ve been 18 has been baseball,” he said. “It’s 24/7. Being an assistant coach at the college level has opened so many doors for me.”
Petravicius was coached by Chris Haut at Riverview. An injury, he said, wasted any chance of him playing college baseball so he did the next best thing – asked coach Haut for a spot on his staff.
“When I realized I wasn’t going to be playing anymore, I wanted to come back to coach,” he said. “A lot of the guys at Riverview mean the world to me. Coach Haut and the other coaches on staff molded me and were the reason I graduated. I wanted to stay in baseball and keep coaching. The guys at Riverview who pushed me and helped me get to where I am now.”
In addition to being an assistant to Haut, Petravicius landed a role with Prep Baseball Report, a national scouting service which puts on showcases and events to expose high school athletes to college coaches. He also coached Arsenal, a high-level prep travel team.
After last season ended at Riverview, Petravicius was lured to Scranton, Pa. to coach at Lackawanna College. It was another great career move.
“I just love it here,” he said.
At one point he was hoping to become Riverview’s head coach. When that didn’t happen, he kept his baseball dream alive.
“I’ve told a lot of people that it was a blessing in disguise,” he said of not getting the job. II would have been totally fine if I had become the head coach, then this offer came and there was no way I could say no to it. It’s paid off.”
At Lackawanna, Petravicius works mainly with infielders and is an assistant hitting coach. The team started the season 7-9 but is rolling now. They entered the NJCAA Division II Baseball World Series in Enid, Okla. last weekend having won six straight post-season games.
It was a two-day, 21-hour bus ride from Scranton to Enid.
College baseball can be a grueling ride, especially for schools north of the Mason-Dixon line. The season starts in brutally cold February.
“We played five or six games in Pennsylvania and Maryland, then went south for a week and played 14 games,” Petravicius said. “Since then, we’ve played anywhere from four to seven games a week.”
Petravicius has felt Lackawanna is the best team in the east for weeks.
“Four teams in the conference were at one point ranked ahead of us,” he said. “We always felt we were the team to beat. We beat a team that was 18-0 and ranked No. 16 in the country 15-5. At that point, we realized we are the team to beat in the East.”
Lackawanna’s incredible run through the World Series did come to a close on May 30 with a loss to St Johns River State in an elimination game. The Falcons finished 2-2 overall in the field, good for 5th out of 10 teams.
Lackawanna became the first team in school history to win multiple games at the World Series level. They also reached 40 wins for just the third time in school history.
With the season now over, Petravicius will embark on a new journey. He’ll return to Riverview, where his parents Frank and Jonneal Petravicius live, pack up and move to Florida. He’ll become full-time at PBR, running showcases at places like IMG Academy.
“This job has opened up a lot of opportunities for me,” he said. “My job will be on the tournament side, running the tournaments, getting college coaches out to watch the kids and hopefully get some of the best talent from around the country there so the college coaches can watch them.”
Petravicius was also in the running for a Minor League job in the Tampa Bay Rays organization but found the gig at PBR too good to pass up. He’s undecided right now about finding a spot on a college staff next year. Either way, he said, he’s going to stay down south where it warm and he can be part of the game he is so passionate about 24 hours a day.
“I realized if I am going to work in baseball, why not work down south?”
