Decade’s best No. 5: Tom O’Malley helped Loyalsock win league titles for three seasons in softball

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the latest in a series looking back at the top 10 softball teams, coaches, games and players from last decade

Tom O’Malley enjoyed a lengthy Major League Baseball career and later became a Japanese League legend.

How ironic then that it is softball where O’Malley has established himself as one of District 4’s best coaches. O’Malley was a coach for only three seasons last decade, but helped Loyalsock win league titles each time, along with the 2018 District 4 Class AAA championship. He also served as Williamsport’s hitting coach in 2019 and helped the Millionaires improve their batting average by 29 points. Oh yeah, he also has worked with many area baseball players and helped them become much better players.

As long as the game involves a ball and a bat, having O’Malley coaching provides a team quite an asset.

"He’s a great coach. He keeps everyone focused in a positive way," first baseman Elizabeth Haller said in the middle of the 2017 season, one in which she hit .545. "Everybody loves coming to practice and games. It’s great."

O’Malley is the hitting whisperer, helping offenses thrive wherever he goes. He breathed life into the Loyalsock attack in his first year coaching at Loyalsock as the 2013 Lancers made a six-win improvement. His 2017 and 2018 Loyalsock teams were among the decade’s most powerful offenses and Williamsport scored runs in bunches with his help in 2019. He also was the hitting coach for the Hanshin Tigers in 2003 when they won the Central League pennant in Japan and helped transform that same team’s offense after returning in 2016 as it went from featuring one of the league’s worst offenses to one of the best.

O’Malley came home a year later to take care of his ailing father and became Loyalsock’s coach in 2017. The Lancers mashed the ball all season, scoring fewer than five runs just three times in 19 games.

"Tom’s a great coach and he knows us personally and our swings and what to fix with them even if it’s just a minor tweak," catcher Rhiallie Jessell said in 2017. "We heard around town that he was coming back and everyone was excited, to stay the least."

That also was the case four years earlier when O’Malley made his softball coaching debut. His team was young, but O’Malley helped it flourish while playing in the rugged HAC-II. Loyalsock swept two regular-season games from defending Class AA Eastern Region champion Warrior Run, edging it to win the program’s first league title since 2008.

Loyalsock clinched the championship with a 3-0 win in Turbotville, becoming the first team to beat the Defenders there in two years. The Lancers finished 17-6, earning their most wins in five years. Had it not been for an amazing catch by Warrior Run center fielder Gabby Shrawder with the bases loaded in the seventh inning, Loyalsock might have captured a district championship as well instead of losing a 2-0 heartbreaker after beating 2014 state champion Central Columbia in the semifinals.

"They deserve everything they’ve accomplished to this point because they’ve worked as hard as any group I’ve ever been with," O’Malley said following the league championship victory. "They are close-knit and they come to practice and come to games ready to play every day. They make my job easy."

O’Malley made playing for him easy as well. The next time this reporter hears anyone say a bad word about O’Malley will be the first. He is universally-respected and combines an encyclopedia-like knowledge of the game with an astute understanding of people. That combination helps his players flourish and it played a major role in Loyalsock winning a share of the 2017 HAC-III championship after O’Malley returned.

"He’s a people’s person and his dad was the same way and he reminds me a lot of his dad. They know how to relate to people," former South Williamsport coach Scott Stugart, a high school teammate of O’Malley at Montoursville, said that year. "He obviously is able to relate to youth, whether it’s boys or girls. He’s a great guy and I love seeing him across the other dugout. That’s big for him do that. I can’t say enough good things about Tom."

O’Malley and Loyalsock achieved more good things in 2018. The Lancers were an offensive juggernaut, hitting a collective .421, the best average any area team compiled last decade. Jessell, Sam Stopper, Juliana Cruz and Katie Welker all earned all-state honors and all hit .494 or higher. Like his other two teams did, Loyalsock continued becoming more dangerous throughout the season and beat a series of strong opponents.

"Our whole team has great bats and puts good swings on the ball," outfielder Maegan Reitz said after homering in an early-season 19-4 win against eventual district semifinalist Lewisburg. "We trust each other and help each other and back each other up."

This was a lineup with no holes. All but one player hit above .300 and the runs flowed like water. O’Malley also helped Cruz became one of the area’s premier pitchers and Loyalsock enjoyed its best season of the 2000s.

The Lancers went 18-5, won a share of the HAC-III championship for a second straight year and also captured their first district title since 2008, beating Warrior Run, 6-4 in a riveting final. O’Malley played a major role in Williamsport featuring a similar powerful offense a year later. The Millionaires made a five-win improvement and hit .373 while capturing the Central Penn League championship.

Baseball or softball, professionals or teenagers, it does not matter. O’Malley can bring out the best in them all.

O’Malley excelled as a player and won the 1995 Japan League MVP as well as the Japan Series MVP.

That in mind, maybe the best compliment one gave give him is this: As good a player as he was, O’Malley might be an even better coach.