Baseball standout Dale Mollenhauer set to join Pine-Richland Athletic Hall of Fame

By: Jerin Steele
Thursday, August 1, 2024 | 10:35 PM

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Dale Mollenhauer lived a childhood dream by playing professional baseball for five years, but before that he helped build the foundation at Pine-Richland.

Mollenhauer was a senior and key contributor to the Rams’ first WPIAL baseball championship team in 2005.

Now he has a place in the Pine-Richland Athletic Hall of Fame.

He is one of five individual inductees of the 2024 class, which will be honored with a ceremony Oct. 5.

“I’m honored to be recognized there at Pine-Richland, and we’re excited about it,” Mollenhauer said. “I’m looking forward to coming back in October for the hall of fame induction and seeing a lot of people I haven’t seen in a long time.”

John Falvo, Scott Heim, Jamel Nicholas and Roger Price are the other individuals in the 2024 class. The 2005 Pine-Richland girls volleyball team is also being inducted.

All inductees will be honored on the field prior to the Pine-Richland football home game Oct. 4, and a banquet will be held in the high school cafeteria at 6 p.m. the following day.

Mollenhauer spent four seasons in the minor leagues with the Chicago White Sox organization and one in the Baltimore Orioles organization.

Prior to that he had successful careers at Pine-Richland and East Carolina.

His high school career culminated in winning the WPIAL Class 3A title, 8-1 over North Allegheny. Mollenhauer was 2 for 3 with a double and a pair of RBIs in the championship game.

“It was a great time for all of us, winning the 2004 WPIAL championship,” Mollenhauer said. “Our team made the playoffs my freshman year in 2001, but didn’t make the playoffs in 2002 or 2003, so I think we all wanted to prove ourselves in 2004. We had a great team and we were all very excited to win it. To watch the program continue to be successful after that and win it in 2005 and 2006 and three more after that in the last 20 years has been great. It was great to be the first team to win it at Pine-Richland.”

Mollenhauer was teammates with Neil Walker, who was drafted by the Pirates in the first round a little bit after the WPIAL championship. Walker wasn’t the only player from the team to be drafted that year, however.

A day later Mollenhauer was selected by the Orioles.

“The first day of the draft we were all with Neil celebrating him and waiting for him to get picked,” Mollenhauer said. “It was very cool to be there with him when he got drafted by the Pirates. We actually played that night in the state tournament and lost to Peters Township. The rest of the draft was the next day, and I was listening to it on the computer, because that was the only way you could listen to it.

“I’ll always remember it. I was lying on the couch and I had just fallen asleep and my dad walked in and I woke up and at that moment we both heard my name called that I had been drafted by the Orioles in the 24th round.”

Mollenhauer decided to forgo signing with the Orioles and honor his commitment to East Carolina. He hit .292 with seven homers and 30 RBIs his junior year and was selected by the White Sox in the 17th round of the 2007 draft.

“After high school, I knew I needed more work,” Mollenhauer said. “I needed to get bigger, stronger and just keep playing. I hoped that I would have another chance. After my junior year, I knew I wanted to play professional baseball and that was my best opportunity to do so at the time.”

Mollenhauer made it to Double-A with the White Sox and spent one year in High-A with Baltimore before calling it a career. In five years in the minors, he hit .264 with 16 homers and 184 RBIs.

“The five years I played in the minor leagues was fantastic,” Mollenhauer said. “After that, finishing school and moving on was the best thing for me. I’m looking forward to getting back into sports at a coaching level with my kids and teaching them.”

Mollenhauer currently resides in Boston and is the director of sales in New England for Symmons Industries.

Jerin Steele is a freelance writer

Tags: Pine-Richland