The Lehigh Valley Softball Hall of Fame inducted five more members to its ranks recently at Patriots Park in Allentown during the 20th annual induction ceremony.

Among the five was former Northwestern Lehigh softball player and coach Patty (Walko) Mengel, who was a member of the 1985 Northwestern state championship team before serving as the team’s coach for nine seasons beginning in 1991. In 1996, Mengel was named the Colonial League Coach of the Year.

Mengel followed up the 1985 state championship by being a member of the ASA state title team the Lehigh Valley Panthers in travel league softball in 1986. She was also a member of the team that went to the national tournament in 1983. Later, she played with the Allentown Patriettes and Topton VIPs. Mengel won the ASA batting title in 1990 and was selected as a first-team All-American.

Mengel played college ball at Temple University where she was a starter in three of her four seasons with the team and was coached by Hall of Fame coach Ronnie Maurek.

“I’ve never been at the top echelon when it came to softball, but I always believed that you went out there and gave it 100-percent no matter what the situation was,” Mengel said. “I love to compete no matter what level I was at or whether it was as a player, or a coach and softball was an opportunity to do that, and I was very fortunate to have those opportunities.”

In addition to softball, Mengel played basketball and field hockey at Northwestern Lehigh. She was also a Tiger field hockey coach from 2008-2014 and following her softball head coach experience served as the assistant softball coach from 2005 to 2015. She also spent four seasons at Allentown Central Catholic and three seasons at Parkland.

The 1985 championship holds a special spot in her list of memories about softball. Teammate Candice (Snyder) Danner and coach Hope Donnell are also members of the Lehigh Valley Softball Hall of Fame. One of her players, Becky George, went on to play softball at the University of Massachusetts and serve as athletic director at Palisades before taking her current position as the AD at Emmaus.

“That was just such a special season for us,” said Mengel, who had key seventh-inning hits in two of the PIAA games. “We only lost one game and were league champions and district champions and then went on to win the state championship. That just goes back to being competitive. I always wanted to be in those types of situations.”

In her induction speech, Mengel saluted her father Don, who got her started in softball. Don Walko played minor league baseball in the Phillies organization in the 1960s and passed along his love of sports to his daughter.

“I really believe that my dad would have been proud that I was chosen to be a member of the Hall of Fame,” said Mengel. “He passed away over the past year and I sometimes wonder if he had anything to do with this. It’s kind of ironic in that sense.”

Mengel was inducted along with former Nazareth standout Adrienne (Repsher) Kashner, Denny Hollinger, who played in men’s softball leagues and served as an assistant coach at Freedom, Notre Dame, Wilson and Nazareth before becoming the head coach at Freedom in two different stints from 200-2003 and from 2009-2012. Former Allen player and head coach at Allentown Central Catholic and Dieruff, Bob Linn and Jim Adams, who has been instrumental in the operation and upgrading of Patriots Park, which is considered the area’s top softball venue. With the induction of the five latest members, the Hall of Fame now has 105 members after being started in 2000.