Bill Beckner stories, Page 23
Westmoreland County softball notebook: Latrobe offense tries different approach
Latrobe softball coach Bob Kovalcin expected his team to hit the ball early in the season, but with technique, not just haphazard power. Sure, the big swings are there, but look at how the Wildcats opened the season and there is proof they could be more disciplined at the plate....
Penn-Trafford rallies from 5-0 deficit to sweep baseball series with Latrobe
Penn-Trafford was limited offensively for the first five innings Tuesday and stared down a five-run deficit for most of the game. But the defending WPIAL champion Warriors saved their best for last, rallying for nine runs over the last two innings to pull past Latrobe, 9-6, to earn a Section...
Westmoreland County baseball notebook: Belle Vernon’s Parker Lind shines in opener
An opening day starting pitcher wants quality and control, but he will gladly accept excellence. Take Belle Vernon senior Parker Lind. The 6-foot-2, 205-pound left-hander was dominant in his first start of the season as the Leopards (2-0) blanked McGuffey, 14-0, on opening day. Lind struck out 11 and walked...
Penn-Trafford uses familiar formula to defeat Latrobe in baseball home opener
With its new WPIAL championship banner hanging on the fence near the visitors’ dugout, Penn-Trafford used some of the fundamentals that helped it win a title last season to earn victory in its home opener. The interplay of pitching and defense — and just enough offense — allowed the Warriors...
Westmoreland County campus clippings: Pitt-Greensburg’s Chuck Myers earns milestone win
Pitt-Greensburg softball coach Chuck Myers reached a milestone when the Bobcats defeated Chatham in the first game of a doubleheader. UPG won both games 6-2, with the first going into the books as Myers’ 100th career win. The sweep was the first of the season for the Bobcats (5-9). In...
Greensburg Central Catholic shaking off another disappointing exit from PIAA tournament
Sewickley Academy used lessons learned from a loss to one Westmoreland County team to beat another. The Panthers rallied from 14 down Saturday to topple Greensburg Central Catholic, 52-48, and end the Centurions’ run in the PIAA Class 2A boys basketball playoffs. Panthers first-year coach Mike Iuzzolino, a former Penn...
Sewickley Academy boys storm back to edge Greensburg CC in state semifinals
Everything was going well for Greensburg Central Catholic in the western final — until it went south. A 14-point lead in the first half felt more like 30 as the Centurions pulled ahead of Sewickley Academy with relative ease. Crisp passing led to uncontested layups, and defensive pressure was locked...
Westmoreland County high school notebook: Southmoreland freshman adds another Division I offer
Jackson Mickens is only a freshman, but he already has more Division I offers than a lot of seniors. The fast-rising Southmoreland standout added a second scholarship offer last week as Miami (Ohio) reached out. Mickens, a 6-foot-1, 215-pound receiver and defensive end, received an offer from Akron in January....
Hard times can’t sink Mt. Pleasant swimming star David Mutter
David Mutter is a free agent, and a resilient one at that. The Mt. Pleasant senior and WPIAL and PIAA champion swimmer had plans to continue his career at Alabama. He signed with the Crimson Tide in November. But sweeping changes forced Alabama to make roster cuts. For 2025-26, the...
Norwin softball hungry for another taste of WPIAL success
Norwin softball coach Brian Mesich also is an athletic trainer in the district. His team may have lost an abundance of talent from a WPIAL runner-up finish, but Mesich came back to tape things up and make another go at it. “Expectations are always the same,” said Mesich, who has...
Norwin notebook: Junior sets school record in indoor mile
Annie Czajkowski enjoyed a trip to Boston for the New Balance Nationals track and field meet. She brought home a few souvenirs, including a school record. Czajkowski set the Norwin girls indoor record with a time of 5 minutes, 3.54 seconds in the mile to finish eighth in her heat....
Norwin baseball ready to make another playoff push
Norwin made the WPIAL Class 6A baseball playoffs last season and has stewed over another first-round loss to North Allegheny for nearly a year. But the Knights return nearly enough starters to fill out a lineup and start a new playoff push. Six of the eight returning starters are seniors,...
3 former WPIAL standouts sign with Pittsburgh Riveters
Less than two months out from the start of their inaugural season, the Pittsburgh Riveters added three more players, including two with Westmoreland County roots, to bring the pre-professional team’s roster to 21. Pittsburgh will play in the USL W League with its opener set for May 16 against the...
PIAA Class 2A boys basketball semifinal preview: Greensburg Central Catholic vs. Sewickley Academy
PIAA basketball playoffs Class 2A Semifinals Greensburg Central Catholic (26-3) vs. Sewickley Academy (23-5) Noon Saturday at AHN Arena, Peters Township Winner plays: Winner of 3-2 Linville Hill (22-5)/4-1 Northwest Area (26-3) in championship game at 2 p.m. March 28 at Giant Center, Hershey District seeds: Greensburg Central Catholic 7-5;...
Jeannette grad Ciara Gregory heads to NCAA Tournament with Kentucky
Ciara Gregory didn’t make the NCAA Tournament when she played at Charlotte. She will make her second appearance in the Big Dance as a coach. The all-time leading girls scorer at Jeannette is a first-year assistant at Kentucky, which opens the tournament noon Friday against Liberty in the Spokane Region....
Greensburg Central Catholic, Sewickley Academy finally square off in state semis
Take this crop of boys basketball teams — Greensburg Central Catholic, Jeannette, Northgate, Sewickley Academy and Our Lady of the Sacred Heart — and line them up. The five WPIAL teams all made the PIAA Class 2A quarterfinals. And most of them have played each other at some point this...
A star on the rise, Greensburg CC grad Bailey Kuhns follows her heart to Robert Morris
When Mercyhurst announced a “leadership change” in cutting ties with women’s basketball coach Brooklyn Kohlheim four days after the season ended, junior forward Bailey Kuhns scrambled to reset her future. She didn’t have to go anywhere, but with Kohlheim gone, things would surely be different in the looming offseason and...
Hard-hitting seniors have Franklin Regional softball in good spot
Standouts Toryn Fulton and Ciara Camacho are finally seniors — it seems like they have been in the Panthers lineup for much longer than four years — so that means one more season of bashing softballs to the gaps and over fences. The pair of Division I recruits will look...
Westmoreland County softball notebook: Hempfield wins with pair of aces
It is not often that a WPIAL softball team can say it has two Division I-level pitchers on the same staff. Opponents might get to see both of them in the same game. Hempfield features a high-level duo in senior Riley Miller and junior Julia Varhola, who bring a combination...
Latrobe dominates Norwin in its softball season opener
Latrobe freshman Natalia Scekeres found out only minutes before her first varsity softball game she would be leading off. She took it in stride and embraced the opportunity, and the Wildcats followed her lead. “I wasn’t nervous,” the up-and-coming shortstop said. “We know we can hit. If our bats come...
Westmoreland County baseball notebook: Franklin Regional gets off to hot start in Florida
One Westmoreland County baseball team was in midseason form for spring training. Franklin Regional opened the season with a three-game sweep at the Jackie Robinson Sports Complex in Vero Beach, Fla. The Panthers (3-0) defeated Wissahickon, 7-2, in the first game as Jonah Willochell pitched five strong innings. Liam Bernadowski...
Westmoreland Campus Clippings: Hempfield wrestler Vance is national runner-up for Pitt-Johnstown
Pitt-Johnstown redshirt junior Isaiah Vance (Hempfield) finished as a national runner-up at the NCAA Division II wrestling championships in Indianapolis. Vance is now a two-time All-American. The fifth seed, Vance won with a couple of decisions and a major decision to reach the finals, then lost to Maryville’s Ryan Heerman,...
Westmoreland high school notebook: County dots baseball, softball rankings
A new spring season has arrived, and a number of local baseball and softball teams made the TribLive HSSN preseason rankings. For baseball, Hempfield starts the spring at No. 3 in Class 6A, Belle Vernon is No. 3 in Class 4A and Greensburg Central Catholic is No. 4 in A....
Greensburg CC boys get time to reset before continuing PIAA run in semifinals
As the late Tom Petty sang, waiting is the hardest part. Greensburg Central Catholic earned a spot in the PIAA Class 2A boys basketball semifinals but has to sit a week between games. The Centurions (26-3) will play Sewickley Academy (23-5) at noon Saturday at Peters Township in the western...
Greensburg Central Catholic boys defeat Jeannette for 3rd time in physical PIAA quarterfinal
With blood dripping from his elbow, Samir Crosby had to come out of the game and have a teammate shoot the second of his two free throws late in his team’s most important basketball game of the season. “It’s always physical when we play Jeannette. Honestly, I didn’t think I...
