Bill Beckner stories, Page 45
Checking in on Westmoreland County players in minor league baseball
Where are they now? Checking in on some local minor league baseball players: • JJ Matijevic, who made a brief appearance in the majors with the Houston Astros two years ago, recently signed with Dorados de Chihuahua of the Mexican Baseball League. Matijevic, a 28-year-old Norwin alum, played all of...
Franklin Regional softball gets locked in late in season
As he watched the WPIAL softball regular season wind into its final two weeks, Jim Armstrong saw a change in his team. The Franklin Regional coach noticed a more positive vibe in the dugout. Players were showing more emotion during big innings, more enthusiasm for fellow hitters and even more...
Frazier outlasts Jeannette in extra innings in battle of softball section unbeatens
Emilia Bednar wasn’t sure what to expect when she stepped to the plate in the top of the eighth inning Monday in a battle of unbeaten softball teams at Jeannette. Maybe a walk. Maybe a hit. Whatever the case, the junior catcher from Frazier was ready to do anything to...
Westmoreland County campus clippings: Hempfield grad Jacob Boord returns from injury at PAC championships
He didn’t defend his conference title, but the fact that Jacob Boord was able to compete at all came with a sizable measure of gratification. A senior at Allegheny College and a Hempfield graduate, Boord was medically cleared from a foot injury to compete around 8:15 a.m. Thursday. With less...
Jeannette’s Robert Kennedy signs with Chargers
Robert Kennedy is on the doorstep of making his dream come true. The Jeannette alum continued his ascent to pro football, signing as an undrafted free agent with the Los Angeles Chargers on Saturday night. The defensive back vaults into the NFL after he played a graduate season at N.C....
Westmoreland athletes of the week: Norwin’s Melani Schmidt, Latrobe’s Dom Cararini
Melani Schmidt School: Norwin Class: Junior Sport: Track & field Claim to fame: Schmidt was named the track MVP at the Westmoreland County Coaches Association Championships at Latrobe, collecting four medals, including gold in the 200- and 400-meter dashes (in 25.11 and 58.88 seconds). She also anchored the winning 400...
Westmoreland County high school notebook: Franklin Regional star picks Washington & Jefferson
After a season to remember, Franklin Regional senior basketball player Cam Rowell made his college decision. The 6-foot-5 guard announced he will play at Washington & Jefferson. Rowell recently was named to the Pennsylvania Sports Writers Class 5A All-State Second Team. The TribLive Westmoreland player of the year showed his...
Norwin notebook: Trainer honored for life-saving efforts
While he sees it as “just doing his job,” others saw what Dave Snowberger did as a superhuman act. Snowberger helped to save a man’s life earlier this year, and his rush to action earned him a lofty honor in sports training circles. Snowberger received the Pennsylvania Athletic Trainers Society...
Norwin completes much-needed sweep of Central Catholic
In an 8-4 victory over Central Catholic that gave Norwin its first three-game Section 2-6A sweep of the WPIAL baseball season, Nate Silberman may have epitomized the Knights’ push for a playoff spot, maybe even their identity, with one swing of the bat and a mad dash around the bases....
Everything clicking for Penn-Trafford baseball on 9-game winning streak
When Lou Cortazzo decided he wanted the interim tag removed from his name and officially became the coach of the Penn-Trafford baseball team, everything started to click. The move felt right. Of course, Cortazzo had to act fast. He had been in rain delays longer than the time it took...
Westmoreland County baseball notebook: Belle Vernon ace has been ‘lights out’
When senior Colton Lee pitches, Belle Vernon baseball fans show up to watch. Lee is having an impressive spring on the mound for the Leopards (10-2, 7-1), who are in contention for the Section 2-4A title. They trail Latrobe (11-2, 8-0) by one game. The 6-foot-2, 175-pound left-hander is 4-0...
Westmoreland softball notebook: Hempfield comes back strong
Hempfield put together quite a four-game stretch last week — a positive and productive answer to its first loss of the season. After dropping a 2-0 decision to Seneca Valley in a game where they were no-hit, the Spartans went 4-0 last week and outscored their opponents 42-0. Hempfield labeled...
Franklin Regional fends off Latrobe in section slugfest
Franklin Regional measured up in its latest softball victory. Toryn Fulton launched a towering, opposite-field home run in the bottom of the first inning that traveled around 200 feet. In the second, third baseman Ceana Copeland made a laser throw 60 feet across the diamond to complete a double play....
With ace Cheyenne Piper putting up zeroes, Ligonier Valley jumps back into contention
Section 3-3A softball coaches are wary of the movement on Cheyenne Piper’s pitches. The spin. The rise and drop. The changes in speed. Piper’s team also has thrown a curveball at opponents with a resounding message that has reverberated through the standings and painted the outside corner: “Remember us?” Piper,...
Mt. Lebanon alone in 1st place after wild, sloppy win over Hempfield
It was a long day at the ball yard for Mt. Lebanon and Hempfield as the middle game of their Section 2-6A series flirted with dusk. By the time the sun went down, Mt. Lebanon was in first place by itself. “It was one of those last-man-standing kind of games,”...
Westmoreland County campus clippings: UPG’s Melanie Mienke sets program strikeout record
Junior softball pitcher Melanie Mienke (Plum) etched her name into the Pitt-Greensburg record book. The veteran righthander became the Bobcats’ all-time leader in strikeouts when she fanned 11 in a 6-3 victory over Wells Express. Her total climbed to 241. The previous record was held by Marley Lafferty, who pitched...
Penn-Trafford holds on for tight victory over Franklin Regional
No matter how up or down the Penn-Trafford softball team is each year — usually up — it has a tendency to play tight games at Franklin Regional. It’s like clockwork, that short trip to Murrysville. “We’ve had some crazy games here,” Penn-Trafford coach Denny Little said. “I don’t know...
Westmoreland high school athletes of the week: Southmoreland’s Amarah McCutcheon and Penn-Trafford’s Matt Sarnowski
Amarah McCutcheon School: Southmoreland Class: Senior Sport: Softball Claim to fame: McCutcheon is one of the premier power hitters in the WPIAL, and she proved it with a career-high three home runs in a 15-0 win over South Allegheny. In that game, the Scotties launched seven homers, including four in...
Westmoreland County high school notebook: Jeannette soccer star picks college
Jeannette soccer star Jordan Taylor will take his goal-scoring prowess to the NCAA Division II level. The senior forward committed to play at Wheeling (W.Va.), which competes in the Mountain East Conference. Taylor, a shifty scoring machine since he first took the pitch four years ago, finished his prep career...
Norwin notebook: Track team swarms medal stand
Norwin had a number of athletes competing at the Tri-State Coaches Association Championships at West Mifflin. Most of them made it to the medal stand. Luke Denny won the 400-meter run in 50.53 seconds, and Nick Puskar was the pole vault champion (19-1), while the Knights’ 1,600 relay of Nicholas...
Norwin lacrosse standout earns spot on Hungarian national team
It is a chance to play the game he loves on a national stage and, at the same time, pay his respects to genealogy. Norwin senior Griffin Bartos has himself a win-win situation. Bartos was selected to the Hungarian national team that will play in the World Box Lacrosse Championships...
Bats heat up for Greensburg Central Catholic in win over Jeannette
For a team that struck out 19 times against Brentwood earlier this week, Greensburg Central Catholic looked pretty confident at the plate when it finally got to play rival Jeannette after multiple postponements. “We didn’t strike out once today,” Centurions coach John Boyle said. Instead, every hitter in the lineup...
Draft prospect David Shields shows stuff to MLB scouts in win over Norwin
More than a dozen pro scouts crammed together above the brick backstop at Norwin and raised their radar guns in tandem each time Mt. Lebanon’s David Shields kicked up his leg to throw a pitch. They aimed through the chain-link fence and zapped each glove-popping delivery. A top-50 MLB draft...
Latrobe baseball takes team-first mentality to heart
The team concept in sports is often overstated and cliche, trendy at times and even hyperbolic. But the Latrobe baseball program thrives on it. You might say the Wildcats have cornered the market on taking one for the team. In fact, the word “Team” is stitched into or printed on...
Westmoreland County high school baseball notebook: Seniors power Jeannette surge
Jeannette took its lumps the last three seasons, which meant the Jayhawks were due to dish out some payback. Perhaps patience has played the biggest part in this team’s turnaround. After winning just four games last season (4-13), three the previous year (3-10) and two the year before that (2-13),...
