Jerin Steele stories, Page 41
Oakland Catholic captures WPIAL Class AA girls lacrosse title
Natalie Cyterski was bloodied, battered and exhausted, but she wasn’t going to be denied. The Oakland Catholic senior had to leave the game twice in the first half with a severe cut on her forehead and even had to switch jerseys because there was blood on hers, but she stayed...
Maley’s walk-off single lifts No. 2 Pine-Richland past Norwin in WPIAL quarterfinals
Jake Maley hit a walk-off single in the bottom of the sixth inning to propel No. 2 Pine-Richland to a 2-1 victory over No. 7 Norwin in a WPIAL Class 6A quarterfinal baseball game Tuesday night at Upper St. Clair’s Boyce-Mayview Park. Norwin starter Billy Kerston allowed one hit through...
Westmoreland H.S. baseball capsules for games of Monday, May 20, 2019
WPIAL baseball playoffs Monday’s games WPIAL Class 4A Quarterfinals 1-Greensburg Salem (14-2) vs. 9-New Castle (9-9) 4 p.m. at Fox Chapel Winner plays: Winner of 4-Blackhawk (14-4) and 12-Mt. Pleasant (10-8) in semifinals Coaches: Bill Wisniewski, Greensburg Salem; Bill Cook, New Castle Players to watch: Matt Wicker, Sr., P, Greensburg...
Gannon’s Michael Marsico relaxed heading into NCAA golf championships
Michael Marsico said he doesn’t feel much pressure going into his first NCAA Division II golf national championship this week, and he’s looking forward to enjoying the moment. If he finds himself in a tense situation, though, he showed last weekend he can handle it. Marsico, a Fox Chapel graduate...
Kiski Valley rugby teams advance to state championship games
Kiski Valley boys rugby advanced to the Rugby PA Club Division II championship game for the second consecutive season with a 32-5 win over North Penn on Saturday at Penn State Berks. Winners of the 2016 state title, the top-seeded Titans (6-1) will try to win their second when they...
Mars baseball shuts out Fox Chapel in 1st round
Fox Chapel coach Jim Hastings summed up how things went for his team Thursday with five words. “Baseball is a frustrating game,” he said. The Foxes had runners in the first six innings and loaded the bases once but couldn’t push a run across in a 5-0 loss to Mars...
Kiski Valley rugby teams vying for state championships
In the last five years, Kiski Valley rugby has built its program to be on par with some of best in the state and last week reflected that when the girls and boys teams were awarded top seeds in their respective brackets. After a bit of a strange week when...
Plum softball not caught up in numbers game
Nearly half of the players in Plum softball’s lineup have batting averages at .400 or above, but none of them know it. At least they haven’t looked. There’s a team-wide pact not to look at individual stats during the season. “We have never even talked about it,” Plum co-captain Chloe...
Valley grad Ameriah Walters looks to close Seton Hill track career with more gold
Ameriah Walters originally was recruited to run hurdles at Seton Hill, but because the 400-meter hurdles and 200 meters are scheduled back-to-back at the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference championships, she had to make a decision. Walters, a Valley graduate, always felt like being a sprinter was her calling, and she...
Scharff, now Suprano, was girls sports pioneer at Springdale
When Laurie (Scharff) Suprano was a freshman at Springdale in the early 1970s, the school was in the beginning stages of introducing softball as club activity. Most other girls sports also were being introduced on a club basis, a trend at many schools in the area, and Suprano used the...
Kiski Valley girls rugby team hoping for breakthrough
After three years of seeing the Kiski Valley girls rugby team finish as the state runner-up, Rilee Roach is ready to break through. “Honestly, I’m just so sick of getting second place at this point,” said Roach, a junior captain. “I think our other captains, Autumn (Trempus) and Kelsie (Magill),...
All systems rolling for Franklin Regional baseball
Franklin Regional baseball coach Bobby Sadler laughed and then paused for a few seconds when deciding if pitching or hitting was going better for his team. “That’s tough, because both are really going well for us,” he said. “Everything seems to be going right for us.” With five players hitting...
Tough nonsection slate paying off for Greensburg Central Catholic baseball
Going into the season with seven new starters, Greensburg Central Catholic baseball coach Dennis Reist beefed up the schedule with an early run of difficult nonsection opponents and hoped Mother Nature would cooperate. Reist wanted to give his younger players a challenge right off the bat to get them up...
Knoch grad Celia Knappenberger hopes to pitch Saint Vincent softball into postseason
Celia Knappenberger plays to win. That might seem like a default setting for any athlete, but there was conviction in the tone of her voice when describing her will to be successful that showed she doesn’t take it for granted. And with focus and determination Knappenberger, a Knoch graduate, has...
Oakmont, Pitt grad Dennis Persin kept up tradition in football
Growing up in Oakmont as the youngest of four brothers, Dennis Persin often found himself in the backyard playing football and learned lessons that helped shape his life. Each of his brothers played college football, and Persin was determined to forge his own path in the sport. Persin, 71, was...
Seton Hill baseball a ‘perfect fit’ for Plum graduate Nick Stotler
Nick Stotler enjoyed playing baseball at Lock Haven, but when he graduated last year with a degree in business administration and the school didn’t offer an MBA program, he had to look elsewhere. Stotler, a Plum native, still had one year of eligibility remaining, so he started looking to see...
Freeport grad Matt Swartz carves out niche as catcher, shortstop at IUP
Catcher and shortstop aren’t typically positions where the same player is listed at the top of the depth chart, but Matt Swartz is not a typical player. When Swartz, a Freeport graduate, isn’t wearing the “tools of ignorance” and crouching behind home plate for IUP, he finds himself standing between...
Shorthanded Penn-Trafford track teams eye individual success
For the second year in a row the Penn-Trafford boys and girls track teams have small rosters, but that doesn’t mean there is a shortage of talent. Being low on numbers will make it tough to score enough points to win meets, but the Warriors have several athletes who plan...
Penn-Trafford boys volleyball aims for another section title
The Penn-Trafford boys volleyball team jumped right into the thick of an intense battle in its season opener Tuesday night, and that was exactly what Warriors coach Jim Schall wanted to see to get a better handle on his team. The Warriors battled back two deficits before losing 3-2 to...
Kiski Valley rugby gets boost from Buckheads transfers
Kiski Valley boys rugby coach Seth Erwin was already excited about the group he had returning from a team that was the state runner-up last year, and then he received some news in the offseason that made his roster even stronger. The Burrell Buckheads decided to suspend their team for...
New-look Deer Lakes boys volleyball team looks to maintain high standard of success
Deer Lakes boys volleyball coach Brady Schuller said he had a couple of curveballs thrown his way last year with some injuries to key players in a season that ended one win short of a second consecutive PIAA playoff berth. This year the metaphorical pitch is more like a changeup....
La Salle takes down North Allegheny in Class AAA Pennsylvania Cup championship
North Allegheny rolled into the second intermission break on the back of two late goals that got the Tigers tied with La Salle and looked to continue the momentum when they received a power play early in the third. That’s when a series of unfortunate events happened. The Tigers had...
Freeport’s Brown follows in mother’s footsteps with selection to Cager Classic
Jalen Brown paused a moment before describing the impact his mother, Eve VanDyke, has had on his life and his basketball career. “She’s meant everything to me,” he said. “She’s been there for me through the good times and all the bad times.” VanDyke has never missed one of Brown’s...
Freshmen, sophomores to make quick impact for Springdale softball team
Springdale softball coach Anthony Pototo pointed to a few factors that went against his team last season: poor weather, a lack of pitching depth and a young team. Cancellations for poor weather led to playing section games three days in a row or having to resort to doubleheaders, and the...
Springdale baseball to lean on young lineup during rebuilding season
After each practice, Springdale baseball coach Brett Burger tells his team to “be better tomorrow than they were today.” Some players like Dynamos first baseman Garrett Apuzzo are taking a liking to that message. “That’s a good way to look at things,” Apuzzo said. “I mean if you focus on...
