Michael Love stories, Page 133

The Penn-Trafford baseball team is one win away from its first WPIAL championship. The top-seeded Warriors broke open a tie game with four runs in the fifth inning and added two more in the sixth en route to a 7-2 win over No. 4 North Allegheny on Wednesday in a...

The Freeport and Steel Valley baseball teams split their regular-season series in Section 1. The Yellowjackets and Ironmen met in the rubber match Wednesday with a trip to the WPIAL Class 3A championship game on the line. Steel Valley rallied from an early three-run deficit with five runs in the...

The Quaker Valley boys lacrosse team saw its run to a WPIAL Class AA title cut short Monday evening with a 9-6 semifinal loss to No. 2 Hampton. But the Quakers, who came into the tournament as the No. 3 seed, are not done with their season. In fact, QV...

The Burrell softball team won its final 12 games of the regular season, captured the Section 1-3A championship and earned the No. 3 seed for the WPIAL playoffs. However, none of that mattered to Keystone Oaks on Monday in a WPIAL Class 3A quarterfinal matchup at Hampton Community Park. The...

Several WPIAL track and field champions are top seeds for the two-day PIAA championship meet Friday and Saturday at Shippensburg. The PIAA released the performance lists to its website, and Shady Side Academy’s Melissa Riggins owns the top seed for the girls Class AA 800-meter and 1,600 runs. Joining Riggins...

Kyah Russell was a standout on the tennis court for the Gateway girls team, and her dedication to the sport was matched by her dedication to academics. She will attend the University of Pittsburgh to pursue a nursing degree. Russell joins Penn-Trafford’s Tyler Horvat, Franklin Regional’s Mason Fishell and East...

Shelly Jones said she was happy with her performance at Thursday’s WPIAL Class AA championship finals at Slippery Rock. The Gateway senior, who had been dealing with an ankle sprain leading up the to meet, earned her best-ever WPIAL finish with a throw of 39 feet, 1 inch in the...

Hunter Linhart will return to the place he recorded a career-best in the discus. The Plum senior had a top toss of 147 feet, 7 inches at last year’s PIAA Class AAA championship meet at Shippensburg. He placed 10th. Now, Linhart, the newly minted WPIAL discus champion — he bested...

CJ Singleton made history in the fall as he became the first St. Joseph athlete to compete at the WPIAL and PIAA cross country championships. The freshman distance runner capped his first cross country campaign with a 20th-place finish in the Class A boys race at Hershey. Singleton added another...

The Quaker Valley boys tennis team continues its quest for a state championship Friday as it takes on District 3 runner-up Pequea Valley in the quarterfinals at 12:30 p.m. at the Hershey Racquet Club. The Quakers made quick work of District 6 champion Juniata in a 5-0 first-round victory Tuesday,...

Deer Lakes senior Josh Yourish already had won a trio of silver medals at WPIAL meets. One of those silvers came in the 1,600-meter run during Thursday’s WPIAL Class AA championships at Slippery Rock. But gold was what Yourish craved, and gold is what he got in the 800. Seeded...

Members of the Quaker Valley and Sewickley Academy track and field teams take part in the WPIAL Class AA championships Thursday at Slippery Rock University. The top five finishers in each event automatically qualify for the PIAA championships May 24 and 25 at Shippensburg University. Also, those in the top...

The Frazier softball team has played in the past two WPIAL Class 2A championship games, and it hopes to make it three straight in a couple of weeks. The Commodores, the WPIAL champions in 2017 and last year’s runner-up, got off to a good start toward that goal Wednesday as...

The Quaker Valley baseball team begins its playoff journey Wednesday afternoon at Seneca Valley High School against South Park in the first round of the WPIAL 4A tournament. It is one of the earliest starts with first pitch at 2 p.m. The Quakers picked up the No. 10 seed after...

Every year at this time, members of the Burrell girls 400-meter relay are focused on getting to the top of the podium at the WPIAL Class AA track and field championships. It has happened 11 times before, including the past four years and five out of the last six. Seeded...

The WPIAL runner-up Quaker Valley boys tennis team begins play in the PIAA Class AA tournament Tuesday at noon against District 6 champion Juniata. It is the Quakers’ third trip to states in the past four seasons. In 2016, QV finished as the No. 3 team from the WPIAL and...

The WPIAL boys volleyball playoff brackets were revealed Monday morning, and the first-round matches are set for Tuesday. In advance of the playoff announcement, the Western Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association released its final Class AAA and AA rankings for the 2019 season. All season, the 39 WPIAL coaches voted for...

North Allegheny and Derry are the top seeds for the WPIAL Class AAA and AA boys volleyball playoff tournaments. The WPIAL released the brackets Monday morning. Joining the Tigers as the top seeds in Class AAA are No. 2 Bethel Park, No. 3 Shaler and No. 4 Latrobe. Only the...

The WPIAL Class AA girls lacrosse playoff tournament begins Monday, and Quaker Valley, the No. 2 seed, has a bye to the quarterfinals. The Quakers host their first playoff contest Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. They will face the winner of Monday’s match between No. 7 Franklin Regional and No. 10...

The Gateway boys lacrosse team achieved another first in its seventh season as a full member of the WPIAL. The Gators, who finished third in Section 1, were awarded the No. 7 seed for the Class AA playoff tournament and host a postseason game for the first time. They were...

The Gateway baseball team went 9-3 in Section 1-5A to secure the program’s fourth consecutive trip to the WPIAL playoffs. Gators coach Mark Wardzinski said he was proud of his players for staying the course through a plethora of close and competitive games. “The guys finished the (regular) season with...

Logan Parker knows Slippery Rock well. The Plum sophomore and team leader in the shot put, threw at a camp there last summer. He returned to the campus April 20 for the Rock Relays and threw a career-best 51 feet, 5½ inches. “At the beginning of the meet, I felt...

The Sewickley Academy softball team will discover its playoff fate Thursday when the WPIAL releases the playoff brackets for all six classifications. The Panthers finished second in Section 1-1A with an 8-2 record. Their only two losses came at the hands of section champion Union (10-0). Bishop Canevin (6-4) finished...

The first time the Deer Lakes and Freeport baseball teams played this season, the Lancers earned a low-scoring, one-run victory. Wednesday’s rematch at Freeport Community Park, with the Section 1-3A title on the line, was expected to be that same type of game, and it turned out that way as...

It was a successful dual-meet season for the Riverview track and field teams. The Raiders boys and girls captured section championships with undefeated records. It was the boys team’s second section crown in a row, and the girls won a section title for the first time. Both teams fell short...