High School category, Page 225

On Wednesday, Seton LaSalle played a complete game in all facets and blanked Serra Catholic to win a second straight WPIAL Class 2A baseball championship. A day earlier, Moniteau lost a heartbreaker in the District 9 2A title game, falling to Redbank Valley in nine innings. Less than a week...

North Allegheny coach Andrew Heck could’ve blamed his team’s state playoff loss on the dreaded WPIAL hangover, but instead credited the craftiness of a left-hander who threw a one-hitter. Wilson pitcher Matt VanOstenbridge needed only 84 pitches to finish off an efficient 2-0 win over host North Allegheny in the...

Maybe Penn-Trafford expected a slow start in the PIAA baseball playoffs. A shaky defense that allowed two unearned runs gave that impression early in Monday’s game. But that didn’t keep the WPIAL champion Warriors from winning their state tournament opener. You can keep your WPIAL hangovers. There is only one...

SIDMAN — Ligonier Valley’s players and coaches retreated to their dugout after quietly being retired in order in the seventh inning Monday by Forest Hills right-hander Avery Smiach. There was little to say. The Rams’ season was finished following a 3-2 loss to the District 6 champion Rangers in a...

Calise Czekanski brings a boombox to the field so she and her Armstrong softball teammates can listen to music and get pumped up before every game. “They love their music, and they love it loud,” Armstrong coach Keith Shaffer said. “I know sometimes it irritates opponents, but our girls certainly...

HOLLIDAYSBURG — Missed opportunities by one team and timely hitting by the other was the difference in a PIAA Class 5A first-round baseball game Monday. Franklin Regional, the WPIAL third-place team, didn’t take advantage of a couple of scoring opportunities and ended up dropping a 4-2 decision to District 6...

The Burrell baseball team went down swinging in the seventh inning of Monday’s PIAA Class 3A first-round game against District 10 champion Fairview at Mercyhurst. Down by seven, the Bucs tallied three runs on three hits in the final inning off of Tigers reliever Aari Fox and had two runners...

The track and field season recently came to a close, with the PIAA championships concluding May 25. Latrobe sprinter Jacob Pittman’s season did not end in a state medal, but the Wildcats’ 400-meter relay he was a part of won WPIAL gold after coming into the competition seeded fourth. “We...

Highlands senior high jumper Kyan Chambers wants to leave high school knowing he’s made an impact. One way he’s left his mark is how he’s coached and given pointers to the other jumpers. “That’s Coach Kyan right there,” Highlands track and field coach Mike Foster said. “It’s not just our...

The district diamond playoffs are in the books as the curtain rises on the PIAA baseball and softball playoffs Monday. While the other five classifications sent either three or four WPIAL teams into the state baseball and softball playoffs, the biggest classification has the smallest amount of qualifiers. The Class...

All the gold has been handed out in the WPIAL spring sports postseason. Now the attention turns to the final two weeks of the school year with the start of the state playoffs this week on the TribLive High School Sports Network. Courtesy of the North Allegheny Sports Network and...

Current Burrell baseball players were 4 years old or younger when the program made its most recent trip to the PIAA playoffs. The year was 2010, and the Bucs, the WPIAL Class 2A runner-up to Beaver Falls, won a first-round contest at Slippery Rock over District 10 Sharpsville. Burrell returns...

PIAA softball playoffs Class 5A First round Penn-Trafford (15-6) at Central Mountain (14-5) 4:30 p.m. Monday Winner plays: Winner of Latrobe (11-12)/Armstrong (18-3) Thursday in quarterfinals (time, site TBD) Players to watch: Ella Mains, Penn-Trafford; Cora Myers, Central Mountain Extra bases: Penn-Trafford hits the road for the state tournament after...

Penn-Trafford senior catcher Mack Keenan remembers watching the team bus follow a fire truck escort back to Harrison City in 2019 after the Lady Warriors softball team won the PIAA championship. The town showed up to greet the state champs. Of course, Keenan was just an impressionable middle schooler then,...

The Penn-Trafford and Franklin Regional baseball teams have never won a PIAA title. One of them is hoping to break through this year. The PIAA Class 5A playoffs begin Monday, and both are looking for the same prize. The Warriors, who won their first WPIAL title by defeating Bethel Park...

PIAA baseball playoffs Class 5A First round Lower Dauphin (15-9) vs. Penn-Trafford (20-3) 4:30 p.m. Monday at Plum Winner plays: Winner of Franklin Regional (16-8)/Hollidaysburg (14-6) Thursday in quarterfinals Players to watch: Casey Westerberg, Lower Dauphin; Ian Temple, Penn-Trafford Extra bases: The Falcons defeated Palmyra, 3-2, in eight innings to...

Last year, Dino Nadarevic didn’t make the WPIAL championship meet as he was starting out throwing the shot put and discus in his first season with the Gateway track and field team. It’s been a whole new ballgame for Nadarevic this spring, and this season of firsts concluded May 24-25...

In a way, it was déjà vu for Gateway in the PIAA Class 3A doubles tournament at the Hershey Racquet Club. Last year, the Gators team of Zidaan Hassan and Adam Memije made it to the semifinals where the duo fell to the twin-brother combination of Aidan and Tyler Mahaffey...

One Quaker Valley relay team placed third at the PIAA Class 2A track and field championships; another secured seventh. The QV boys 3,200-meter relay team, consisting of juniors Clark LaLomia and Jackson Pethel, freshman Jonah Montagnese and sophomore River Capek, clicked for a time of 8:01.1 to take third place....

The Sewickley Academy boys tennis team had its season-long goal of a WPIAL playoff run firmly entrenched. Sewickley looked to make it two in a row in 2024 as the Panthers were the defending champions in Class 2A. Sewickley and Quaker Valley advanced to the WPIAL championship round off their...

Penn Hills senior hurdler Achan Green did what he needed to do. After attending the prom Thursday night, Green’s dad drove him to the PIAA Class 3A state track meet at Shippensburg University on the Friday before Memorial Day. While Green grabbed the last qualifying spot in the finals of...