High School category, Page 47

Four-time WPIAL champion boys basketball coach Nick Lackovich is out at Aliquippa after all. In the conclusion of a three-week saga, the Aliquippa school board voted 5-4 on Wednesday night not to renew the contract of Lackovich, who also led the Quips to a pair of PIAA championships. On May...

This will be the eighth season the PIAA has hosted a Class 5A baseball championship. Four of the previous seven winners were from the WPIAL. Latrobe was the first champion crowned in 2017. Bethel Park won back-to-back state gold in 2021-2022 and Shaler won the 5A title two years ago...

The PIAA has been deciding a champion in Class 3A baseball for nearly a half-century. The first 3A baseball state champion was Hatboro-Horsham from District 1 in 1977. The second winner in 1978 was Penn Hills from the WPIAL. There have been 14 Class 3A state champs from the WPIAL...

The first PIAA Class 2A softball champion was crowned 46 years ago when Minersville from District 11 won the 1979 championship. The first WPIAL team to win a 2A softball state title was 10 years later when Sto-Rox captured the 1989 crown. Five years later, Central Columbia became the first...

There have been 25 PIAA Class A baseball champions crowned since Camp Hill from District 3 won the inaugural classification championship in 1999. Since then, there have been five state Class A champions from the WPIAL, including Vincentian Academy twice (2016 and 2018), Serra Catholic (2011), Neshannock (2004) and Greensburg...

If you hit, you play. That is Denny Little’s mantra for the Penn-Trafford softball team, and the ninth-year coach has an abundance of talented hitters to pencil onto his lineup card. “You take your nine best hitters, and you find a place for them,” Little said, not giving away any...

Rising sophomore quarterback Anthony Smith is leaving Southmoreland after a record-breaking first season. Smith, who became the second freshman in WPIAL history to pass for more than 2,000 yards last fall, has enrolled at Seton LaSalle. He was with the Rebels on Wednesday for a 7-on-7 workout at Woodland Hills....

Last year, WPIAL teams were shut out of the PIAA baseball gold rush. District 7 had two teams win state crowns in each of the previous three years. Buckle up, as five WPIAL teams — including four of district champions — are trying to capture gold this week at Penn...

The 2025 WPIAL softball championship games are set for Thursday and Friday at Nittany Lion Softball Park at Penn State University. Only one defending champion is back in an effort to repeat, and is part of the only title game rematch from 2024. Undefeated Neshannock looks to not only repeat,...

Two WPIAL boys volleyball champions reached the PIAA semifinals, but only one is moving on to play for state gold. North Allegheny knocked out Central York in four games to reach the PIAA Class 3A title match for the first time in three years. Meanwhile Shaler’s two-year run of playing...

High schools Baseball PIAA tournament Class 6A Championship Friday’s schedule North Penn (22-5) vs. Cedar Cliff (20-6) at Penn State, 4:30 p.m. Class 5A Championship Thursday’s schedule Upper Dublin (17-5) vs. Shaler (20-6) at Penn State, 4:30 p.m. Class 4A Semifinals Tuesday’s result Indiana 6, East Pennsboro 5 Championship Friday’s...

Seneca Valley star pitcher Lexie Hames was named the Gatorade Pennsylvania Softball Player of the Year for the second straight season. Hames, a Clemson commit, led the Raiders to a WPIAL 6A runner-up finish, their fourth consecutive finals appearance. The two-time WPIAL champion went 17-3 with a 0.49 ERA, a...

Penn-Trafford senior softball players Kylie Anthony and Cam Ponko have made tweaks to their swings this season. Anthony has embraced “sighting,” a timing approach that she and her teammates learned from former Warriors standout Emma Little. Ponko is focused more on “slugging,” which also shortens the swing and gets the...

SHIPPENSBURG — Hempfield suffered a heartbreaking end to its highly successful season in the PIAA Class 6A softball semifinals Tuesday. Down to their last strike in the top of the seventh, the Nazareth Blue Eagles put together a dramatic six-run rally to pull out a 6-4 decision. Nazareth will play...

When Riverside defeated South Park 1-0 in 12 innings in the WPIAL Class 3A semifinals, the Eagles hoped for another opportunity to face the Panthers in the PIAA playoffs, while Riverside expected the possibility of another game between the two teams. Opportunity and possibility became reality Tuesday afternoon at Seneca...

Indiana won the longest baseball game in PIAA playoff history Tuesday, scoring the decisive run on a walk-off walk by Caden Force in the bottom of the 17th inning of a 6-5 victory over East Pennsboro in the PIAA Class 4A semifinals. The game was suspended tied 5-5 after 13...

High schools Baseball PIAA tournament Class 6A Semifinals Monday’s results North Penn 1, Neshaminy 0 Cedar Cliff 3, Bethlehem Liberty 2 Championship Friday’s schedule North Penn (22-5) vs. Cedar Cliff (20-6) at Penn State, 4:30 p.m. Class 5A Semifinals Monday’s results Upper Dublin 1, Elizabethtown 0 Shaler 2, Lampeter-Strasburg 0...

Prior to this spring, the Shady Side Academy boys lacrosse program had reached the PIAA quarterfinals three times. The Bulldogs lost all three — by one goal, one goal and three goals. However, the program made history Saturday when it stunned District 3 champion Manheim Township to win and advance...

In the 2012 PIAA boys volleyball championships, Chambersburg defeated Pennridge in the Class 3A finals and Bethlehem Catholic knocked off York Suburban in the 2A title match. That was the last year the PIAA boys volleyball finals were contested without a WPIAL representative. Heading into the 2025 PIAA boys volleyball...

Freedom came into the WPIAL Class 2A baseball playoffs as a No. 8 seed. Four weeks and eight wins later, the Bulldogs will be playing for a state title. Boden Hilliard threw a three-hit shutout with 10 strikeouts and one walk to lead Freedom to a 2-0 victory over District...

From 2011-2022, the North Allegheny boys volleyball program reached the PIAA championship match in every season but three. The Tigers did not qualify for the 2012, 2015 and 2016 Class 3A state finals. The Tigers also missed out the last two years but are one victory away from returning to...

Penn-Trafford softball coach Denny Little was under the weather Sunday night and was not sure he would be able to make his team’s PIAA Class 5A semifinal against West Allegheny on Monday. The perfect prescription was an all-around solid effort by the Warriors that left the Indians feeling ill. Penn-Trafford...

CRESSON — Colby Weber and the Shaler baseball team are headed to another state championship game — their second in three seasons. Two years after winning a Class 5A title, the WPIAL champs, behind Weber’s three-hitter with nine strikeouts and no walks, earned another trip to Penn State by ousting...

A showdown between WPIAL Class 3A baseball powers and the next game for the WPIAL Class 6A softball champs will have to wait a day. Two PIAA playoff games were postponed Monday due to ominous weather forecasts and/or field conditions worsened by recent rains. The Class 3A baseball semifinal between...

High schools Baseball PIAA tournament Semifinals Monday’s schedule Class 6A Neshaminy (16-7) vs. North Penn (21-5) at Villanova Ballpark, 3 p.m.; Cedar Cliff (19-6) vs. Bethlehem Liberty (22-6) at Wenger Field, Fredericksburg, 4:30 p.m. Class 5A Upper Dublin (16-5) vs. Elizabethtown (16-9) at Muhlenberg, 11 a.m.; Shaler (19-6) vs. Lampeter-Strasburg...