Other Local category, Page 68
Former Pirate Neil Walker receives American Legion Graduate of the Year award
Just like many high school players in the Pittsburgh area, Pine-Richland alum and former Pittsburgh Pirate Neil Walker played American Legion baseball. But not every player has received the highest honor American Legion baseball has to offer. In the middle of May, Walker was named the 2019 American Legion Graduate...
Planet Fitness makes $2,500 donation to Educated Athletes First
Nonprofit business ventures — in athletics or otherwise — need pillars of support to maintain stability. A local one is growing as a result of donations. Educated Athletes First, the informative start-up endeavor run by former Jeannette star athlete and current Cincinnati Bengals safety Demetrious Cox and his father, Dorsey,...
Franklin Regional grad Palmer Jackson captures C.R. Miller Match Play title
Palmer Jackson captured the 46th C.R. Miller Match Play Invitational title Tuesday by breezing to victories in the semifinals and finals. The Franklin Regional graduate and Notre Dame recruit defeated Riverside’s Skyler Fox, 6 & 5, in the semifinals, and then rolled to a 7 & 6 win against Elizabeth...
Bushy Run blanks Kiski Valley in Game 1 of District 31 Legion playoffs
During the beginning stages of a first-round game with Bushy Run on Tuesday, the Kiski Valley Legion baseball team seemed like it had everything under control. But Bushy Run (14-4), which has the third-highest run total in District 31, was able to produce six runs between the fourth and sixth...
Former Latrobe standout Austin Butler back to work after surgery
The ball went through the basket — swish — and a smile curled up on the shooter’s face. Yes, this is the stuff. How I’ve missed you, old friend. Austin Butler was out of basketball for the last three months as he recovered from shoulder surgery. But the former Latrobe...
Deer Lakes, West Point to play for District 26 10U baseball title
West Point 10U Little League All-Stars will face Deer Lakes at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Apollo for the District 26 baseball championship. The teams met in pool play, with Deer Lakes defeating West Point, 7-4. West Point is 4-2 in the tournament. West Point advanced by defeating West Shamokin, 17-3,...
West Point 12U claims District 26 baseball title
Sean Walker drove in three runs and had three hits, including two doubles, to help lead the West Point 12-year-old all-star baseball team to a 9-0 victory against Kess in the District 26 championship game. Dylan Firmstone, who pitched 51/3 innings, and Anthony Scarton blanked Kess on only four hits....
Unity blanks Young Township to open District 31 Legion playoffs
Unity held serve in the opener of the District 31 American Legion baseball playoffs. The No. 3 seed Bulldogs jumped ahead early and went on to defeat Young Township, 14-0, on Monday at Whitney Field in Unity Township. The game was halted after five innings because of the 12-run mercy...
Maddy Grimm having MVP-type season for moh-BEEL! USA softball team
Maddy Grimm set a long list of records at Kent State. She earned Tribune-Review Athlete of the Year honors while at Ligonier Valley. She played professional softball for a season in Akron, Ohio, and spent the past year as a volunteer assistant at Pitt. The sport has provided Grimm with...
Norwin grad John Stevens among Thiel hall of fame class
John Stevens helped lead Norwin to an undefeated wrestling season in 1959. That team featured seven Westmoreland County champions. It can now say it features a Thiel College hall of famer. Stevens will be one of a half-dozen inductees going into the Thiel Athletics Hall of Fame during a ceremony...
Pittsburgh boxers take center stage at Carnegie Music Hall this weekend
On Saturday, six boxers who are based out of the Pittsburgh area will take center stage at the Carnegie Music Hall of Homestead. Among them are Ukrainian-born boxers Lyubomyr Pinchuk and Oleg Dovhun. Both will fight for title belts in their respective weight classes. Pinchuk (10-1-1) will take on Johnnie...
Peters Township’s Alison Riske ousts top-seeded Ash Barty at Wimbledon
Alison Riske has a new “biggest win of her career.” The Peters Township native defeated top-seeded and world No. 1 Ash Barty, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, in a fourth-round match at Wimbledon, propelling her to the quarterfinals of a major for the first time in her career. Riske didn’t overpower Barty,...
Hempfield East wins District 31 regular season, eyes playoff run
As Hempfield East manager Scott Smith sees it, a new season starts Monday. Smith and his team hopes the new season is a repeat performance of 2018. That’s when Hempfield East won the District 31 American legion title, the Region 7 tournament and played in the state tournament for only...
Legion teams prep for playoffs after condensed regular season
Weather issues and other scheduling variables over the past month-and-a-half altered the original District 31 American Legion game plan, and that made for a compacted stretch run to the playoffs. Teams playing two games in one day on the weekend was commonplace. Kiski Valley and Young Township concluded the regular...
Legion baseball teams adapting to athletes and their busy summers
Since 1925, American Legion baseball has been a staple in small communities all across the country. In Western Pennsylvania alone, 34 teams currently play in two different regions, and over the course of the next few weeks a majority of those teams will compete for spots in regional and state...
Fox Chapel golfers turn in solid performances at WPGA Amateur
The Fox Chapel golf program has been known to produce talented golfers, and over the past week a few of them got to test themselves at Oakmont Country Club for the Western Pennsylvania Golf Association Amateur Championship. Michael Marisco (2016 grad), Andrew Friend (’18), Gregor Meyer (’19) and Scott Bitar...
John Hughes, Roberta Groner capture titles at annual Brentwood Firecracker 5K
Two things that can be counted on to take place on the morning of the Fourth of July holiday are: 1) the Brentwood Firecracker 5K Run and 2) that it will be hot and humid. It was more of the same in 2019 at the 5K race Thursday that annually...
Pine-Richland’s Caroline Vidic helps club soccer team reach nationals
For the third consecutive season, the Northern Steel Soccer Club’s 2004 Girls Fire team won the Great Lakes Alliance league championship, clinching an automatic berth for the National Premier Leagues Finals from July 11-15 in Commerce City, Colo. The 2004 Girls Fire is composed of local players 15 and under....
Plum Junior Legion confident entering playoffs
Plum’s Junior Legion baseball team prepped for the playoffs in fine fashion. The Junior Mustangs blanked Riverview, 16-0, and Lower Burrell, 9-0, last week to end the Westmoreland County Youth Legion regular season with a 14-2 record. Plum and Monroeville finished with identical records atop the North Division, but Monroeville...
Monroeville Junior Legion chasing league championship
The Monroeville Junior Legion baseball program hopes to end the summer season batting .500. Monroeville won its first Westmoreland County Youth Legion championship last year in the program’s third year of existence. Another title this summer will make it two in four years. “It was a highly successful season, and...
JJ Matijevic returns to baseball, says he learned lesson during suspension
Humbled and motivated by mistakes, slugger JJ Matijevic is back in the swing of things. Matijevic, a minor leaguer with the Houston Astros, recently returned from a 50-game suspension for violating league rules pertaining to the use of banned drugs. The former Norwin and Arizona star twice failed a test...
Yough Legion surging toward district playoffs
The 18-game District 31 Legion baseball season is coming to a dramatic conclusion this week … weather permitting. And like nearly every other season, the seeding for the postseason bracket will be determined in the last few regular-season games. “There’s a lot of parity in the league,” said Yough Legion...
U.S. Senior Open experience memorable for Oakmont’s Sean Knapp
Sean Knapp missed the cut at last weekend’s U.S. Senior Open at Notre Dame’s Warren Gold Course in South Bend, Ind. While the ending to his second straight appearance in the tournament and fourth overall wasn’t what he hoped for, the opportunity again to share the course with the world’s...
Connor Schmidt captures WPGA Amateur at Oakmont
Connor Schmidt got his revenge at Oakmont Country Club on Wednesday but needed some help to do so. A year ago, Schmidt lost a five-hole playoff to Tyrone pro Jimmy Gillam at the Western Pennsylvania Golf Association’s Open Championship at Oakmont. Schmidt, 21, played three solid rounds at the 119th...
Steady Jackson has 2-shot lead at WPGA Amateur Championship
If Palmer Jackson wants to capture the 119th Western Pennsylvania Golf Association’s Amateur Championship on Wednesday, he knows he has to play better than his first two rounds. The Murrysville native and future Notre Dame golfer shot a 1-under-par 70 on Tuesday at Oakmont Country Club and is even through...
