Welsh’s homer gives Chartiers Valley win over Fox Chapel, 3rd place in 5A softball

By: George Guido
Thursday, May 27, 2021 | 8:13 PM

Chartiers Valley coach Chris Lloyd decided to drop Gianna Welsh a little lower in the batting order.

The move paid off as Welsh blasted a two-run homer in the fourth inning and that was all the Colts needed as Chartiers Valley edged Fox Chapel, 2-1, in a WPIAL Class 5A consolation game at Mars.

Both teams had already qualified for the PIAA tournament, so Thursday’s contest was for bracket positioning.

The Colts (14-8) will start the state tournament against the winner of a play-in round between Districts 6, 8 and 9 on June 7. Fox Chapel (13-8) will face the WPIAL champion – either Armstrong or North Hills – that same day.

“Gia’s usually our clean-up hitter but I dropped her to sixth, and she came up big,” Lloyd said. “She’s been struggling a bit. We’ve been working with her, and it was great to see her get out of her slump.”

Fox Chapel nearly came back in the top of the seventh.

Neena Pietropaolo led off with a walk and Amelia Herzer followed with a sharp single to deep right as Pietropaolo took third and came toward home as the overthrow headed to the fence near the Fox Chapel dugout. A perfect throw home by Marta Gualazzi nailed Pietropaolo at the plate.

Hunter Taylor then hit a sacrifice fly to left to score Herzer, but Colts pitcher Jenna Boneysteele struck out Brynn Palmer to end the game.

“I sent her and it was my bad,” said Foxes coach Chris Olbrich. “I got a little caught up trying to push the envelope, but I shouldn’t have done it. It was a good play and she was barely out, but I should have left her at third.”

Boneysteele, a Waynesburg recruit, struck out 10 Fox Chapel batters and allowed just three hits. She retired 11 straight Foxes in one stretch. Palmer doubled to open the fifth. But on a throwback from catcher Welsh to the rubber after a pitch, Boneysteele turned around and fired a strike to second baseman Rylee Prosperi, who caught Palmer leaning too far off the bag.

“Jenna’s our leader. She dominates the circle every game,” Lloyd said. “I can’t ask anything more from her.”

Foxes junior Mackenzie Borkovich scattered eight hits and avoided earlier damage when Madison Crump led off the third with a single and Prosperi followed with a infield single. Crump tried to take third, however, and was tagged out by Borkovich.

After Welsh’s homer, Borkovich retired the next eight hitters to keep the Foxes in the game.

Said Olbrich of Borkovich’s performance: “Just that one darn pitch, sometimes that’s all it takes. Otherwise, she was good, as usual.”

Tuesday proved to be the first semifinal appearance in Fox Chapel softball history and Thursday’s consolation game was also a first. Now, the Foxes will play in the PIAA tourney for the first time. Olbrich will give the Foxes a few days off.

“We’ve never been in this situation before. I don’t know if it’s good or bad, but we’ll give them some time off and get their heads back together,” the coach said. “We’ll have a whole week of practice before we have to play.”

It’s been a bounce-back season for both teams. Chartiers Valley was a combined 7-23 in 2018 and ’19 while Fox Chapel was 9-24.

Tags: Fox Chapel