Franklin Regional notebook: Aidan Fisch named Gold Standard Teammate at Pitt

By: Bill Beckner Jr.
Saturday, April 16, 2022 | 10:01 AM

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Pitt doesn’t just like Fisch on Fridays.

Franklin Regional alum Aidan Fisch was honored at a Pitt postseason awards ceremony as the recipient of the men’s basketball Gold Standard Teammate of the Year.

The award goes to “the student-athlete from each team who most effectively inspired his or her team through exemplary commitment, composure and integrity.”

Fisch, a team manager who walked on and made the team in 2020, became one of hardest working and well-liked players on the Panthers roster.

Pitt presented a Gold Standard award to a worthy athlete in 19 sports.

A 6-foot-5, 185-pound senior forward, Fisch played limited minutes in six games over the past two seasons.

Panthers split opener

Coaches and players seem to like the WPIAL’s home-and-home, two-game series that occur on back-to-back days.

Especially the teams that bounce back after a loss in Game 1.

Franklin Regional and Penn-Trafford split their Section 1-5A opening series, with Franklin Regional rebounding from a 4-3 loss with a 5-0 win.

“The kids are excited to play on consecutive days,” Franklin Regional coach Bobby Saddler said. “It’s fun when you play a nearby team like that. It gives you a chance to put a loss behind quickly and move on.”

Teams can erase the bad taste of a loss without having to wait days or weeks for a rematch. The WPIAL went to the two-day series to cut back on one-pitcher domination and promote team depth.

And the splits make things very interesting in the standings as coaches play chess with their pitchers.

Softball surges

Franklin Regional softball had the most wins (7) in the WPIAL through three weeks of a start-and-stop season.

The Panthers were 7-1 overall and 3-1 in Section 1-5A as they waited for fields to dry out.

Tennis on a roll

Aaron Allen, Adi Arkalgud and Josh Selvakumar won singles matches, and the Panthers swept doubles in straight sets in a 5-0 win over Penn-Trafford earlier this month.

Allen won a pair of matches before falling to North Allegheny’s Trey Davidson in the semifinals of the WPIAL tournament last week.

Yaniga on the run

Point Park junior Jordan Yaniga, a Franklin Regional grad, was named the River States Conference Women’s Track Athlete of the Week. Yaniga took second place in the 400-meter run (61.88 seconds) and sixth in the 200 (27.39) at the Westminster Invitational.

She also plays basketball for the Pioneers.

Pitch and catch

Point Park junior Angalee Beall had a 7-5 record and an ERA of 4.80 in 13 appearances inside the circle this season. That includes five complete games and a save.

Beall also hits for the Pioneers. She was batting .230 with 14 hits, five doubles, 11 RBIs and five runs.

Bill Beckner Jr. is a TribLive reporter covering local sports in Westmoreland County. He can be reached at bbeckner@triblive.com.

Tags: Franklin Regional