Plum notebook: Softball team grabs final berth, earns trip to Class 5A playoffs

By: Michael Love
Sunday, May 15, 2022 | 11:01 AM

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It has been an up and down season for the Plum softball team, but last Tuesday against Penn Hills, the Mustangs were able to enjoy a victory which clinched a spot in the WPIAL Class 5A playoffs.

Plum controlled its own destiny for the fourth and final spot from Section 1. The Mustangs also eyed up a measure of revenge on their neighborhood rivals after an 18-8 loss to the Indians from April 13.

It was a different story in the rematch as the Penn Hills bats were quelled by the pitching of Makenzie Lang and zero errors from the defense behind her.

In her best outing of the season, Lang surrendered just four hits and walked none while striking out eight.

She got all the support she would need as the Plum bats delivered two runs in the top of the first. The Mustangs added some insurance with two runs in the third and single runs in the fifth and sixth innings.

Plum collected 12 hits on the day with Taylor Lorish delivering the biggest impact. She went 3 for 4 with two RBI.

Jaralyn Kincaid, Dani Pici and Ashley Polakovic each recorded a pair of hits. Kincaid and Polakovic both doubled in the win.

Pici, a freshman, drove in a run, giving her a team-best 18 RBI on the season.

Plum finished the regular season 6-11, and it went 5-7 (fourth) in section play. The Mustangs were to find out their WPIAL-playoff fate last Thursday, past the deadline for this week’s edition.

Penn Hills finished 4-8 in the section, one game behind Plum, and two of the losses were forfeits to Kiski Area as Penn Hills spring teams refused to play the Cavaliers in any sport in the wake of racial taunts allegedly made by fans during a middle school volleyball game in early March.

Baseball

The Plum baseball team again is in familiar territory as a playoff team in Class 5A.

The Mustangs finished 8-4 in Section 2 and entered the playoffs 12-6 overall.

Plum was no stranger to competitive and close baseball this season, especially in the section where seven of the 12 games were decided by one run.

The Mustangs were 3-4 in those games with wins over Penn Hills, 1-0, Hampton, 2-1, and Fox Chapel, 1-0.

Plum finished one game behind Hampton (9-3) and one game ahead of Fox Chapel (7-5).

The 1-0 home win against Fox Chapel on May 9 went into extra innings.

Plum pitchers Justin Giarusso and Colin Watson combined to limit the Foxes to one hit, and the defense didn’t commit an error.

Giarusso worked seven complete and gave up the hit while walking three and striking out four over 86 pitches.

Watson came on in the eighth and picked up the win with a walk and a strikeout.

The Plum offense was stymied as well, collecting just three hits – singles from Silvio Ionadi, Colin Solinski and Nick Lamia.

Ionadi was hit by a pitch to lead off the bottom of the eighth and was sacrificed to second on a bunt by Brady Dojonovic before advancing to third on a passed ball.

With two outs, Solinski delivered a single to center to score Ionadi with the game winner.

Boys Volleyball

The Plum boys volleyball team hoped to play spoiler and prevent visiting Gateway from finishing its Section 2-2A slate undefeated as the teams met in the section finale at Plum on May 10.

But the Gators, No. 6 in the final Western PA Volleyball Coaches Association Class 2A top-10 poll, had other ideas. They won games one, three and four en route to a 3-1 victory.

Plum, which honored its five seniors – Nick Capalongo, Nick Killinger, Cameron Moss, Thomas Marzina and Rocco Schneiderlochner – before the match, capped its section schedule at 5-3.

“We showed improvement,” Plum coach Fisher Bagiatis said after the match with the Gators (8-0).

“It was the first time we played a team of that caliber in a while, so we got to really see how we sized up. Offensively, we matched up great. Defensively, we were a little limited.”

Plum swept Deer Lakes and Mars and split its season series with Derry.

The WPIAL boys volleyball playoff pairings were to be released last Friday with first-round match as early as Monday, past the deadline for this week’s edition.

Last year, Plum, as the No. 9 seed, outlasted No. 8 Trinity, 3-2, in the first round before falling, 3-0, to top seed Seton La Salle, the eventual WPIAL champion.

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.

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