North Allegheny notebook: NA baseball advances to WPIAL title game

By: Tribune-Review
Saturday, May 27, 2023 | 11:01 AM

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Andrew Hart and Anthony Varlotta each brought home a run as No. 2 North Allegheny bested No. 6 Butler, 5-2, in the WPIAL Class 6A semifinals May 23.

David Posey tossed seven innings and allowed two runs on four hits while striking out seven to send the Tigers (16-6) to the championship game against No. 5 Mt. Lebanon.

The game was scheduled for May 31 at Wild Things Park.

Lance Slater smashed a two-run home run and Mavrik Clement doubled for the Golden Tornado (13-9).

North Allegheny advanced to the quarterfinals with a 3-0 win over Norwin in the semifinals May 22. JD Costanzo gave up one hit and struck out nine in 5⅔ innings and Varlotta got the final four outs to earn the save for the Tigers.

Owen Schall doubled, Harron Lee had two hits, and Andrew Dougherty and Spencer Barnett drove in runs for the Tigers.

NA tennis falls in PIAA quarterfinals

North Allegheny’s run in the PIAA Class 3A boys tennis playoffs came to an end on May 19 with a 3-0 loss to Lower Merion in the quarterfinals at Hershey Racquet Club.

Shaun Fernando and Sri Thirumala lost singles matches, and the doubles team of Amit Bhandari and Utkarsh Tiwari lost in straight sets.

Evan Kaufman’s singles match and the doubles match featuring Matt Kampi and Adhav Ramadas did not finish.

North Allegheny, the WPIAL runner-up, finished the season with a 14-2 record.

Boys volleyball returns to WPIAL finals

North Allegheny’s boys volleyball team advanced to the WPIAL championship game for the sixth straight season with a 3-1 semifinal victory over Penn-Trafford on May 23, at Fox Chapel.

The Tigers, who won 16 of the past 19 Class 3A titles and have 22 WPIAL titles overall, were to face Shaler last Thursday.

The Tigers dominated the first two games against the Warriors, winning 25-12 and 25-19. Penn-Trafford avoided the sweep by winning Game 3, 25-21, but the Tigers took Game 4, 25-14.

North Allegheny used the strong play of senior hitter Jax Wilhite, who overpowered the Warriors with numerous kills. He also had help from junior Stone Gaertner and senior Varun Kaveti.

The first game was close until back-to-back kills by Wilhite ignited a five-point run that pushed the Tigers lead to 10-5. The lead eventually stretched out to 15-6 and a couple more kills by Wilhite.

“Jax has done that for us all season,” North Allegheny coach Dan Long said. “He’s a great competitor, and he’s our go-to guy. It’s no surprise that he showed up big for us. We have a lot of faith at what he can do at the net.

“We have a balanced team. It’s not a situation that we have just one stud guy. We have a lot of different guys who can contribute. We had a player on the court (Jeremiah Satcho) that played the entire match that hasn’t played much all season. But this was a match we needed his blocking against Penn-Trafford’s line guys.”

Wilhite had 23 kills, and Kaveti added five blocks.

• Six members of the Tigers boys volleyball team earned all-section honors in Section 2-3A.

Kaveti, Wilhite and junior setter Nicolas Carioto were named to the first-team. Gaertner and junior Will Hahn were second-team picks, and freshman outside hitter Will Robertson was selected to the third-team.

Boys lacrosse ousted in WPIAL quarterfinals

The North Allegheny boys lacrosse team dropped an 8-7 overtime decision against Upper St. Clair in the WPIAL Class 3A quarterfinals May 18.

Christian Tedder had four goals, Marc Bartolomucci scored twice, and Evan Lyon also scored for the Tigers.

Tedder scored with 27 seconds left in the fourth quarter to tie the score 7-7 and force overtime.

Upper St. Clair’s Dalton Yates scored the game-winner with 2:09 remaining.

North Allegheny finished the season 9-9.

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