With every starter back, Pine-Richland softball expects good chemistry, big season

By: Jerin Steele
Saturday, March 23, 2024 | 11:01 AM

Vibes are high for the Pine-Richland softball team and for good reason.

The entire starting lineup returns from last year’s team that made it to the WPIAL Class 6A semifinals.

Experience is always nice to have, but what really excites Rams coach Sam Hartzberg is how well everyone on the team gets along.

That togetherness helped the Rams navigate an up-and-down season before winning two of their last three section games against Canon-McMillan and Mt. Lebanon to get into the playoffs, where they upset North Allegheny in the first round.

“The team chemistry is great,” Hartzberg said. “It’s a great group of girls. Last year, a lot of teams would’ve folded under the pressure, because we really struggled at times, but these kids just stuck together and never got down on themselves. We just tried to get better every single week and you can’t ask for more than that.”

Seniors Isabella Sulesky (pitcher/infield), Marissa DeLuca (shortstop), Jocelyn Langer (outfield), Mackenzie Gillis (third base), juniors Calle Henne (catcher), Iliana Aggelou (second base), Maddy Myers (outfield), Delaney Jameson (first base) and sophomores Serafina Julio (outfielder) and Abbey Laurent (outfielder) are the returning starters.

Sulesky is a Susquehanna recruit. Gillis is headed to Mercyhurst. Langer is signed to Millersville and Henne is a Pitt commit as a junior.

Henne and Gillis are the team captains.

“They’re all hard workers,” Hartzberg said. “They all deserve what they are getting with their college commitments.”

The offense led the way for the Rams last season. They scored 113 runs, which ranked third in Class 6A.

An area they want to improve upon is their defense. Errors extended innings and led to unearned runs.

“Our Achilles’ heel last year was errors,” Hartzberg said. “When we talk about team goals, that’s at the top of the list. We want to cut those errors way down because when we did play a clean game last year, we were successful. That North Allegheny playoff game last year, we did not have an error and we ended up winning 5-1. The bats were there and so was the pitching. It all came together.”

One of the unique traits of WPIAL Class 6A softball is that there’s only one section. That’s due to the number of teams, which is nine. Along with Pine-Richland, the others are defending champ Hempfield, Seneca Valley, Norwin, North Allegheny, Canon-McMillan, Mt. Lebanon, Baldwin and Butler.

That means each team will play 16 section games. The top six teams qualify for the playoffs.

Pine-Richland was fifth in the standings last season.

Seneca Valley returns Clemson commit Lexie Hames, who was 17-2 with a 0.45 ERA a year ago. Hempfield also returns an ace pitcher in Kent State recruit Riley Miller as well as three other Division I recruits.

“(Hames) is a very good player,” Hartzberg said. “We saw her three times last year, and the girl from Hempfield is very good too. It’s a good section with a lot of good pitching. I know Butler has a very good pitcher, who from what I understand, had a great summer. There’s good pitching all over the place. That’s the way it is in 6A.”

Jerin Steele is a freelance writer

Tags: Pine-Richland