After season to remember, Highlands softball team excited for encore

By: Michael Love
Wednesday, March 16, 2022 | 11:01 AM

Purchase Photo Options

The Highlands softball team now is the hunted.

After Golden Rams fashioned an 18-6-1 record and made a run to the WPIAL Class 4A championship game and PIAA semifinals last season, the returning players and a couple of newcomers to the lineup hope to hold off the challenges from within Section 1 and beyond.

With seven starters back, confidence and optimism are there.

“I am super excited for this season. I think we can go further than we did last year,” said senior pitcher and first basemen Jaycee Haidze, last year’s Valley News Dispatch Player of the Year. “There is pressure coming into this season, but we welcome that pressure. It gets us pumped and ready to go.”

Haidze leads a returning cast that includes fellow seniors Jess Cekada (shortstop) and Maera Williams (outfield); juniors Kassidy Cambal (catcher), Riley Pointkowski (outfield) and Abbie Deiseroth (first base/pitcher); and sophomore Peyton Smalley (outfield/infield).

“Thinking back to last year, it brings back so many amazing feelings, all that we accomplished,” Williams said. “We made school history. It didn’t feel like it as it was happening, but looking back, we were like, ‘We really did that,’ and no one expected that out of us.”

Highlands experienced a few bumps along the way in section play, but the Golden Rams finished tied with Knoch for the section title and put themselves in position to make their postseason run.

Wins over Blackhawk, Montour and Elizabeth Forward sent them to the WPIAL title game against Beaver. The teams went back and forth until the Bobcats pulled out a 2-1 victory in the bottom of the seventh.

Highlands bounced back for PIAA wins over District 9 champion Clearfield and District 3 champion Bishop McDevitt before suffering a 4-0 loss to Beaver in the state semifinals.

Lost to graduation were third baseman Kylie Zourelias, second baseman Joie Beacom and right fielder Sara Karns

“We only lost three girls. They were big losses, but we still have that core group of varsity players,” Williams said. “We have a good shot to do it all again. Now, I think we know what we are capable of doing. We are more prepared going in this time around. All of the teams are now looking at us and wanting to be where we were in the playoffs. We just want to beat them all again.”

Haidze delivered at the plate and in the pitching circle. She finished 13-5 with a 3.14 ERA and 162 strikeouts in 118 innings. She also batted .449 over 25 games with 40 hits, 35 RBIs, 12 doubles and eight home runs.

Cambal and Deiseroth were selected to the VND first team.

Cambal, in her first varsity season, batted .475 with eight doubles, two home runs, 26 RBIs and a team-best 35 runs scored. Opposing teams wary to steal bases against her strong arm.

Deiseroth, at the heart of the Highlands lineup, batted .433 with 38 RBIs and 29 runs scored. Her power was on display with seven home runs. She again is expected to provide pitching depth in the circle after going 5-1 in seven starts with 46 strikeouts in 43 innings.

Cekada, a VND second-team pick, made her mark last year at the plate and at shortstop with several dazzling defensive plays.

“I was definitely in the gym a lot in the offseason,” Cekada said. “We were all hitting in the batting cages as much as we could. We wanted to do all we could to be ready for this season. We’re even hungrier this season. Last season was great, but there is even more to accomplish.”

The players’ preparation for the new season has impressed coach Jenn Koprivinikar.

“The girls know the talent that is on this team,” she said. “They feel really good about the season, but they know it won’t be easy. The girls realize that people are aware of us now and they will want to take us down and get us out of the way.”

Koprivinikar said there are a number of players who have been evaluated to take over the vacated positions in the lineup and the competition has been spirited.

Smalley is expected to again challenge for a starting spot, either in right field where she started down the stretch in the regular season and into the playoffs last season or at second base.

“Peyton originally was an infielder, but we needed her to fill an outfield spot, and she did really well at either position,” Koprivinikar said.

Weather and field conditions permitting, Highlands was to scrimmage Chartiers Valley on Wednesday, with a second scrimmage against Apollo-Ridge set for March 23.

The season kicks off March 28 at home against St. Joseph before the Section 1 opener at Valley on March 31.

“We all worked harder and harder each day to build off last season and to be ready for this season,” Haidze said. “Now, we get to see if that hard work will pay off.”

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.

Tags: Highlands