George Guido: Leechburg softball heading to playoffs for 35th straight season

By: George Guido
Saturday, April 30, 2022 | 9:16 PM

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Spring is upon us.

The flowers are blooming, the lawn mowers are humming and Leechburg is in the WPIAL softball playoffs.

The Blue Devils clinched their WPIAL record 35th consecutive Class A softball berth Friday with a doubleheader victory over The Ellis School, 15-0 and 12-1.

Leechburg is 6-1 in Section 3-A play. Even if the Blue Devils lose their final three section games, tiebreakers would be favorable.

Leechburg still can win at least a share of the section title. The Blue Devils visit Springdale on Thursday. The Dynamos defeated Leechburg, 4-3, last Monday.

The team made the WPIAL semifinals last season and defeated South Side to earn the third-place spot from the WPIAL in the PIAA tournament, losing the opener to DuBois Central Catholic.

Another local team doing extremely well is Burrell, in the playoffs for the 16th consecutive season.

The Bucs are 7-0 in Section 1-4A, 8-0 overall. Burrell is fourth in the Trib HSSN ratings this week.

Katie Armstrong has pitched five consecutive shutouts, including Friday’s 1-0 victory over Freeport.

The Bucs will receive a test Monday night when they host Highlands (6-4, 5-2), a PIAA semifinalist from last season. The game will be at 6:30 p.m. at Bon Air Elementary Field.

Burrell defeated the Golden Rams, 6-3, earlier.

Highlands football

With the surprise resignation of Highlands football coach Dom Girardi a few weeks back, the school district is getting set to name his successor.

The Highlands School Board is scheduled to meet for its agenda session May 9 and its regular meeting May 16.

The new coach will be the 10th in school history, following Frank Martin, Fran Rogel, Al Rinaldi, Don Szydlik, Frank Rocco Jr., Chuck Debor, Tim Karrs, Sam Albert and Girardi.

It just seems like yesterday Har-Brack and Tarentum consolidated forces, but 2022 will be the 55th season of Highlands football.

The playoffs are coming

With the WPIAL high school baseball and softball regular seasons heading into the home stretch, let’s go over playoff qualification.

The top four teams from each section make the playoffs.

First of all, if there is a tie for first place, the tie will not be broken and all tied schools will receive a section plaque.

That being said, if there are two or more teams tied for a playoff position, head-to-head competition will be the first piece of criteria used.

If two teams split the season’s series, both teams will go. If one team sweeps the season series, however, that team alone will advance.

It gets a little sticky if three or more teams tie.

In the event of three or more teams tying, head-to-head again is used. If one team has a superior head-to-head record, that team goes and the others — if there is still a playoff position to be determined — go head-to-head and repeat the process.

Tags: Burrell, Highlands, Leechburg