Tag: Belle Vernon

Chicks Picks – Week 5 – 2015

October 1, 2015

Welcome to Week 5 of the high school football season.  After missing out on last Friday night’s football action due to a scheduling conflict, Chick’s Picks came down with a nasty case of the somethings on Saturday.  When this bug continued to wreak havoc for a few days, Chick’s Picks decided it was time to seek help from the good doctor.  At the exam, Chick’s Picks began explaining her symptoms to the doc.  He seemed as bewildered as she was, unable to pinpoint the cause of the illness.  The doc continued his questioning though, “Chick’s Picks, give me a timeline of your last few days before the illness hit you.”

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WPIAL Big Game Hunting – Week Five – 09/30/2015

September 30, 2015

It’s the “halftime is halfway” games this weekend throughout the WPIAL. The WPIAL enters week five with 22 unbeaten teams still intact and striving for perfection. Five are perfect in AAAA, four in AAA, nine in AA and four in A. When we reach halftime at this weekend’s game we will be halfway through the regular season. The weather man says there could be some rain and temperatures this Friday night will drop into the low 50’s or maybe even high 40’s during week five. Will that weather cause footballs and perfect seasons to slip through fingertips? Who will rise and who will fall as we move into October? This could get spooky. Don’t worry, take my hand, I’ve got a flashlight ; I’ve got an umbrella, we’re all set to go Big Game Hunting.  

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WPIAL Big Game Hunting – Week Two 2015

September 9, 2015

I don’t know if there will be a moment of silence for the remembrance of 9-11-01 at your game Friday night around the WPIAL. I think there should be. I hope there will be, and I believe there will be, but I don’t know for certain. I know this, Friday for me at South Park, I will take a moment to myself to soak in the National Anthem with a little more thought than "who won the toss", or "where are their starters". I hope you do so as well, we should do that more often. I was a brand new father on 9-11, my daughter, now a freshman at Bishop Canevin, had not reached a month old when the Towers fell, and the kids on the fields in front of you Friday night were the same, or just a little older. They don’t know that fear that we felt that morning, and I pray they never do.

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Scholastic Notebook – 09/04/2015

September 4, 2015

There is only one Friday the 13th this high school football season and it’s two months away. But every Friday, there is a Jason that will come out and put some fear into opponents of Riverside High School’s team. Meet Jason Dambach. His fourth and final sequel to his high school career begins tonight when Riverside plays host to Bishop Canevin. It seems many don’t realize, but if you go just by statistics, Dambach is one of the best quarterbacks returning in the state this year. Dambach threw for 2,324 yards last season in only 10 games, a school record. He heads into this season with 3,194 yards passing. Another big season and Dambach could become one of only 19 quarterbacks in WPIAL history to throw for 5,500 yards.

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CTK 2015 – Class AAA Big Ten Conference Preview

August 22, 2015

Before we get to whether Thomas Jefferson will win the conference again, and whether West Mifflin has another top tailback, there is one main question with this conference: What the heck is the name of the conference? For the past three seasons, this has been the Big Nine Conference. Great idea, since there were nine teams. But this conference also has had eight teams. During those years, it was the Big Eight. There were years it had seven. Thus, the name Big Seven. But Yough was added this year to make a 10-team conference. So, what now? We here at MSA Sports change with the numbers. Welcome to the Big Ten. Or should it be the Big 10 with numbers? Whatever, here is a look at the Big Ten, er, 10 Conference:

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2015 MSA Sports Diamond Dolls

June 19, 2015

Take a glance at the players on the MSA Diamond Dolls team this year and it’s obvious that youth is served. The Diamond Dolls is MSA’s girls softball all-star team. It is made up of the top 10 players in the WPIAL, regardless of position. This year’s team includes six non-seniors. The player of the year is a freshman and the team also has a sophomore and four juniors. Four of the players on the team won WPIAL titles. Here is a look at the Diamond Dolls all-star team as well as the Player of the Year. PLAYER OF THE YEAR: BAILEY PARSHALL, BELLE VERNON Pitcher Fresh. Yes, a ninth-grader has won the Player of the Year award.

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Scholastic Notebook – 05/29/2015

May 29, 2015

Spring is the time for things to bloom, right? This spring has been a time for a group of young WPIAL athletes to sprout. One of the storylines for spring sports in the WPIAL has been the young blood that has flowed through the league and made an impact. In case you didn’t notice, it has been a spring where an unusually a number of sophomores or freshmen did some terrific things in a few different sports. Let’s examine:

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2015 WPIAL SOFTBALL PLAYOFFS – Results

May 28, 2015

A tip of the cap to the WPIAL Softball Steering Committee. Three of the four title game matchups were #1 vs #2-seeds with the fourth being a #1 vs #3. And after the dust settled at Lilley Field. three of the four champions crowned were top-seeds who went the distance. While Jefferson-Morgan celebrated a first time championship, its was the second softball title in school history for Deer lakes and Belle Vernon and a third golden crown for Hempfield. Here are ALL the results from the 2015 WPIAL Softball Playoffs. All results marked with (MSA) after the score can be heard archived at any time at MSAsports.net 2015 WPIAL CLASS AAAA SOFTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME:

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4-run 7th Helps Belle Vernon Stun Yough 5-4 for AAA Gold

The Belle Vernon Leopards had one out in the bottom of the seventh of the Class AAA championship game with no runners on base and trailed 4-1. Five batters later the Leopards had a 5-4 victory after a two-run single by Emily Frederick capped a four-run rally to give Belle Vernon (20-2) its 17th straight win and its first WPIAL championship since 2007.  "This is so unreal," Frederick said after the game seemingly trying to grasp what just transpired at California University of Pennsylvania's Lilley Field . Belle Vernon actually didn't have a hit through the first five innings as Yough pitcher Macy Mularski held the Leopards in check, only allowing four walks in the first five frames.

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Scholastic Notebook – 04/25/2015

April 25, 2015

It opened some eyes in October when Bailey Parshall accepted a scholarship from the Penn State softball team. Parshall is a freshman and when she accepted the scholarship, she had yet to pitch an inning in high school. But after a month of the WPIAL softball season, it has become clear why Penn State went after Parshall. Parshall already has established herself as one of the WPIAL’s top pitchers – as a ninth-grader. In the latest WPIAL statistics published by the Post-Gazette, Parshall leads the WPIAL in strikeouts with 115 and she is tied for the WPIAL lead in wins. She has a 10-1 record. Chartiers-Houston’s Kaitlyn Dittrich also is 10-1.

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