Tag: Hempfield

2016 PIAA SOFTBALL PLAYOFFS

June 13, 2016

Yough did not even qualify for the WPIAL championship game, but they did win the district consolation game to earn a sport in the PIAA playoffs that paid off handsomely on Thursday. The Cougars won the schools first ever state championship with a win over Lampeter-Strasburg to win the Class AAA title game. Meanwhile, West Greene did win the WPIAL Class A championship, but finished second in the state when Williams Valley scored a run in the bottom of the seventh to win the state crown. Here are ALL of the results from three of the State Softball Championships at Penn State University on Thursday, plus the schedule for the Quad-A title game on Friday in the 2016 PIAA Softball Playoffs.

Read More...

Scholastic Notebook – 06/12/2016

June 12, 2016

Remember back two years ago when Blackhawk pitcher Brendan McKay’s scoreless streak was one of the biggest stories ever in WPIAL high school baseball? Well, the scoreless streak of Mike Boswell isn’t close to McKay’s, but Boswell’s also belongs as one of the most impressive in WPIAL history. Boswell is a 6-foot, 190-pound senior at Riverside who has played a huge role in getting the Panthers to the PIAA Class AA semifinals tomorrow [Monday]. He has not given up a run in four postseason victories and his scoreless streak, going back to the regular season, now stands at 41 innings. McKay’s streak was 72 1/3 innings, which tied for the second-longest in U.S. high school baseball history.

Read More...

Scholastic Notebook – 06/04/2016

June 4, 2016

For Morgan Ryan, earning a spot in the WPIAL record book means nothing. As in zero. As in zilch. As in nothing on the scoreboard under the “R” column. Ryan is a junior pitcher for the Hempfield softball team who threw a shutout in a 2-0 victory against Baldwin in the WPIAL Class AAAA championship Friday. A year ago, she threw a one-hitter as Hempfield defeated North Allegheny, 3-0. A check of the scores of WPIAL championship games shows that Ryan is the first pitcher in the history of the WPIAL to throw back-to-back shutouts in championship games. The WPIAL has been staging softball championships for 43 years. So in four-plus decades, there has never been a pitcher like Ryan. By the way, Ryan is a Notre Dame recruit.

Read More...

2016 WPIAL SOFTBALL PLAYOFFS Results

Unlike the district baseball playoffs where none of the top-seeds prevailed in the end, the favorites took home the gold in three of the four classifications. Hempfield repeated in Class AAAA, while undefeated Ellwood City won gold in Class AA and once beaten West Greene won their first ever Class A crown. The lone exception was in Class AAA, where 12th-seed Mount Pleasant was more than happy to play the role of Cinderella en route to their first ever district softball championship. Here are ALL of the results from the 2016 WPIAL Softball Playoffs. All results marked with (MSA) at the end are games you can hear archived here on the MSA Sports Network. 2016 WPIAL SOFTBALL CLASS AAAA CHAMPIONSHIP GAME:

Read More...

Morgan Ryan Dominates As Hempfield Repeats in Quad-A

June 3, 2016

One year ago, Hempfield pitcher Morgan Ryan threw a one-hit shutout en route to a WPIAL Championship. Flash forward to 2016, and not much has changed. Ryan threw a four-hit shutout as her #1 seed Hempfield Spartans repeated as Class AAAA Softball Champions, defeating #3 seed Baldwin 2-0 on Friday afternoon at California University's Lilley Field. Baldwin threatened early in the contest. Taylor Dadig led off the bottom of the first with a sharp single up he middle. After a wild pitch and a sacrifice moved Dadig to third, Jamie Schleicher drew a walk. Samantha Wampler drove a hard shot to third base, where Kaylee Bloom made a sliding stop and threw to first for the second out. Ryan then forced a groundout to end the inning.

Read More...

2016 WPIAL Softball Championship Preview

June 2, 2016

The WPIAL softball championships have a trio of new faces this year. The championships will be played Friday at California University of Pa.’s Lilly Field and three of the eight participants have never been so close to WPIAL gold medals. Mount Pleasant, West Allegheny and West Greene are all making their first appearances in a championship game. Meanwhile, Hempfield, Baldwin, Ellwood City, South Park and Chartiers-Houston have all won at least one championship before. The games were rained out Thursday and rescheduled for Friday. Here is a look at each championship: CLASS AAAA: The game: Baldwin (13-3) vs. Hempfield (20-2), 2:30 p.m.

Read More...

Hempfield and Beaver Repeat as WPIAL Girls Track & Field Champs

May 10, 2016

The Hempfield Spartans continued their historic run on Monday in the 2016 WPIAL Girls Team Track & Field Class AAA Championships at Baldwin High School. The Spartans captured another Triple-A title as they join North Allegheny by winning a record tying fifth straight district crown. The Tigers mark was set from 2000 to 2004. The Spartans beat Butler, Mount Lebanon and Seneca Valley on a cool, gray day that turned golden again for Hempfield In Class AA, the Beaver Bobcats became the fifth team in the last eleven years to repeat. The Bobcats won in a bloated six team championship field that included Shenango, South park, Freeport, Greensburg Central Catholic and Burrell.

Read More...

Scholastic Notebook – 05/06/2016

May 6, 2016

It was against lowly competition, and each game lasted only five innings. But still, the recent pitching performances of Zach Bowen were ones for the national record book. Bowen is a sophomore at Serra Catholic who pitched back-to-back perfect games. Both games were blowouts and lasted only five innings because of the 10-run rule. Bowen’s first perfect game came April 27 against Clairton in a 17-0 win. Then this past Monday, Bowen pitched another perfect game in another 17-0 win, this time against Geibel Catholic. According to the National Federation of High School Associations record book, only two other pitchers are known to have thrown consecutive perfect games. Mike Bradley of Fort Bragg, Cal., did it in 1991 and Anthony Velasquez of Bayside, N.Y., in 2006.

Read More...

Scholastic Notebook – 04/29/2016

April 29, 2016

It’s unlikely that the Pittsburgh Central Catholic baseball team will make the WPIAL playoffs this season. That’s highly unusual. Central Catholic’s string of six consecutive playoff appearances would be broken. But that’s not what makes the Vikings’ situation unusual. What makes Central Catholic’s case so unusual is that Central Catholic is the defending WPIAL Class AAAA champion. Since 2000, the WPIAL champion in the largest classification has missed the playoffs the following year only twice. Mt. Lebanon won in 2006 and missed the playoffs in 2007. Hopewell won in 2000 and missed the playoffs in 2001.

Read More...

Scholastic Notebook – 10/25/2015

October 25, 2015

The irony of it. Deer Lakes came into Friday night’s game with the leading rusher in the entire WPIAL this season Hunter Burns. When it ended, Apollo-Ridge had the top rusher ever in a WPIAL game. Duane Brown, a junior at Apollo-Ridge, put himself in the history books when he rushed for a WPIAL record 460 yards in a 56-35 victory over Deer Lakes. Brown was certainly a workhorse in the game, carrying the ball 47 times. Brown broke a 15-year-old WPIAL record. Connellsville’s Marcus Furman ran for 455 yards in a 2000 game. What’s funny is that Apollo-Ridge coach John Skiba and his team had no idea how many yards Brown had or that he had broken the WPIAL record until an announcer from your very own MSA Sports staff came on the field and told him after the game.

Read More...