Westmoreland County high school softball notebook: Hempfield pitcher joins elite K club

By: Bill Beckner Jr.
Wednesday, April 30, 2025 | 11:01 AM

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Riley Miller has proven she is one of the better pitchers to come through one of the state’s great softball programs at Hempfield.

The senior has joined an elite group of aces in the Spartans’ record book.

Miller, a Kent State commit, reached 500 career strikeouts this week, becoming just the fifth pitcher in the program to achieve the milestone.

The four-year starter joins Jaci Kalp (997 K’s), Tina (Skelly) Madison (598), Morgan Ryan (584) and Lauren (Shaheen) Armanious (577) in the 500-strikeout club.

Kalp, Madison and Armanious pitched when the circle was 40 feet from home plate. It was moved to 43 feet in 2010.

Miller is 11-1 this season with a sub-1.00 ERA and 115 strikeouts.

She suffered her first loss of the season at Seneca Valley when the Spartans fell 2-1.

Fresh faces

A number of freshmen are making an impact for Westmoreland County teams. These are players local fans will be watching for years to come.

Norwin has a talented catcher in Makenna Black, who bats clean-up for the Knights.

“She is still raw in some areas,” Norwin coach Brian Mesich said. “But you can see her potential. By the time she is a senior, she is going to be a big-time player.”

Another on-the-rise freshman is pitcher Jaidyn Vay at Yough. She has a propensity for speed, shows durability and can hit.

Vay is the daughter of former Yough basketball standout Kim Vay.

“She has a ton of potential,” Yough coach Dutch Harvey said. “She is seeing some good hitting teams in our section. And we added some tough nonsection games, so we see some of the best.”

Other top ninth-graders include Makayla Brown at Southmoreland, the sister of former Scotties standout pitcher Maddie Brown; Mia Martz, a starting pitcher at Franklin Regional; Natalia Scekeres, a starting shortstop and left-handed leadoff hitter at Latrobe; third baseman and utility player Jenna Whipkey at Mt. Pleasant; and pitcher Scout Hinton at Ligonier Valley.

Scekeres also is the quarterback of the Latrobe flag football team.

Waldier plays

Yough standout Adoria Waldier has been out all season with a torn ACL, but she was cleared for limited action as a hitter.

She wasted no time refreshing people’s memory of how good she is, blasting the second pitch she saw over the fence at Ligonier Valley for a two-run homer. Yough was up 3-1 when the game was suspended because of a gusty thunderstorm.

Waldier is expected to bat on the team’s senior day May 6.

“It’ll be nice to get her an at-bat or two,” Harvey said. “We’ll courtesy run for her. She’s a great player and a great kid. We’ve missed her this season.”

Second or first?

It was tough to tell what position Lauren Howard was playing against Norwin last week.

The second baseman — she moved from third last year — was lined up only feet from first baseman Hailey Uhrinek.

“That’s the 3-4 hole,” Hempfield’s Madison said. “We do that all the time. We know with outside pitches, the ball is going to come off that way. We know Lou is going to make the plays.”

In a 5-1 win over Norwin, Howard fielded eight grounders and made putouts on all of them.

Taking a half day

Greensburg Central Catholic and Monessen are dealing with small roster numbers this season, so when the teams met last week for a Section 3-A doubleheader, they agreed to shorten their games.

Both games were cut to five innings, and the teams split. Monessen won 9-7, GCC won 9-3.

GCC played with 11 girls, and Monessen had only 10.

Playoffs

There is just more than a week left in the WPIAL regular season.

The top six teams in Class 6A and the top four in all of the other sections will qualify.

Head-to-head competition is the first tiebreaker.

County teams to qualify so far are Hempfield in 6A, Penn-Trafford, Franklin Regional and Latrobe in 5A, Derry in 4A, Mt. Pleasant and Southmoreland in 3A and Jeannette in A.

The WPIAL will announce playoff seedings and pairings May 8.

Night owls

Southmoreland hosted a rare night game last week, turning on the lights and welcoming Yough for a 7 p.m. start at Loucks Park in Scottdale.

Makayla Brown doubled, tripled and drove in three, and Makayla Etling went 3 for 4 with a double and triple to lead the Scotties to a 7-5 win.

Kierstin Odelli went 3 for 4 for Yough.

Home runs were hard to come by: The field stretches 300 feet to the deepest fence.

Extra bases

Four county players were hitting .600 or better: Hempfield’s Howard (.707), Zoey Murphy of Southmoreland (.667), Sophia Doherty of Derry (.636), Toryn Fulton of Franklin Regional (.605) and Sara Blossey of Latrobe (.600). … Fulton and Doherty were tied for second in the WPIAL in home runs with nine apiece. … Fulton was second in RBIs with 30, and Howard had 29. … Claire Mitchell of Hempfield was third in runs scored (28), and Fulton was fourth (27). … Greensburg Central Catholic swept a doubleheader against Ellis School in dominant fashion. GCC had 34 hits and 33 runs in the two wins (17-1 and 16-1).

Bill Beckner Jr. is a TribLive reporter covering local sports in Westmoreland County. He can be reached at bbeckner@triblive.com.

Tags: Greensburg C.C., Hempfield, Latrobe, Mt. Pleasant, Southmoreland, Yough