Westmoreland high school notebook: Big 56 honors baseball, softball players

By: Bill Beckner Jr.
Sunday, May 21, 2023 | 5:49 PM

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The Big 56 Conference, a website that recognizes accomplishments of teams and athletes in the WPIAL’s largest classification, announced its all-section teams.

Local first-team players picked in Class 6A Section 2 baseball included junior Keegan Carr and senior Justin Weaver of Norwin and junior Carson Shuglie of Hempfield.

Class 5A baseball’s Section 1 first team included junior Max Bernadowski (IF) of Franklin Regional and senior Dylan Grabowski (P), junior Brody Hoffman (DH), and Chuck Fontana (OF) of Penn-Trafford, whose first-year coach, Lou Cortazzo was tabbed coach of the year.

The 6A softball section first-teamers were: freshman Lauren Howard (IF) and sophomore Riley Miller (P) of Hempfield and Norwin juniors Bailey Snowberger (IF) and Josey Michalski (IF).

Tina Madison of Hempfield was the coach of the year.

The 5A softball first team from Section 2 included sophomore Toryn Fulton (IF) and sophomore catcher Ciara Camacho of Franklin Regional, sophomore Cam Ponko (IF) of Penn-Trafford and senior Josie Straigis (IF), senior Hayden Kraynick (OF), junior Kayla Williams (P) and senior Gabby Burd (DH) of Latrobe.

Franklin Regional’s Jim Armstrong was the section coach of the year.

Shirt off his back

Athletic directors from Yough and Southmoreland made a friendly bet when their softball teams met in the WPIAL 3A quarterfinals Thursday.

The loser has to wear a shirt with other school’s logo on it this week at school.

Southmoreland’s thrilling seventh-inning comeback led to a 15-14 win, so Yough’s Bill Flow will be wearing red and black.

“It’s all in good fun for the kids,” Flow said. “Dan has helped me a lot this year. We might do this some more since we are so close and maybe make it a good rivalry.”

Southmoreland athletic director Dan Boring, who watched the game near Flow, wasn’t sure what his wardrobe would be until the walk-off ending.

“AD’s can have fun, too,” Boring said of the friendly bet.

New coach at Derry

Derry announced the hiring of Adam Redinger as girls tennis coach.

Redinger previously was the coach at Altoona, where he oversaw a program of more than 60 players.

A middle school teacher, Redinger also works as a basketball coach and track and field coach at that level.

Underclassmen games

The Roundball Classic basketball all-star games added underclassmen games this year for freshmen, sophomores and juniors.

Traditionally, the games are just for seniors, but a new high school rule allows underclassmen to compete in showcases.

Local players who competed in three games last week at Geneva were sophomores Drew Gordon of Hempfield, John Wetzel and Max Butler of Latrobe, juniors Franco Alvarez and Tyree Turner of Greensburg Central Catholic, juniors Terek Crosby and Austin Matthews of Yough, junior Cam Rowell of Franklin Regional and Jeannette junior Isaiah Mallich.

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

Tags: Derry Area, Franklin Regional, Greensburg C.C., Latrobe, Norwin, Penn-Trafford, Yough