WPIAL baseball and softball teams gearing up for shots at PIAA gold

By: Michael Love
Wednesday, June 12, 2019 | 12:02 PM

The PIAA baseball and softball championship matchups are set, and five WPIAL teams – Beaver and Serra Catholic for baseball and Penn-Trafford, Elizabeth Forward and Frazier for softball – will attempt to bring home state titles.

The WPIAL has a team in the 4A baseball final for the second year in a row, and Beaver hopes to follow what Ringgold accomplished last year and hoist the championship trophy. The Bobcats last played for a state title in 2013 when they suffered a 5-4 loss to Loyalsock in Class AA.

Serra Catholic is the first WPIAL baseball team in the 2A final since the PIAA went to six classifications for the 2017 season. The Eagles played in three straight Class A title games from 2009 to 2011 and won in 2011 with a 4-0 victory over Reading Central Catholic.

At least two baseball teams from the WPIAL have made the PIAA finals every year since 2015. The WPIAL was shut out of the state championship games in 2014.

The Penn-Trafford (5A), Elizabeth Forward (4A) and Frazier (2A) softball teams each will play in a state-championship game for the first time.

The trio of WPIAL teams in the PIAA softball finals this spring is down one from last year. Five from the WPIAL made the 2017 title games, and four of them, Hempfield (6A), Mt. Pleasant (4A), South Park (3A) and West Greene (1A), returned home with gold.

Hempfield and West Greene were defending state champions and had played in three straight title games, but both teams suffered losses Tuesday in their semifinal contests.

PIAA Championships

Baseball

Class 4A

Selinsgrove vs. Beaver at Penn State’s Medlar Field at Lubrano Park, Friday, 1:30 p.m.

Class 2A

Devon Prep vs. Serra Catholic at Penn State’s Medlar Field at Lubrano Park, Friday, 4:30 p.m.

Softball

Class 5A

Lampeter-Strasburg vs. Penn-Trafford at Penn State’s Beard Field, Friday, 4 p.m.

Class 4A

West Perry vs. Elizabeth Forward at Penn State’s Beard Field, Thursday, 1:30 p.m.

Class 2A

Brandywine Heights vs. Frazier at Penn State’s Beard Field, Thursday, 4 p.m.

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.

Tags: Beaver, Elizabeth Forward, Frazier, Penn-Trafford