WPIAL Softball Consolation Tuesday Recaps

By: HSSN Staff
Tuesday, May 31, 2016 | 7:59 PM

WPIAL softball gold will be decided on Thursday with all four district championship games at Lilley Field at California University of Pennsylvania. On Tuesday, it was time to decide which teams would join the finalists in the upcoming PIAA softball postseason. Here are recaps from all four WPIAL Consolation contests played at Cal U and West Allegheny Tuesday afternoon.

A special thanks to Ed Troup, Steve Nagler, Kyle Dawson and Lee Mohn for their help on these recaps.

WPIAL CLASS AAAA Consolation:

Latrobe Wildcats 3 – North Allegheny Tigers 0 
The Latrobe Wildcats secured a spot in the PIAA playoffs defeating North Allegheny 3-0 on Tuesday afternoon.It was a pitchers duel through the first four innings.  In the top of the fifth inning with two outs and Sarah Blai at first base Makayla Munchinski would single and then Karley Kovatch would launch a three run home run for the winning margin.  Latrobe would threaten again in the top of the sixth putting runners on second and third with no outs but Morgan Schweizer was gunned down at the plate by Anna Pilotta and pitcher Madi Beining was able to get the next two outs on shallow fly balls to give North Allegheny hope going to their last at bat.  The Tigers would load the bases with two outs but Jaqui Sieber would fly out to end the game.  North Allegheny finishes their season with a 19-4 record while Latrobe improves to 17-6 and will be the #3 seed from District 7.  They will play the WPIAL champion on Monday June 6th.

WPIAL CLASS AAA Consolation:

Yough Cougars 7 – Thomas Jefferson Jaguars 4 
When the WPIAL steering committee made Thomas Jefferson and Yough the number one and two seeds, respectively, it was expected the both of them would be the two vying for the WPIAL Class AAA championship at Cal U’s Lilley Field on the second of June. But as unpredictable as high school sports can be, especially on the diamond, push came to shove and the two teams lost in the semifinals, thus met Tuesday for the right to move to the PIAA Tournament as the third place team out of Triple-A. The teams traded a pair of runs in the first inning, Yough scoring in the top half after two straight singles led to a third consecutive base knock that scored Hannah Bach off the bat of Allie Harvey and then on a ground out off the swing of Cassidy Pearce that scored Aubrie Mance. TJ scored in the bottom of the first on a two-run home run, one of her two on the day, by Rachael Bowers that made it 2-2 aftrer one. The Cougars added two in the top half of the third inning, one of which was unearned, on a Pearce RBI single and an Alona Sleith RBI single. The Jaguars got one back in the bottom half of the third on a sac fly from Bowers that made it 4-3. Yough added a run in the fourth and two more in the sixth, with Bowers’ second home run intermixed in the fifth. Thomas Jefferson fell in the end to Yough 7-4, falling to 16-3 on the year to end the 2016 campaign. As for Yough, its on to the PIAA playoffs for the second consecutive year with an 18-3 record where the Cougars will meet District 10 Champion General McLane in first round action Monday, June 6 at a site and time to be determined. The site will be somewhere inside District 10.

WPIAL CLASS AA Consolation:

Steel Valley Ironmen 7 – Laurel Spartans 1 
For the first time in school history the Steel Valley Girls Softball team has qualified for the PIAA state girls softball playoffs after a 7-1 win against Laurel Tuesday afternoon, in the Class AA Consolation game from West Allegheny High School. The Lady Ironmen (16-6) used a five-run second inning in which they sent 10 batters to the plate, to jump out in front early on the Lady Spartans (16-5) in the third place victory. Steel Valley Starting Pitcher Maddie Cotter pitched seven complete innings with giving up one run on seven hits, while walking just one and striking out three in the win. Cotter also went 3 of 4 from the plate with three singles and three RBI’s. Catcher Chelsea Rohan also had a big day offensively going 2 of 3 with a walk, two doubles and 3 RBI’s for the Lady Ironmen. Laurel was led by rightfielder Brooke Atkins, who went 2 of 3 with two singles and the only run scored in the seventh inning after a sacrifice bunt brought her home by shortstop Olivia Lombardo. All seven runs scored by Steel Valley came with two outs in the inning, scoring five in the second and a run in the fourth and sixth innings.

WPIAL CLASS A Consolation:

Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic Trojans 3 – Monessen Greyhounds 2 
After getting shut out for the first five innings, the Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic Trojanettes finally got the bats going for a come-from-behind win to seal a trip to the PIAA Softball Championships.  Trojanettes starter, Alayna Derzak, pitched a complete came, allowing only two runs on four hits in getting the win.  Monessen got on the board first by scoring a couple of runs in the bottom half of the 4th inning.  Dana Vatakis led off with a walk and was singled to 2B by Madison Guzzie.  Vatakis would score one hitter later when Shelby Minardi doubled into the left-centerfield gap.  Carlie Rock then plated Guzzie on a ground out which turned into an error by SS Adrienne Nardone.  The Greyhounds squandered a further chance to score more, however, when Rock’s courtesy runner took off early in trying to steal 2B and was called out.  Madison Telegraphis would then pop out and Victoria Cooper lined out to left field.  CWNC’s bats would come alive in the 6th inning.  Bridgette Hudson led the inning off with a solid single.  After Mina Shaw struck out, Derzak would walk.  Nardone would reach on an error which led to Hudson scoring the first Trojanette run, cutting the lead to 2-1.  Tayjan White followed with a solid base hit into centerfield which scored both Derzak and Nardone to give the Trojanettes their first lead, a lead that they would not relinquish.  Monessen’s Dana Vakatis would pitch valiantly in the loss, giving up seven hits and only two earned runs while striking out seven.