Hillers headed to PIAA final after beating Bellwood-Antis
Trinity’s Olivia Gray, left, gives Delaney Elling a hug after Elling tagged Bellwood-Antis’ Taylor Shildt at first. Shildt, Bellwood-Antis’ starting pitcher, hurt her right knee during the play.
Trinity’s Olivia Gray slides home during the first inning of Tuesday’s PIAA Class AAA semifinal softball game against Bellwood-Antis.
Katie Roupe/Observer-Reporter The Trinity softball team celebrates after beating Bellwood-Antis and earning a trip to the state championships.
Katie Roupe/Observer-Reporter Trinity's Shelby Clemens gets a hit in the sixth inning spurring two runs to give Trinity the lead against Bellwood-Antis.
LATROBE – The Trinity High School softball team is going to the state championship game.
Why not?
After all, the Hillers have been on a wildly exciting roll in the postseason, winning games in almost every way imaginable. They’ve won by pitching a shutout. They’ve won by playing good defense. They’ve won a messy game in which the opponent stranded 16 baserunners in seven innings. They’ve also won by smacking opposing pitching like it was batting-practice fodder and scoring 20 runs.
On the synthetic turf field at Latrobe High School Tuesday night, Trinity added a new twist to this remarkable playoff run. The Hillers played catch-up for the first time in the state tournament. They completed the comeback by getting a game-winning hit from a player who, at this time last year, wasn’t even able to swing a bat.
Senior third baseman Shelby Clemens hit a two-out, two-run double up the alley in right centerfield in the sixth inning to rally Trinity to a 3-2 victory over District 6 champion Bellwood-Antis.
The win advances Trinity (20-5) to the Class AAA championship game Friday at Penn State’s Nittany Lion Softball Park against District 11 champion Bethlehem Catholic (18-7). The game is tentatively scheduled for 5:30 p.m. It will be Bethlehem Catholic’s second consecutive trip to the state finals.
Trinity clinched the school’s initial berth in the championship round by overcoming a 2-0 deficit in the first inning and finally solving Bellwood-Antis pitcher Taylor Shildt in the sixth.
“We keep it interesting,” Trinity coach Shawn Gray said. “That’s why the fans love us. But the wins keep rolling in. I could care less if we won a bunch of 1-0 games, but my heart couldn’t take it. We’re enjoying our little ride.”
That ride was on the verge of reaching a dead end until the Hillers finally figured out how to hit Shildt, who held the Hillers hitless until Riley Riotto’s single up the middle on the first pitch of the bottom of the fifth. Trinity had scored its first run in the bottom of the first inning when Olivia Gray scored on wild pitch. The run came after Gray hit a fly ball that Bellwood-Antis left fielder Rachel Harris misplayed. The ball bounced off her glove and Gray ended up on third base.
Trailing 2-1 entering the sixth, Trinity got a leadoff single up the middle by Madison Hornack. Shawn Gray then had Delaney Elling, the No. 3 hitter in the Trinity lineup, drop down a sacrifice bunt, which advanced Hornack to second base.
“I wanted to make sure that, if we got a wild pitch or passed ball in the inning, we would have a chance to score,” Gray explained. “That’s why I had Elling bunt.”
Hali Justice followed with a line-drive single through the left side of the infield. Hornack stopped at third base but Justice alertly moved to second when the throw from the outfield went to home plate.
Trinity pitcher Paige Galentine then fouled out to first base for the inning’s second out, which set up the key at-bat by Clemens, who missed almost all of last year after undergoing reconstructive elbow surgery.
Clemens lined the third pitch from Shildt into right centefield. The ball rolled between Blue Devils center fielder Saige McElwain and right fielder Caroline Showalter and headed for the fence as Hornack and Justice scampered home to give Trinity a 3-2 lead.
“I was expecting a changeup, something outside because that’s how she had been pitching me,” Clemens said. “Instead, I got a fastball down the middle. I just tried to hit the ball to the right side of the field.”
Trinity still had to get three more outs to get. The first two came quickly, then Galentine pitched around Jacqueline Finn, the No. 3 hitter in the Blue Devils’ lineup. Finn walked on four pitches.
“That was the plan,” Galentine said. “We just didn’t want (Finn) to hit a home run.”
Maddie Miller followed with a single but Edyn Convery bounced back to Gallentine to end the game and send the Hillers to the finals.
“This is amazing,” Clemens said, choking back tears. “As a senior, I want to go out as champions. I was thinking about that as I walked up for that last at-bat.
“I couldn’t finish last season because I had Tommy John surgery. I stuck with the rehabilitation so I could play again this year. This couldn’t have turned out better.”
Bellwood-Antis (18-7), which moved up to Class AAA this year, scored two runs in the top of the first inning without the benefit of a hit. It was the first time Trinity trailed in the state playoffs.
Galentine, who walked 10 in the quarterfinals against Belle Vernon, walked three of the first five B-A batters and hit another with a pitch.
“I was really nervous,” Galentine admitted. “I was thinking this can’t be happening again with the walks. I said just don’t embarrass yourself. Get it together, think about your mechanics and throw strikes.”
She did just that. B-A left two runners on base in the first, squandering what could have been a huge inning. The Blue Devils also left two runners on base in three other innings and stranded nine in the game. Galentine allowed only three hits and issued two walks (Finn twice) after the rocky first inning.
“This season has been a roller coaster,” Clemens said. “If somebody had told me before the season that we’d be in the state championship game, I wouldn’t have believed it.”