May 27, 2015 5 min read

The softball teams at Chartiers-Houston and Jefferson-Morgan have taken different, yet successful, paths this season.

Adversity has been prevalent along the way. The Rockets lost assistant coach Chris Dugan, the father of second baseman Camryn Dugan, May 15 after a battle with cancer.

The Bucs faced high expectations after dropping to Class A after two years in Class AA. They were added to Section 1-A, which included J-M and a surging West Greene program.

Chartiers-Houston and Jefferson-Morgan played twice in the regular season with two memorable matchups. Though their journeys through the WPIAL playoffs have been different, their paths will cross again on the district’s biggest stage.

The top-seeded Bucs (19-2) will face the third-seeded Rockets (14-2) today at California University’s Lilley Field with the WPIAL Class A championship on the line. First pitch is 11:30 a.m.

Chartiers-Houston is seeking its ninth WPIAL title, while Jefferson-Morgan is looking for its first. Both teams have qualified for the state tournament, which begins Monday.

The Bucs won the first meeting, 4-2, before Jefferson-Morgan came away with a 1-0 victory three weeks later, thanks to a no-hitter by senior pitcher Madison Ludrosky.

“The defense is there for both teams, so whoever breaks out offensively is going to win the game,” Jefferson-Morgan head coach Tony Barbetta said. “That’s what I’m thinking. Whoever can bunch together two or three runs, that’s all that may be needed to win.”

That’s a fair assessment. Since giving up four runs in their first loss to C-H, the Rockets have not allowed more than two runs during a 10-game winning streak and have outscored three playoff opponents, 21-2.

Meanwhile, Chartiers-Houston freshman pitcher Kaitlyn Dittrich has seven shutouts and allowed just one run five times.

Both teams have high-scoring offenses. The Rockets launched five home runs in their semifinal win over Frazier, and the Bucs have scored in double-digits 10 times.

“Honestly, they were two good games,” Chartiers-Houston head coach Tricia Alderson said of the regular season meetings. “They were two close games. I think we’re very evenly matched and both of us know that going in.”

When Chartiers-Houston discovered its stay in Class AA would end after last spring, Alderson stressed to her team the opportunity ahead. Seven seniors were returning and three of the four semifinal teams from Class A in 2014 had moved up a classification – leaving only Jefferson-Morgan.

The motivation was magnified when the Bucs discovered they would be placed in the same section as the Rockets, who only lost one senior, while returning its top pitcher in Ludrosky and top offensive threats.

Despite moving up to Class AA, C-H extended its streak of reaching the playoffs, which stretches beyond Alderson’s 11-year tenure, but it was not easy. Last spring was filled with adversity, including season-ending injuries and growing pains.

“It takes dedication and sometimes you have to have a little bit of luck to get there,” Alderson said of returning to the title game. “I think, at least in our program, the girls want to uphold the tradition. Our seniors were there as freshmen. Not all of them started, so this is their time to try to show the younger kids what the program is all about. This is the expectation.”

It hasn’t always been the expectation for the Rockets, who missed the WPIAL playoffs in 2013, but surprised many by coming one game short of the title game and one win away from a state playoff berth last spring.

Their growth as a team has been a talking point among the seniors, who were there for a first-round playoff loss as freshmen and the forgettable 2013 season, where they lost five of their first eight section games.

“Some of us are still in shock with how far we’ve come,” Ludrosky said. “I don’t think we realized how good we actually are until we got this far. We’ve improved tremendously since the beginning of the season and even the first time we played (Chartiers-Houston). We’re a better team.”

After that first loss to the Bucs April 1, Barbetta told his team they would need to win their final seven regular season games to have a chance at the section title. Despite another matchup with the Bucs and the devastating loss of Chris Dugan, J-M won 10 in a row and is within reach of a title.

“Now, we’re down to where we only have to win one in a row,” Barbetta said with a laugh. “I’m hoping for them and for everyone in the community that it happens. It’s not an every year thing to get to the finals in the WPIAL. I told them that we only need five wins to get a state championship, so let’s go for it.”

Alderson has similar hopes for her group, which did reach the 2013 WPIAL semifinals in Class AA, but is forging its own identity among the five WPIAL championship teams she has coached.

“We’ve been telling them to enjoy the moment. I know it seems like with our program it happens all the time, but you never know when you are going to get there or if you’ll get back, so enjoy it as much as possible,” Alderson said.