May 11, 2017 3 min read

Defending champion West Greene and Greene County rival Carmichaels were given the top two seeds in Class A when the WPIAL playoff pairings were released Thursday afternoon.

West Greene (19-1) and Carmichaels (15-5) are two of four area teams that received first-round byes for the playoffs, which begin Monday. Belle Vernon (16-1) and Canon-McMillan (10-4) also received byes.

Belle Vernon, the Section 2 co-champion with Yough (15-2), was given the No. 2 seed in Class AAAA. Yough is the top seed. Belle Vernon and Yough split two games during the regular season. Belle Vernon won in 12 innings Tuesday and the Cougars defeated BVA at Yough in April.

Canon-McMillan, which shared the Section 1 title with Baldwin (12-3), was given the No. 4 seed in Class 6-A. Baldwin is the No. 2 seed.

This is the first year for six classifications in softball in Pennsylvania, which had four classes last year.

First-round games will be played Monday and Tuesday, with quarterfinals scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday. Sites and times for the quarterfinals have not been determined.

In Class A, Monessen (13-5), the third-place team in Section 2 behind West Greene and Carmichaels, will play Riverview (8-6) Tuesday as part of a doubleheader at Canon-McMillan (6 p.m.). That game will be preceded by California (5-11) playing Union (12-3) at 4:30 p.m.

West Greene will play Thursday against the winner of a first-round game between Western Beaver (8-5) and Bishop Canevin (8-4). Carmichaels gets the winner of the game between St. Joseph (9-4) and Cornell (6-9).

In Class AA, Chartiers-Houston (14-3) and Bentworth (10-10) will be involved in a doubleheader Tuesday at Baldwin. C-H, which is the No. 4 seed, will face Brentwood (6-7) at 3 p.m. followed by Bentworth against Section 2 champion Seton-La Salle (10-4) at 5 p.m. Burgettstown (4-14) drew top-seeded South Side Beaver (14-2). That is a rematch from a game played Monday.

McGuffey (7-11), which made a late-season surge to secure a playoff berth, will play Monday (5 p.m.) against Burell (7-7) in a Class AAA first-round game. That is part of a doubleheader at NA that includes South Fayette (11-7) against Knoch (16-2) in a Class AAAA game at 3 p.m.

Waynesburg (9-8) will open Class AAA play Monday (3 p.m.) against Avonworth (9-5) at Baldwin.

Belle Vernon will debut in the quarterfinals Wednesday and get the winner of a first-round game between Central Valley (10-5) and Derry (5-9).

Ringgold (10-8) makes its playoff debut in a Class 5-A night game Tuesday (7 p.m.) against Franklin Regional (13-5) at Latrobe.

Canon-McMillan will wait until Wednesday to play in the quarterfinals against the winner of a first-round matchup between North Allegheny (11-7) and Fox Chapel (8-10).

The WPIAL will release pairings for its baseball playoffs Friday afternoon.