close

Area teams sparkle on the WPIAL diamond

3 min read
article image -

The Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League last week conducted its postseason tournaments in baseball and softball, similar sports but with marked differences. It’s difficult to find a common theme in two sets of playoffs, but one did stand out:

Diamonds are a girl’s – and guy’s – best friend in the Observer-Reporter circulation area.

Of 12 teams crowned champions in these tournaments, five were from this area. That is nearly half, and a testament to the quality of play hereabouts – not only of the titlists, but local squads they surpassed along the way.

WPIAL teams in each of these sports compete in six classifications, based on the respective boys’ and girls’ enrollments of the schools. The most populous schools play in Class 6A, down to the least populous in Class A. The enrollment figures are determined the previous school year from the total of boys or girls in grades nine through 11.

Canon-McMillan (6A), South Fayette (4A) and Brownsville (3A) earned the baseball championships; Belle Vernon (4A) and West Greene (Class A) secured softball gold. All of them advanced to the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) tournament that began Monday.

They had some local company, as the Ringgold (4A) baseball team and the Chartiers-Houston (2A) and Monessen (Class A) softball squads likewise qualified for states. Ringgold and Monessen were WPIAL runners-up and Chartiers-Houston was a semifinalist.

Eight teams from this area, in all, reached the two state tournaments.

One of the highlights from last week’s WPIAL finals is that two games featured matchups of two local teams. South Fayette toppled Ringgold for its first WPIAL crown since 1999, and the West Greene girls rallied to edge Monessen.

The highlight, locally, was West Greene doing it again, three-peating as champion. The Pioneers rallied from a 4-2 deficit in the bottom of the seventh (final) inning to defeat the Greyhounds, 5-4, and begin their quest to successfully defend their PIAA title.

But the other four champions reigned in distinctive fashion. Canon-Mac, as it is known colloquially, is a WPIAL baseball titlist for the first time since Canonsburg High School won back-to-back crowns in 1935 and 1936. The Big Macs did that by defeating North Allegheny, one of the most revered names in WPIAL baseball. South Fayette secured its first title since 1999, the year Brownsville had last made a title-game appearance. And Belle Vernon is a WPIAL softball champion for the third time in four years and fourth time overall.

Over time, all teams in all sports at all levels experience peaks and valleys – prosperous runs and down periods. This can even happen regionally at the high school level – Fayette County was once home to football and basketball powerhouses, but is in the midst of an extended drought.

But for now, when it comes to diamonds, this area is sparkling.

CUSTOMER LOGIN

If you have an account and are registered for online access, sign in with your email address and password below.

NEW CUSTOMERS/UNREGISTERED ACCOUNTS

Never been a subscriber and want to subscribe, click the Subscribe button below.

Starting at $3.75/week.

Subscribe Today