For West Greene, a 5th straight will have to wait
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
Holly Tonini/For the Observer-Reporter
West Greene players touch and raise the WPIAL Class A softball championship trophy Wednesday after defeating Union in six innings at Peterswood Park. It is the fourth consecutive WPIAL title for the Pioneers.
Observer-Reporter
Softball players West Greene hold up the championship trophy after winning the 2017 WPIAL Class A title. The Pioneers have won four straight district championships.
Observer-Reporter
West Greene softball coach Bill Simms hands over the WPIAL softball trophy to Bailey Bennington first after the Pioneers beat Chartiers-Houston 12-3.
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
Members of the West Greene softball team rush the team captains as they hoist the WPIAL Class A Championship trophy.
There was a giant sigh of relief.
It came from the direction of all Class A softball teams in the WPIAL that were relieved the days of McKenna Lampe, Madison Lampe and Kaitlyn Rizor – names seemingly etched in stone over the past several seasons atop the West Greene softball lineup – were finally over.
Without those three, some might have thought West Greene’s time atop the classification was over.
When you see what the Pioneers have done – winning four straight WPIAL Class A championships – that sigh of relief was warranted.
When you think about the six titles that West Greene won – four WPIAL and two PIAA – over the last four years and compare that to the seven losses it had against teams from Pennsylvania in those same four years, yeah, that sign of relief was warranted.
And of those seven losses within the state, none were by more than two runs and five were games decided by one run.
But a good bit of the Pioneers’ roster was purged by graduation last spring, including the top of the batting order – the part opponents dreaded. This year’s edition of the Pioneers wanted to prove that West Greene softball wasn’t ready for a fall.
“We were ready to embrace the fact and prove that we could do it without those girls,” said West Greene coach Bill Simms. “We thought we had a legitimate shot to make some noise again, not to discredit any other team. We were excited about the team coming back.”
A chance to prove something was put on hold, at least for this year, because of the coronavirus pandemic. It also delayed a chance for West Greene to possibly become the third team in WPIAL history to win five consecutive softball titles. The only two to win five straight are Sto-Rox (2000-2005) and Hempfield (2015-current).
“I think we had a pretty good shot,” said junior outfielder Jersey Wise. “For us not to be able to go out and get that title again is devastating. It just crushed my heart. We were all motivated.”
It was the same motivation the Pioneers had when trying to replace the Lampe sisters and Rizor – each a 1,000-point career scorer – during this past basketball season. Ignoring all doubters, West Greene went undefeated in the regular season and played in a third straight WPIAL title game at the Petersen Events Center.
In softball, McKenna Lampe had a .597 batting average, 111 RBI and scored 219 runs in her career. Madison Lampe hit .513, drove in 173 runs and scored 191 times. The two combined to successfully steal 206 of 208 bases, each being thrown out only once. Rizor finished her career a .484 hitter with 114 RBI and 114 runs.
“Just their speed and skill,” Wise said of what would be hard to replace. “All three were able to be in the right spot at the right time to make plays.”
Similar to basketball, Wise was going to be in a new role in softball. The plan was to slide her over to center field and likely hit in the leadoff spot – roles held by McKenna Lampe in recent seasons.
A slew of promising underclassmen were going to fill gaps behind two seniors, Brianna Amos and standout pitcher and Edinboro recruit Jade Renner.
In three seasons, Renner had a 57-10 record, 318 strikeouts and a 1.92 earned run average.
“We were excited and had a positive outlook at replacing them,” Simms said. “We didn’t look at it negatively, no disrespect to them. We were going to embrace it.”