May 22, 2022 8 min read

A familiarity with one another and an investment in playing high level softball fueled a historic run for the 1987 Chartiers-Houston softball team.

Dominant during the section season, the Bucs proved their greatness with impressive post-season victories and dramatic wins on the way to winning a WPIAL championship and finishing second in the PIAA.

Chartiers-Houston’s WPIAL title was the first district softball championship won by a Washington County school.

“I knew the group was going to be something special,” said Dan Ross, who coached the team. “I saw them play softball when they were young. You could see we had something special coming.

“We had five freshmen coming in and we felt the ’87 and ’88 seasons we had a great chance to make the WPIAL finals. We thought we could be that good.”

How good were the Bucs in ’87?

• They had just one senior on their 18-player roster and won 25 consecutive games before losing in the PIAA championship game.
• Chartiers-Houston became the first girls’ softball team from Washington County to win a WPIAL crown when Paula Sculimbrene smashed a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth to defeat New Brighton, 4-3.
• Sculimbrene was center stage again in the PIAA semifinals, blasting a lead-off home run in the fifth inning to push the Bucs to a 6-2 win over Linesville. It was the first home run hit out of Doc Norcross Stadium at Shippensburg in the history of the softball playoffs. At that time, the stadium had hosted between 125 and 150 postseason games since the tournament began in 1976.

“We all knew each other so well,” Sculimbrene said. “We had played a lot of softball together through the years, in the youth leagues. We were comfortable with one another. We worked well together.

“Almost all of us were coached by our fathers through youth leagues and that created such a fan base once we reached varsity. Our families had made such an investment in softball. We were a young team. We did well in the section and built momentum.

“We had good pitching,” she continued. “Really, everyone was so close. We had such support from everyone, our families, student body and the community. They’d bring students in buses to our games and they brought signs. It was very nice.”

Tricia Fabian Alderson was the final piece to the Bucs’ puzzle. Late in the 1986 season, she took over as the team’s starting pitcher.

She fortified Chartiers-Houston’s starting lineup and made a big impact, increasing their chances substantially in 1987.

“Tricia being able to come in and pitch the way she did late in 1986 and being established coming into the ’87 season was icing on the cake,” Ross said.

“We had a great infield and outfield. We were in business and rolling at that point.”

Alderson, who has been highly-successful as the Bucs’ coach has Chartiers-Houston in the WPIAL Class AA quarterfinals today against traditionally tough Laurel. Alderson won her 400th career game as a coach a few weeks ago. She was one of the top pitchers in the state and one of the best ever in Washington County and the state during her playing days.

“Most of the girls there were really good,” Alderson said. “I was just starting out. When I was a freshman in high school, I played some varsity in the infield, but I was not an everyday starter which I was not too happy about. I kept working on my own and practicing pitching at home thinking that maybe I would get to play more as a sophomore. I didn’t want to continue to sit on the bench, so I figured I needed to get good to play and that pitching was probably my best opportunity to get on the field

“One day late in the (’86) season, Mr. Ross just happened to see me pitch after practice, and then he started to put me in some games. I was doing well, and the rest was history. I became the everyday starter late in my freshman year and into the playoffs that season.”

Blazing a path

Sculimbrene said that winning so many games consecutively and having shown the ability to win so many close games buoyed everyone’s confidence and allowed the team to believe it could win in just about any fashion.

“Especially, when we got into the playoffs and played pretty well in the early games, we thought we definitely had a chance to win a championship,” she said.

The Bucs defeated District 6 champion Chief Logan, 5-2, in the first round of the PIAA tournament. They followed with a 4-0 win over District 5 champion Northern Bedford.

It was Alderson’s 13th shutout and qualified Chartiers-Houston for the state semifinals. She threw six no-hitters and struck out more than 224 batters.

Other key players were second baseman Erin Novak and lead-off hitter Rae Lynn Gostic.

“Everyone on the team was very focused and wanted to go as far as we could,” Alderson said. “When we stepped across the white lines, everything just seemed to click and we were locked in. It was just a bunch of athletes playing ball and playing well. Many members of the team played other sports together, so that helped with just being able to communicate well with each other on the field which is so key on any championship team.

“We got kind of used to playing those close, extra-inning games. When you are used to being in games like that, you stay calm and don’t panic. We always felt like we were going to pull it out. “

Ross admitted, he and his coaching staff would have felt shortchanged if the ’87 Bucs didn’t make a serious push for a WPIAL title nor make a deep run in the state playoffs.

Ross was assisted by the late Dick Fabian – Alderson’s father – and Ray Caumo.

“We expected big things,” Ross said. “We knew we would have a good season. We wanted much more.”

Alderson thinks the winning attitude and high expectations were forged in the mid-1980s.

“I felt like we could make a run (in ’87) if we all kept working hard and improving,” she said. “We saw what was out there. Our coaches knew what we needed to do to make a run. Honestly, I think we just enjoyed the game so much and wanted to keep playing with each other. It was like ‘OK, this is the next game on the schedule. Let’s go play again, and if we win, we can keep playing together.'”

The dramatic PIAA semifinals win had the Bucs in position to capture a state championship.

“I was a little concerned about Minersville” Ross said. “We all felt good about ourselves though.”

Weather delayed the state championship game four days. Chartiers-Houston made the trip to Shippensburg twice.

In the end, the Bucs lost, 2-0.

“It was a factor, going up there twice,” Sculimbrene said. “We didn’t play our game and were a little off our games. It’s a long trip. We had to wait to play the game.

“It was a great season. But it was tough losing that game. Everyone was so invested in it.”

A controversial runners interference call cost the Bucs two runs.

Ross still laments that defeat 35 years later.

“The (call) was the beginning of the end,” Ross said. “You get a bad feeling in your gut when you win 25 games in a row and go that far and lose the last one. We had a very good team in 1987 and it re-wrote history.”

For the players, it was also deflating.

“It meant everything to me to represent our school, win championships, and make it to the state finals,” Alderson said. “Sharing success and championships can bind a team together. Was that the case at Chartiers-Houston? Yes, for sure. We were a close team and had a lot of fun winning games, traveling on the bus to games, and so on. We had a large community following, and it was awesome. The fact that I was able to share it with my dad who was one of our assistant coaches was also amazing for me.

“Losing in the state finals was heartbreaking. We were so ready to play the next day, so to have to drive home then drive back several days later, was rough. We thought we had gone up a couple runs on Minersville, and there was (that) controversial interference call that took runs off the board for us. Then losing such a close game was so difficult. That PIAA loss was one of the reasons I wanted to coach because that was the only way I could get back to that game after my playing career was over. Looking back on it now that I am older, the loss still hurts, but knowing how far we went and the tradition we started at Chartiers-Houston, it was still an amazing accomplishment and the beginning of something special here.”