Familiar foes to meet in state quarterfinals

Trinity and Belle Vernon will meet familiar foes in the quarterfinals of the state softball playoffs Thursday.
The Hillers (20-2) face Shaler (20-1) at Gateway High School, while the Leopards (19-4) battle section-rival Elizabeth Forward (19-1) at Hempfield. Both games are scheduled to start at 4:30 p.m.
Trinity had to go through the then-undefeated Titans in the semifinals of the WPIAL Class 5A playoffs on its way to the program’s first district title.
The Hillers won the game, 5-4, in eight innings, to advance to the district championship game, where they downed top seed and defending champion, Armstrong, 11-7.
“The girls are upbeat, and the expectations are high,” Trinity coach Shawn Gray said. “The girls set goals this year to win a section, WPIAL and state championship. We have checked off two of those boxes and are three games away from the third, but we are just worried about Thursday right now.”
Belle Vernon lost both of its section games to the Warriors by scores of 5-2 and 11-1, but the Leopards put it all together in a 10-1 rout in the semifinals of the WPIAL Class 4A playoffs on their way to the program’s fifth district championship.
“Hopefully, it will end up like the last game where we hit well and played good defense,” Belle Vernon coach Tom Rodriguez said. “We had lost the last eight games to them before the semifinal win, but we had a pretty-good winning streak going before that, so it goes back-and-forth.”
Belle Vernon, like Trinity, also handed an opponent its first loss of the season in defeating Elizabeth Forward, but Rodriguez knows the challenge the Warriors present.
“EF has five girls that are batting over .500 and a really solid pitcher,” Rodriguez said. “We know that it will be a tough game, but the girls are ready to go.”
The Leopards have five players in their lineup batting .400 or better in Lexi Daniels, Gracie Sokol, Maren Metikosh, Mia Zubovic and Lauren VanDivner. Sokol leads the team in home runs with six and VanDivner in RBI with 30.
Rodriguez uses two pitchers in Olivia Kolowitz and Talia Ross, but who starts depends on the matchup. Kolowitz is 11-1 with a 2.00 ERA and Ross is 8-3 with a 2.29 ERA.
“I’ll probably go with the lefty (Ross), but we will see how the game goes,” Rodriguez said. “Having two pitchers of their caliber is really nice to have because you never know if a girl is going to get sick or just not have her best stuff. We are not afraid to insert the other if things aren’t going our way.”
Shaler freshman pitcher Bria Boslijevac, who had 16 strikeouts in the first meeting, can bring the heat, but Gray said the game plan won’t change.
“Her velocity is very good, and we know what she is going to do,” Gray said.
Boslijevac also hit a two-run homer and tripled in the WPIAL semifinals.
Despite Boslijevac’s velocity, the Hillers had 10 hits, including, two home runs by Hanna Suhoski, who has a team-leading eight.
Amber Morgan had three hits and Madison Argo doubled against Boslijevac.
Suhoski leads the team in RBI with 28 and has 31 hits. Morgan has a team-leading 32 hits.
Suhoski, a sophomore, plays beyond her age, and is strong defensively at shortstop.
“Her (Suhoski) poise at the plate is what stands out,” Gray said. “She knows the strike zone very well and attacks.”
Trinity has seven seniors in the starting lineup, including Taylor Dunn at pitcher. Dunn doesn’t have the velocity of Boslijevac, but the senior and Washington & Jefferson College recruit is 19-2 with 97 strikeouts and 20 walks.
“Our seniors are ready for this,” Gray said. “They graduate Friday, but even though some will play in college, they don’t want this to end until we are playing for the state championship.”
Mikes, Bucs in action
Carmichaels (19-1) rebounded from its 10-8 setback to Union in the WPIAL Class A championship to blank DuBois Central Catholic, 7-0, in the first round of the state playoffs on Monday.
Freshman pitcher Bailey Barnyak struck out nine and didn’t walk a batter in throwing a five-hit shutout to set up a quarterfinal matchup against Glendale (20-4) at Somerset High School at 4 p.m.
Chartiers-Houston (15-6) is no strangers to the state playoffs, and coach Tricia Alderson’s team showed it in winning their first-round game, 13-3, over Cambridge Springs.
Meadow Ferri had 15 strikeouts and C-H’s Nos. 1 through 4 hitters in the lineup – Ella Richey, Lauren Rush, Ferri and Seanna Riggle – combined for nine hits, nine runs and eight RBI.
Chartiers-Houston plays Claysburg-Kimmel (21-3) Thursday at Hempfield. First pitch is 2 p.m.
Last one standing
Burgettstown (16-4) is the lone area baseball team alive in the state tournament after the Blue Devils defeated Redbank Valley, 6-1, in the first round of Class 2A play behind 11 strikeouts from lefty Andrew Bredel.
Burgettstown plays District 10 Champion Sharpsville (15-7) in the quarterfinals at Westminster College in New Wilmington. First pitch is 2:30 p.m.