Belle Vernon softball wins 5th WPIAL title
Rob Burchianti | Herald-Standard
Rob Burchianti/For the Observer-Reporter
Belle Vernon’s Talia Ross pitches against Montour in Wednesday’s WPIAL Class 4A championship game at Lilley Field. Ross pitched 6 2/3 innings in relief and struck out 10 to earn the win in the Leopards’ 8-7 victory in eight innings.
Jim Downey/For the Observer-Reporter
Belle Vernon’s Gracie Sokol shows the ball to the home plate umpire after she applied the tag on Montour’s Jana Hess for the final out of the WPIAL Class 4A softball championship game Wednesday at Lilley Field.
Rob Burchianti/For the Observer-Reporter
Belle Vernon's softball team poses with the WPIAL Class 4A championship trophy after defeating Montour, 8-7, in eight innings Wednesday at PennWest University-California's Lilley Field.
INDIANA – Belle Vernon head coach Tom Rodriguez got his one for the thumb in the Leopards’ 8-7 victory over Montour in eight innings Wednesday afternoon in the WPIAL Class 4A softball finals at Penn West California’s Lilley Field.
Rodriguez, while glad to win his fifth WPIAL championship, wanted to make sure his team was acknowledged. Belle Vernon’s previous district titles were in 2007, ’15, ’17 and ’18.
“I am happy for the girls,” Rodriguez said. “We lost to them (Montour) in the WPIAL semifinals by a score of 3-2 in 2012, and my assistant coach, Haley (Bashada) was pitching. The girls worked hard, and this game could have gone one way or another.”
The veteran coach had to wait nervously over three hours to get his fifth gold medal as the wild-back-and-forth affair ended with a play at the plate in the bottom of the eighth.
With two outs and the Spartans (15-4) trailing by three, starting pitcher Kaitlin Molitoris singled to left field to score Mia Ardnt and Avrie Polo to cut the deficit to one.
Belle Vernon left fielder Alexa Daniels fired the ball in to stop Jana Hess from scoring, but the ball bounced off the glove of Leopards catcher Mia Zubovic and hit the backstop.
Hess sprinted toward the plate to score the tying run, but Zuvoic fired the ball to first baseman Gracie Sokol, who was covering at the plate. Sokol applied the tag for the final out.
“I thought we were going to go into more innings,” Daniels said. “I was trying to throw to third, but I kind of overthrew Lauren, but it ended up working out in the end, so I’m thankful for that.
“We knew Montour was a very good team, and we were going to have a lot of competition. I believe this game was destined to have it end on a play like that. It has been a dream of mine since I was little to be a WPIAL champion, so this is great.”
Montour coach Ken Kutchman questioned the call at the plate, plus the seven illegal pitches that were called against Molitoris.
“I really thought she was underneath the tag,” Kutchman said. “All of the illegal pitches were very frustrating because we haven’t had that call against us all season, including the playoffs. I am proud of the fight in our team. We will regroup and be ready to play next week in the state playoffs.”
Belle Vernon (18-4) took an 8-5 lead in the top of the eighth on Daniels’ run-scoring triple to left field, Sokol’s sacrifice fly to center and Lauren VanDivner’s base hit to left.
VanDivner was 4-for-4 with a double, three singles and three RBI.
“It turned out we needed all three of those runs,” Rodriguez said. “You can never score enough runs. Lexi Daniels was my catcher when Mia Zubovic and Lauren VanDivner came up as freshmen, and she was great, but she told me that she would play anywhere I needed her.”
The Leopards jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first as Daniels and Maren Metikosh scored on VanDivner’s two-run single to center. Daniels was hit by a pitch and Metikosh drew a walk.
The Spartans responded with two in the bottom of the frame when Gia Labrie and Avrie Polo scored on Shania Cope’s two-run double. Labrie and Polo singled to reach first base safely.
Belle Vernon added two in the third on Ava Zubovic’s two-run single to center for a 4-4 score. Metikosh walked and Mia Zubovic singled to set the stage for Ava Zubovic.
Metikosh and courtesy runner Bella Williams scored on Ava Zubovic’s hit.
Montour took its only lead in the fourth on Labrie’s base hit to center for a 5-4 advantage.
The Leopards knotted the score in the fifth on Ava Zubovic’s single to left that drove in Bella Williams, who was running for Mia Zubovic, who walked.
Talia Ross earned the win after taking over for starter Olivia Kolowitz in the second. Ross yielded three earned runs on five hits over 6 2/3 innings. She struck out 10 and walked six.
“I didn’t know who was going to start this game when I woke up this morning,” Ross said. “He (Rodriguez) hasn’t told us all playoffs long who is going to start until we are about ready to take the field, and it is kind of a love-hate thing because we are eager to know who is going to pitch, but it is nice because we both warm-up like we are going to start, and we are both ready.”