May 21, 2026 By Chris Dugan 4 min read

McMURRAY – The one advantage to being the visiting team in a softball game is you have the first opportunity to take a lead, or to “set the tone” as Bentworth pitcher Sydney Gonglik says.

Bentworth did just that Thursday afternoon in the highly anticipated WPIAL Class 2A semifinal game against Chartiers-Houston.

The second-seeded Bearcats used some risky and daring baserunning by Gonglik, along with one key swing of the bat by Makayla Gonglik, in the first inning to forge an early lead. That was all third-seeded Bentworth needed as it rode another masterful pitching performance by Sydney Gonglik to beat second-seeded Chartiers-Houston, 2-1, at the Pleasant Valley Elementary School field.

The win sends Bentworth (20-2) to the championship game for the second time in three years. The Bearcats will play Neshannock, a 7-5 winner over Laurel in the other semifinal, next week at Penn West California. It will be a rematch of the 2024 championship game won by Neshannock.

Chartiers-Houston (18-3) will play Laurel in a third-place game. The Bucs are assured of a berth in the PIAA playoffs.

If anybody among the large crowd was late getting to the game and missed the first few batters, then they didn’t see the key part of the game. Sydney Gonglik led off with a double into the gap in right centerfield. The Bearcats’ Sofia Gaussa was then nicked by a pitch to give Bentworth two runners on base and no outs.

With Makayla Gonglik at the plate, a pitch from Chartiers-Houston pitcher Taryne Drilak was low and skipped past catcher Sydney English, who had trouble finding the ball after it went behind the home plate umpire to the backstop. Gonglik advanced to third base, and when she saw the ball resting at the backstop, she kept running and raced all the way around to score the game’s first run.

“You have to set the tone right away,” Sydney Gonglik said. “It was the first inning, so set the tone. I saw the ball at the backstop and I was going to keep going.”

Gaussa advanced to third base on the play.

Makayla Gonglik then slapped an RBI single through the left side of the infield to give Bentworth a 2-0 lead.

That would be all the scoring for Bentworth, though the Bearcats had plenty of opportunities. They went 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position and one of the hits resulted in an out.

Drilak scattered eight hits and walked seven. She struck out four.

“I thought Taryne was really good,” C-H coach Trisha Alderson said.

Chartiers-Houston had what was a solid game plan on offense. The Bucs wanted to avoid strikeouts, put the ball in play and make the Bearcats’ defense make more plays than they are used to making in a game.

The only problem with the plan was it didn’t take into account all the popups and fly balls the Bucs hit. They helped Sydney Gonglik retire the first two hitters in an inning six times.

“We popped up way too many times,” Alderson said. “We looked prepared for (Gonglik’s) speed, but we didn’t have a ton of baserunners. We bunted the ball, but right at their third baseman (Nora Lindley). They made plays.”

“I said yesterday that defense was going to win this one,” said Bentworth coach Jack Cramer. “We’ve been able to win the close ones. This year we’ve made only 16 errors. Last year we made 45. That has made a big difference.”

“That’s as good as our defense has looked,” Sydney Gonglik added.

Sydney Gonglik took a shutout into the sixth inning and finished with a four-hitter. She walked two and struck out seven.

Chartiers-Houston avoided the shutout with a run in the sixth inning. Lauren Rush, who had two hits, led off with a single and was bunted to second base by Kiera Drilak. Following a strikeout, Taryne Drilak singled to score Rush and cut the Bearcats’ lead in half.

Bentworth had a chance to add to its lead in the seventh inning when it had three singles but one of them led to an out. With Nora Lindley at second base, Alexa Babirad singled to left field. Lindley rounded third base, stopped, then ran again but was an easy out at home plate because of a strong and accurate throw by C-H left fielder Aubree English.

The Bucs had the 7-8-9 hitters up in the bottom of the seventh and they were retired in order.

“We got the monkey off our back,” Cramer said. “My first year as coach, Chartiers-Houston beat us 2-1 in the semifinals, so it has taken a long time to get back to this.”