May 22, 2025 4 min read

Duquesne freshman Louie Liberatore has made an immediate impact for the Duquesne men’s track and field team.

A Canonsburg native and Canon-McMillan graduate, Liberatore has qualified for the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships in the men’s javelin, it was announced Thursday.

Liberatore earned his spot with a school-record throw of 64.50 meters (211 feet, 7 inches) at last weekend’s IC4A Championships. He is the first javelin qualifier in Duquesne history and enters the NCAA East First Round as the No. 32 seed. The top 48 athletes in each event were selected for first-round competition. The East Regional will be held May 28-31 in Jacksonville, Fla.

Liberatore has eclipsed the 60-meter mark five times this season. He was the silver medalist at the Atlantic 10 Championships and won individual titles at the George Mason Dalton Ebanks Invitational and the Saint Francis Red Flash Open. His record-setting mark at the IC4A meet earned him All-East honors and a bronze medal.

Liberatore is the first Duke to qualify for the NCAA men’s championships since 2022. He was twice named the Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week. Liberatore will be competing in the Under-20 Nationals in June.

In baseball

Columbia junior shortstop Sam Miller, a Peters Township graduate, was named the Ivy League Player of the Year.

The McMurray native hit a team-best .347 and led the conference with 15 home runs, 54 RBI and 48 runs in 44 starts.

Named to the Brooks Wallace Watch List for the nation’s top shortstops, Miller is second in Columbia history with 30 career homers, and his 15 this season put him third on the Lions’ single-season list. This is his second consecutive year being named to the all-conference first team.

Miller’s teammate at Columbia and Peters Township, second baseman Jack Kail, was named first team All-Ivy League.

Kail was third on the team with a .302 batting average. He hit 12 doubles, 2 triples and six home runs. He led the Ivy League with five sacrifice flies and has been stout defensively, committing only three errors.

Columbia won the Ivy League tournament championships and has clinched a berth in the NCAA tournament that begins next week.

Cincinnati sophomore catcher Jack Natili, a Venetia native and Peters Township graduate, was recently named second team All-Big 12 Conference.

During the regular season, Natili started 42 games behind the plate for UC and had a terrific year at the plate. He batted .328, which ranked third on the team, with eight home runs, 12 doubles, 47 RBI and 27 walks. Natili earned Big 12 Player and Newcomer of the Week honors last week after hitting .556 (10-for-18) in games at Oral Roberts and TCU. He has been on a tear since the calendar flipped to May, and is hitting .452 with three home runs, 15 RBI, and a .521 on-base percentage this month.

In Cincinnati’s 6-5 win over Texas Tech in the Big 12 tournament Wednesday, Natili went 1-for-4 with an RBI triple.

N Ben Shields, a sophomore from Charleroi, had a solid sophomore season at Allegheny.

A pitcher, Shields posted a 1-2 record in 11 appearances that includes two starts. He struck out 22 batters in 25 innings.

In softball

Grace Higgins ended a stellar career at Waynesburg as a three-time All-Presidents’ Athletic Conference selection, including two times on the first team, and a school record holder.

A second baseman from Canonsburg, Higgins was a first team pick this year after leading the PAC in hitting .476, which set the Yellow Jackets’ single-season record. The Canon-McMillan graduate also set the school record with 25 stolen bases. She led the PAC in on-base percentage and ranked third in stolen bases. Her 49 hits are tied for fourth-most in a season at Waynesburg. She set the school record a year ago.

Higgins had 16 multi-hit games, including a pair of four-hit games.

Two former Trinity standouts now playing at Washington & Jefferson helped the Presidents to a 13-win season.

Sophomore pitcher Taylor Dunn won seven games and made 14 starts. She led the Presidents with 36 strikeouts over 90 innings pitched and had a 4.36 ERA.

Sophomore second baseman Mirranda Rinehart was W&J’s third-leading hitter with a .350 batting average. She hit eight doubles and struck out only 10 times in 117 plate appearances. She led the team by getting hit with pitches 10 times.

Freshman Finley Hohn, a pitcher and first baseman for LaRoche, was the red hawks’ second-leading hitter with a .356 batting average.

A Trinity graduate, Hohn smacked a team-high 11 doubles and shared the team lead with 17 RBI.

Hohn pitched in 16 games, compiling a 1-2 record.

Compiled by Chris Dugan