Apr 11, 2025 By Jerin Steele 4 min read

While every other player wore long sleeves, even a few donned hooded sweatshirts, understandably so on a cold, overcast and blustery Friday afternoon, Trinity’s Nina Christy bucked the trend.

She stood at her third base post in short sleeves all game.

“Being cold is a mindset,” Christy said.

Christy was describing the weather, what she said can be translated over to hitting as well.

The Hillers had a tough start to the day at the plate with one hit through four innings, but with the right mindset and approach, broke out in a big way in the fifth and sixth.

Christy got it started with an RBI double and the Hillers ended up with 10 more hits afterward to rally for a 13-5 victory over Bethel Park in a Class 5A Section 4 win at Trinity Middle School.

“It started off with one hit and then everyone was hitting,” Christy said. “We were passing the bat. One person gets a hit, and the rest of the team feeds off that.”

The Hillers (4-1, 6-5) handed Bethel Park (2-1, 7-1) its first loss of the season, but had to rally to do so.

It had some similarities to Wednesday’s 7-6 victory over Connellsville, where Trinity trailed 6-2 after five and won 7-6.

This time they were down 5-1 after four and a half innings, but plated five in the fifth and seven in the sixth.

Charlotte Hinkler led off the fifth with a walk before Christy’s RBI double. Ally Krenzelak followed with a single up the first-base line that scored Christy.

Maddie Ray walked and Hannah Suhoski delivered the big blow, ripping a triple to the right-center gap that scored two runs to tie the game.

“”It felt good off the bat,” Suhoski said. “I knew I hit it hard, so I figured I better start running.”

Suhoski then scored on an RBI groundout by Madelyn Hall to put the Hillers in front 6-5.

Then, Ray got an opportunity to do something not many pitchers get – save a game she started.

Ray pitched the first two innings, then was relieved by winning pitcher Gabby Humphries for the next three innings, but once Trinity took the lead, Ray was reinserted at pitcher.

Ray ended up striking out the side in the sixth to preserve Trinity’s one-run lead.

“That was a great inning,” Suhoski said. “That really sealed it I think.”

The Hillers sent 11 hitters to the plate in the sixth and scored seven times to put the game away.

Christy smacked another double, Krenzelak followed with a single and Ray knocked both of them in with a double. Suhoski had an RBI double, Humphries hit an RBI single up the middle and Alexa Zawacki plated a pair with a single.

To illustrate how well things went for Trinity in the sixth, Hall struck out, but the ball got away from Bethel Park catcher Nina DePasquale and Hall made it all the way to second base.

That was the only Hiller batter to strike out in the game and it didn’t even end in an out.

Ray retired the side in order in the seventh to finish the win.

The Black Hawks scored two runs in the first on a double by Madison Timms. They added three more in the fifth, an inning highlighted by a two-run single by Anastasia Spano.

Even though they built a lead Bethel Park coach Nicole Davis wasn’t comfortable.

“We just weren’t ourselves today from the start really,” Davis said. “We usually have a little more fire, but I have confidence that will shift moving forward. We were also down two starters today, so that maybe played a role as well in terms of our mentality.

“We’re usually way more aggressive at the plate. We were a little soft in terms of their approach at the plate. We coach them to be aggressive and they let counts get deeper. That led to not having as great of pitches to swing at compared to swinging earlier.”