Early agate
SOFTBALL
Registration is open to teams and/or players wanting to play in the Mens Church Softball League of the South Hills. Games are played as doubleheaders on Saturdays, and sometimes makeup Fridays based on schedule and requests. Regular season runs from May through July and into August/playoffs. Games are played in Bethel Park or Bridgeville. Entry fee is per team or by individual. For more info contact Bob Keibler, League Commissioner, at 724-518-6072 or rkeibler@nacahtech.com.
ON THIS DATE
Feb. 25
1924 – Marie Boyd scores 156 points in a Maryland high school basketball game (163-3).
1946 – Centerville High School receives points form only three players but they’re enough to beat South Union 52-27 in a WPIAL Class B playoff game. Wally Skavarch leads Centerville with 23 points, Francis Hamilla scores 18 and Pat Ricciuti 11.
1954 – The WPIAL Division Committee declares East Bethlehem the Section 18 basketball champion after ruling that Centerville used an ineligible player. East Bethlehem and Centerville had tied for the section title.
1964 – Cassius Clay wins the world heavyweight title when Sonny Liston is unable to answer the bell for the seventh round at Convention Hall in Miami Beach, Fla.
1967 – Rich Kotarsky scores 31 points as California State wins the State College West Division basketball title with a 91-80 victory at Slippery Rock.
1984 – The Pittsburgh Maulers make their debut in the United States Football League, losing 7-3 to the Oklahoma Outlaws in a cold, driving rain in Tulsa. Heisman Trophy winner Mike Rozier gains only 27 yards on 16 carries for the Maulers.
1984 – Beth-Center wins its first WPIAL wrestling championship, defeating Fort Cherry 40-26 in the Class AA final at Chartiers Valley.
1985 – Michael Wilson’s steal and slam dunk with five seconds remaining caps California University’s comeback from a 12-point second-half deficit and gives the Vulcans a 67-65 victory over IUP in the PSAC West Division basketball tournament semifinals.
1987 – The Southern Methodist football team is suspended for the 1987 season after investigations reveal that players received money from a booster slush fund.
1987 – Burgettstown’s Kevin Krzeczowski steals an inbounds pass and makes the front end of a one-and-one with no time left in regulation to force overtime, and the Blue Devils go on to defeat Brentwood 58-56 in the first round of the WPIAL Class AA playoffs at Charleroi High School.
1995 – Czar Walsh rebounds his own miss and flips in the game-winning basket as Ringgold defeats New Castle 71-70 in the WPIAL Class AAAA quarterfinals at Robert Morris University.
1995 – Jeremy Galish’s buzzer-beating shots gives Burgettstown a 59-58 victory over defending state champion Aliquippa in the WPIAL Class AA quarterfinals at Ambridge.
1999 – Larry Piper resigns as West Greene’s head football coach, ending his second stint with the Pioneers. Piper had a combined 58-61-1 record and guided West Greene to the 1993 WPIAL Class A title game.
2004 – The Pittsburgh Penguins snap an 18-game winless streak with a 4-3 overtime victory over Phoenix. The Penguins come back from a 3-1 deficit for their first win since Jan. 12 at Philadelphia.
2010 – Trinity’s Chelsea Fonner wins the WPIAL Individual Rifle championship with a score of 200-19x.
2011 – Mike Lamberti scores a career-high 30 points, leading South Fayette to an 87-58 win over Uniontown in the WPIAL basketball playoffs at Canon-McMillan.
2012 – Local wrestlers dominate at the WPIAL Class AA wrestling championships, winning eight weight classes. Among them are two sets of teammates who win in consecutive weight classes: Fort Cherry’s Greg Kumer (220) and Corey Garry (heavyweight), and Charleroi’s Josh Kwasny (132) and Nick Gavazzi (138).
Feb. 26
1926 – Tiger Flowers dethrones Harry Greb of Pittsburgh in a 15-round split decision to win the world middleweight boxing title at Madison Square Garden.
1935 – Babe Ruth is released by the New York Yankees and signed by the Boston Braves.
1947 – Coach Alton Grover’s East Washington boys basketball team finishes the regular season as the area’s lone unbeaten following a 44-30 victory over Peters Township that puts the Ghosts’ record at 22-0.
1954 – Dick Kurtz scores 28 points and Washington crushes South Union 78-35 in the first round of the WPIAL Class A basketball playoffs at the Pitt Field House.
1966 – Waynesburg wins its 11th consecutive section team title and has 10 champions in the Section 4 wrestling tournament at Beth-Center. The Raiders’ Dale Murdock (95 pounds), Dick Ketchem (120) and Bill Brunofsky (154) are repeat champions.
1969 – Terry Evans scores 22 points, Scott Herz adds 21 and Washington & Jefferson assures itself of at least a tie for the Presidents’ Athletic Conference title with a 93-74 victory over Bethany.
1980 – Guards Lowes Moore and Joe Fryz combine for 51 points as West Virginia upsets Duquesne 95-87 in the first round of the Eastern Eight basketball tournament at the Civic Arena.
1981 – The Boston Bruins beat the Minnesota North Stars 5-1 in a game marred by fights. The teams set an NHL record with 84 penalties worth 392 minutes, and 12 players are ejected.
1982 – Penn State’s Elaine Sobansky, a Trinity graduate, finishes third in the shot put at the USA-Mobil Track Championships at Madison Square Garden. Sobansky’s best throw is 52-6 1/2.
1983 – Canon-McMillan defeats Derry 35-16 to win the Class AAA title and Washington beats Jefferson-Morgan 33-16 in the Class AA final of the WPIAL Wrestling Team Tournament.
1986 – Angie Kelly scores all but one of her team’s total in the first half and finishes with 20 points as Jefferson-Morgan wins its first WPIAL girls basketball playoff game, 46-40, over South Side Beaver at Trinity.
1989 – Pittsburgh’s Mario Lemieux becomes the third NHL player to have 100 assists in a season, joining Bobby Orr and Wayne Gretzky. Lemieux gets three assists and a goal in the Penguins’ 8-6 loss to the Hartford Whalers.
1991 – Junior point guard Chris Cook scores 29 points and makes 13 of 16 free throws to lead West Greene to an 81-67 victory over Avella in the WPIAL Class A boys basketball playoffs at Trinity High School. It’s the first WPIAL playoff victory in West Greene’s history.
2006 – Leigh Sulkowski scores a game-high 25 points and Washington & Jefferson overcomes a 10-point deficit in the second half to beat visiting Thomas More, 61-58, in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference tournament championship game.
2008 – Matt Connor gives Peters Township its third consecutive WPIAL Class AAA champion in the 200 individual medley as he wins the gold medal in a career-best time of 1:55.28.
2011 – Trinity’s Kyle McWreath runs his record to 28-0 with a 5-2 decision over Waynebsurg’s Kyle Gray in the 215-pound finals of the Section 4-AAA tournament at Mt. Lebanon.
2011 – Charleroi’s Cody Wiercioch wins the 160-pound title at the WPIAL Class AA Championships with a 2-1 decision over Burell’s Traveis McKillop.
2011 – California University’s Kayla Smith scores a season-high 31 points, including her 2,000th career point, in the Vulcans’ 81-66 win at Lock Haven.