Remember When?: Yough wins PIAA championship

By JOSÉ NEGRON

MVI Sports

The last time a Mon Valley school won a state championship was 2004 when the Monessen Greyhounds girls’ basketball team won both WPIAL and PIAA Class A titles. 

Now there are new  state champions that reside in the Mon Valley, this time in the sport of softball. 

Yough relied on an effective pitching performance by Macy Mularski and late inning heroics by Cassidy Pearce to defeat Lampeter-Strasburg, 1-0, to win the PIAA Class AAA championship at Penn State’s Beard Field at Nittany Lion Softball Park. 

The Cougars (22-3) clinched their first state title in school history, not just in softball, but any team sport.  

“It feels amazing,” Mularski said. “I don’t even know how to express myself and I feel like this isn’t even happening. Being a senior, you can’t go out any better way than winning a state championship.”

In seven shutout innings, Mularski scattered two hits while walking one and striking out four. She escaped a couple of jams early and sat down the Pioneers offense 1-2-3 in three of the last four innings. 

“She did a great job and worked away,” Cougars coach Dutch Harvey said. “Once she got settled in, she pitched to our defense, she hit her spots and they hit the ball where they were supposed to hit the ball.” 

Mularski consistently induced ground balls and pop-ups, but that is something she expects due to her pitching style. 

“With my pitches, a lot of people tend to pop up, so they’re (the defense) ready for those a lot,” Mularski said. “I have 100 percent confidence in my team.” 

After six scoreless frames, the Yough bats began to come alive against Pioneers’ pitcher Jordan Weaver, a Mount St Mary’s recruit who accumulated over 200 strikeouts this season. 

Following a one-out double by Olivia Miller in the seventh, Cassidy Pearce lined an RBI double into the right-center field gap to give the Cougars a 1-0 lead. 

Pearce, who will not play at Penn State-Greater Allegheny next year, wanted to put 110-percent effort into the final game of her softball career. 

“Since I was five, I have been playing this game,” Pearce said. “This is my last one so the whole game my mentality was go big or go home on every play.” 

To read the rest of this story, please see a copy of Wednesday’s Mon Valley Independent, call 724-314-0035 to subscribe or subscribe to our online edition at https://e.monvalleyindependent.com.