Sites released for PIAA quarters
After “Black Monday” – when a lot of teams’ seasons come to an end – there are still a few local teams that have advanced to the PIAA quarterfinals.
Six teams was whittled down to four, though, as Serra Catholic’s baseball season came to an end, as did Thomas Jefferson’s season.
Softball-wise, all three local teams survived and will continue their march in search of a state championship.
The PIAA announced Tuesday when and where teams will be traveling to with three out of four relatively close to home.
Bentworth and Elizabeth Forward will both be playing WPIAL semifinal rematches with both games on the turf at Gateway High School in a doubleheader.
The Bearcats (18-2) will face off against Laurel (20-5) in the 4 p.m. contest in Monroeville.
It will be a matchup the Spartans will be licking their chops to get to after Bentworth won a 2-1 thriller a couple of weeks ago on Sofia Gaussa’s two-run walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Anyone that’s a fan of strikeouts may want to get their seat early as Bentworth’s Sydney Gonglik (14) and Laurel’s Autumn Boyd (13) combined for 27 in the first meeting.
The Valley’s lone WPIAL champion, Elizabeth Forward, will face off against Chartiers Valley in the opening game at 2 p.m. Thursday.
In the WPIAL semifinals, EF (21-1) claimed a 7-2 win over the Colts (18-4) at West Mifflin as Addy Nigut and Shelby Telegdy combined for five of their team’s 10 hits with the latter striking out 10 in the circle.
The Warriors faced District 3 third-place team Big Spring and needed Julia Johnson’s solo blast in the bottom of the eighth to pull out a 1-0 win.
Despite the close game, the Bulldogs weren’t really a threat with only three singles off Telegdy.
In Class 5A, WPIAL runner- up Thomas Jefferson will make the 160-mile, three-hour trek to Norlo Park Softball Complex in Chambersburg to take on District 1 runner-up West Chester East (16-8) for a noon start.
The Jaguars (13-8) are coming off a 17-4 thrashing of District 3’s Solanco Monday. The Vikings beat District 11 champion Whitehall, 8-5, in their first-round game.
On the baseball diamond, South Allegheny continues the best season in program history with a trip to 1st Commonwealth Field in Homer City.
The Gladiators (20-5) will take on the Chucks (16-3) of Punxsutawney in the quarterfinals with a 7 p.m. first pitch.
Punxsutawney entered the tournament as the District 9 champion and defeated WPIAL runner-up Riverside 3-0 on Monday.
The Glads were the No. 3 team from the WPIAL and hammered District 6 champ Central Cambria, 10-3, in their first-round matchup.
Catch previews of all four local contests in Thursday’s edition of the MVI.
