Local teams ready for playoffs

By JEREMY SELLEW
jsellew@yourmvi.com

Over the next two afternoons, local baseball and softball teams will learn where they fall in the WPIAL championships.

Softball brackets will be released today at 2 p.m., with baseball brackets being released Friday.

Locally, seven teams find themselves in the baseball playoffs out of the 77 that qualified.

Belle Vernon, Ringgold, Thomas Jefferson and Elizabeth Forward will be in the Class 4A bracket.

South Allegheny will represent the Valley in Class 3A.

In 2A, Serra Catholic and Charleroi will be in.

There are 10 local softball teams gearing up for their championship runs.

In Class 5A, Thomas Jefferson is in. Elizabeth Forward, Belle Vernon and McKeesport will land in the Class 4A bracket.

In 3A, Yough is the only local participant.

Three local teams are in the Class 2A field with Bentworth, Serra Catholic and Charleroi in the field.

In Class 1A, Frazier and Monessen clinched a spot out of the same section.

Softball
Frazier 3, Uniontown 1

Jayanna Ciferno doubled and drove in a pair of runs to lead the Commodores in completing an unbeaten regular season.

The Commodores (13-0) scored all of their runs in the top of the first inning as they were stymied by Uniontown pitcher Emmaleigh Noah the rest of the way.

Grace Polkabla added an RBI single for Frazier.

Addison Hiles got the win tossing another complete game with four hits allowed and seven strikeouts.

Noah took the loss after allowing six hits and the three earned runs. She struck out six.

South Park 11, Ringgold 0 (5)

Kylie Mettrick’s three hits and two RBIs led the Eagles to a dominant win over the Rams.

Winning pitcher Sydney Sekely also posted three hits for South Park (16-1).

Ringgold (2-14) managed three hits in the contest but couldn’t manage to bring a run home. The Eagles posted 16 hits.

The Rams will conclude their regular season Friday against Bethel Park.

South Fayette 11,
McKeesport 1

South Fayette scored nine runs in the final two innings to flip a close game upside down at McKeesport.

Jillian Hurbanek brought three runs in and had two hits for SF (11-5) as the Tigers (7-9) lagged behind offensively.

Ryenn Thomas’ double was one of their two hits as Jessica Miller drove in the lone run for McKeesport.

McKeesport has one more regular season game today at Penn Hills.

Baseball
Bentworth 4, Avella 1

All five runs were scored in two innings as Bentworth used a strong performance from Jacob Burt to seal a win.

Burt went 5 2/3 innings and allowed just one hit and one run. He struck out 11 batters as Avella posted just two hits all game.

The Bearcats (4-11) had eight hits as Ben Hays and Gavin Linton-Rush each had two. Linton-Rush and Anthony Puckey each had one RBI for Bentworth.

The win ended the season for the Bearcats.