Seneca Valley softball wins 1st WPIAL title since 1999
CALIFORNIA, Pa. — Seneca Valley was heating up well before it took the diamond for the WPIAL Class 6A softball title game Wednesday afternoon.
After suffering three consecutive losses in late April — the last two of which at Pine-Richland and Norwin by a combined 20-1 score — the Raiders embarked on a winning surge that propelled them to California (Pa.) University’s Lillie Field.
There, they climbed to the district summit with a 9-5 triumph over North Allegheny, who they split their regular season series with.
“I just think (that) playing in our section prepares us for this kind of play,” said Marlesse Hames, Seneca Valley’s first-year coach. “Being able to see (the Tigers) twice already helped us. Our girls are just hot hitting. We just started hitting.”
Well ... not right away.
In their half of the first, the Raiders went down in order. In the top of the second, North Allegheny’s Sydni Junker laid down a successful sacrifice bunt to advance Carlyn Vaupel, who reached on a walk to lead off the frame.
The latter tested her luck in rounding second base and heading for third, and the Seneca Valley throw sailed, allowing her to come across.
Seneca Valley promptly responded when freshman starting hurler Lexie Hames helped her own cause with a two-run blast to straight-away center field on the first pitch she saw in her initial plate appearance.
“It took some stress off,” Lexie said. “It gave more energy. I feel like energy wins games and we had so much of that.
“There was just no stopping us today.”
That was evident after the Raiders responded to another error that preceded Reagan Deitrick’s two-run single, which gave the Tigers a 3-2 edge going into the bottom third.
The Raiders ripped off three straight hits to kick off that inning. The last of which — senior Maddie Gross’ three-run homer to center — gave Seneca Valley a permanent lead.
“We just kept pushing,” Lexie said. “I feel like we could’ve definitely let our energy drop with all those errors, (but) we kept it up and we did a really good job with that.”
The Raiders batted around in that third inning, as senior Angelina Chardella and freshman Bella Gross both came through with RBI knocks, as well.
After not conceding an earned run in her previous seven outings, the younger Hames had to regroup in the fifth inning after giving up four straight singles and two scores before recording an out.
“She was pretty nervous, I think, starting this game,” Coach Hames said. “(With) the heat, I could tell when I went out. She was breathing kind of heavy and she was getting tired.”
She asked her daughter to find her third gear.
“I said, ‘We want to finish this. You deserve to be on this mound ... Let’s get down to business,’” Coach Hames said.
Lexie then caught a break when the Tigers’ Annalyn Isaacs was cut down trying to come home on Mayson Brokos’ dropped third strike. She got her next challenger to fly out to stop the bleeding and ended up going the whole way, tossing 128 pitches and not allowing an extra-base hit.
North Allegheny coach Morgan Vescovi stressed the fact that she’s excited to play the now-defending champions again. The crews might even cross paths during the state tournament, which starts on Monday.
“Our section is a tough section,” Vescovi said. “It’s hard when you really parse it down. There’s few weak points in that section. I think they deserve a lot of credit ... It was cool to see a four- and a seven-seed match up in this kind of game.”
The WPIAL title is the Raiders’ first since 1999.
North Allegheny 012 020 0 — 5 8 1
Seneca Valley 026 010 — 9 12 3
W: Lexie Hames 7IP (6K, 4BB). L: Anne Melle 2IP (0K, 1BB).
North Allegheny (13-10): McDonough 2-1B, Deitrick 2-1B 2RBI, Melle 1B R, Isaacs 1B RBI, Junker 1B RBI, Brokos 1B
Seneca Valley (13-6): Hayley Walter 1B, Kara Pasquale 2-1B RBI R, Mia Ryan 1B R, Maddie Gross 1B HR 3RBI R, Lexie Hames HR 2RBI R, Ainsley McLane 1B, Bella Gross 1B 2B 2RBI, Angelina Chardella 2-1B RBI
