Bill Beckner stories, Page 45

With his first year of professional basketball in the books, Jake Biss is making sure his game stays sharp in the offseason. The former Latrobe and Shippensburg standout guard, who played last season with the Dan Helder Suns in the Netherlands, signed to play this summer with the DuBois Dream,...

Elizabeth Forward restored the balance of power in its softball rivalry with Belle Vernon, and catcher Alivia Grimm restored confidence in her swing as the Warriors moved on in the state playoffs. Grimm, a sophomore, came up clutch in the seventh inning with a game-changing hit and followed with a...

PIAA softball playoffs Class 6A Quarterfinals Hempfield (19-3) vs. Downingtown East (22-3) 4 p.m. Thursday at Cumberland Valley, Mechanicsburg District seeds: Hempfield 7-1; Downingtown East 1-3 Winner plays: Winner of 3-1 Cumberland Valley (18-5)/1-2 Haverford (21-5) Monday in semifinals (time, site TBD) Coaches: Tina Madison, Hempfield; Peggy O’Dwyer, Downingtown East...

When Tina Madison talked about her team’s prospects and potential strengths at the start of the season, she couldn’t help but mention the emerging talent coming down the pipeline. The Hempfield softball coach didn’t try to hide anyone, either. The future is now for a budding group of newcomers. “There...

Sisters Maggie and Lauren Howard are a couple of years apart in age and class, but they look alike, talk alike and, to Hempfield’s delight, play alike. The Hempfield siblings had a key impact on Monday morning’s PIAA Class 6A playoff opener against visiting Mifflin County, combining to go 4...

More postseason honors have rolled in for Washington & Jefferson baseball standout Tyler Horvat. What hasn’t the Penn-Trafford graduate won? Horvat, a pitcher and outfielder, became the first player in the history of the W&J program to earn three All-America honors when he made D3Baseball.com First Team All-America, the second...

Talk about one and done. WPIAL Class 6A softball coaches think something needs to change. Only the champion, Hempfield (18-3), moved on to the PIAA playoffs, meaning the semifinal and title-game losers were done for the year. In other classifications, the top three or four finishers advanced to the state...

PIAA softball playoffs Class 6A First round Mifflin County (12-8) at Hempfield (18-3) 11 a.m. Monday at Robert D. Kalp Field, Hempfield District seeds: Mifflin County 6-1; Hempfield 7-1 Winner plays: Winner of 3-2 Central Dauphin (20-2)/1-3 Downington East (21-3) on Thursday in quarterfinals (time, site TBD) Players to watch:...

Dan Boring believes the Southmoreland athletic department is in better shape than when he began overseeing Scotties sports in 2020. “Absolutely,” he said. “We have done some great things over the last three years. We put some new systems in place that have smoothed out some kinks.” Boring, however, will...

As the only senior on the Southmoreland softball team, second baseman Brynn Charnesky has a voice on the field, in the dugout and on drab bus rides home from championship game losses. When she talks, the Scotties listen. After a 5-1 loss to playoff nemesis Avonworth in the WPIAL Class...

Latrobe players tried to keep their heads up when the Pirate Parrot handed them their WPIAL Class 4A runner-up trophy last Tuesday at Wild Things Park. Even the Parrot seemed somber. The season wasn’t over, but it felt like it was to the Wildcats after a tough, 4-3 loss to...

The Westmoreland County Coaches Association gives out several scholarships each year with money raised through different means, including entry fees and 50/50 raffles at its events. This year, the association awarded a record seven scholarships to county athletes in the amount of $12,000. Three annual scholarships, each worth $2,000, went...

Before a jump, Norwin senior Hannah Shaw tells herself, “You know you can do this.” She waited all season to compete for a state medal, and she came home from Shippensburg with one around her neck. Shaw finished tied for fourth at the PIAA track and field championships in the...

Norwin brought contenders to the WPIAL spring sports season, along with plenty of highlights: home runs, goals, spikes and record times and distances. From the diamond to the jumping pits, the Knights made their mark. Softball With more than 30 home runs, the Knights used the long ball to build...

The crack of the bat and the swell of crowd noise was a regular thing for the Franklin Regional softball team this season. The Panthers connected on 30 home runs, making them one of the most threatening long-bombing teams in WPIAL Class 5A. But they fell short in the playoffs,...

There was more at stake than a WPIAL championship for the Hempfield softball team. When the Spartans topped Seneca Valley, 2-1, in extra inning to win their eighth district title Wednesday at Cal (Pa.) and become the league’s lone representative in the PIAA Class 6A playoffs, they also earned a...

Until there is a more permanent situation, Saint Vincent will use an all-hands-on-deck approach to oversee and operate its athletic department heading into the summer months and possibly beyond. The leadership of sports at the Unity college, at least temporarily, will be in the hands of several coaches, SVC president...

A former Jeannette running back will be part of a new football hall of fame. He will represent the high school on a national level. The late John “ShowBoat” Crowell, a backfield standout for the Jayhawks in the 1930s, will be inducted into the National High School Football Hall of...

The softball sailed high and true, carrying deep into the night sky until gravity finally took over. It clanked off the left-field bleachers some 240 feet from home plate. Mia Bandieramonte had hit home runs before, but none quite like the one she sent out of Cal (Pa.)’s Lilley Field...

Southmoreland had a sendoff at school Thursday morning for the WPIAL 3A softball championship. Applause and support from teachers and students followed the team to the bus. But Avonworth — annoying, thorn-in-their-side Avonworth — sent the Scotties home with another postseason loss. Despite a positive start, the Scotties stumbled defensively...

Hempfield brought in a pitching machine recently to simulate the speed of Seneca Valley pitcher Lexie Hames. The Spartans had it cranked up to 70-plus mph. Mia Bandieramonte was up to speed. The senior designated player and No. 9 hitter turned on a Hames pitch and launched it over the...

WPIAL Class 3A softball championship 2-Southmoreland (17-2) vs. 1-Avonworth (20-1) Noon Thursday at Lilley Field, PennWest University, California On the air: Trib HSSN (video) How they got here: Southmoreland — Defeated 15-McGuffey 3-1 in first round; Yough 15-14 in quarterfinals; Waynesburg 7-0 in semifinals; Avonworth — Defeated 16-Seton LaSalle 15-4...

The text messages began shortly after the semifinal results came in. Southmoreland junior shortstop Amarah McCutcheon and Avonworth’s junior battery of pitcher Alivia Lantzy and catcher Riley Gray began the jabbing. “We always mess with each other,” said McCutcheon, who plays on the same travel softball team — Steel City...

Landon Fox was hurting but hunting. The Hopewell senior pitcher injured his lower back in the last playoff game and was feeling pain early in Tuesday’s WPIAL Class 4A championship game. “It was getting pretty bad in the third inning,” Fox said. “But I figured, you only get to the...

Despite its championship pedigree and reoccurring reign at the top — seven WPIAL titles, including five in a row from 2015-19 — Hempfield hasn’t won one in a while. In fact, none of the current players have been to the WPIAL finals. They don’t know what it is like to...