Westmoreland campus clippings: Penn-Trafford grad earns preseason player of year nod

Lydia DeFazio took the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference by storm last softball season.

After her breakthrough year, Mt. Aloysius can’t hide its secret weapon any more.

DeFazio, a junior who has played first base and catcher at the college level, was tabbed the AMCC Preseason Player of the Year, and the Mounties are favored to three-peat as conference champions.

A Penn-Trafford graduate, DeFazio is the reigning AMCC Player of the Year. She led the conference in batting average (.586) and reached base every two out of three at-bats in AMCC play.

Overall, she batted .479 with nine home runs, 44 RBIs and carried a .557 on-base percentage.

The Mounties won their second straight conference title and reached the NCAA Division III tournament, winning a school record 33 games in the process.

They reached the second round before falling to Arcadia and Randolph-Macon. Mt. Aloysius was the first AMCC team to make the national tournament.

Another first-team All-AMCC player from the WPIAL on the roster is sophomore pitcher Karlie Clark, a Yough graduate.

She finished 7-4 with a 2.64 ERA and a team-best 51 strikeouts in 71⅔ innings.

Mt. Aloysius is scheduled to open the season March 11 at Saint Vincent.

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Baseball

Indiana State: Redshirt senior Collin Liberatore (Greensburg Central Catholic) is 1-1 with a 5.40 ERA in two appearances so far for the Sycamores. He has eight strikeouts and eight walks in 10 innings. Last year, Liberatore was the Missouri Valley Conference Newcomer of the Year and made the All-MVC First Team.

Kansas State: Junior outfielder Zach Kokoska (Latrobe) has produced a run-scoring triple and double so far this season and had scored five runs in the team’s first games.

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Softball

Pitt: Sophomore Hannah Bach (Yough) has played in nine games, with three starts, for the Panthers (5-7). She is hitting .444 (4 for 9) with three runs scored.

Point Park: Freshman Angalee Beall (Franklin Regional) pitched six innings and allowed just two hits but the Pioneers fell, 4-0, to Ave Maria in Clermont, Fla. She did not give up an earned run in her college debut. Beall went 2 for 3 at the plate with two RBIs and two runs in a 12-2 win over Florida National.

Saint Vincent: The reigning-champion Bearcats are picked as the favorite to win the PAC again this season in a preseason coaches poll. Key returning players include junior Riley Assalone and sophomore Celia Knappenberger, both pitchers.

Would-be junior Alona Sleith, a standout last season, decided not to play this season. She is coaching at Yough High School.

SVC was 29-16 last season, 13-3 in the PAC, and made the NCAA Division III regional round.

Seton Hill: Senior Christina Skrabak (Norwin) went 6 for 7, senior Alexis Vargas had four hits and three RBIs and junior Nichole McClendon has three RBIs and two runs as the Griffins split a home doubleheader with Wheeling — a 6-5 win and an 8-7 loss.

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Men’s indoor track & field

St. Francis (Pa.): Freshman Nick Hyde, a Somerset grad who used to attend Southmoreland, won the shot put title at the Northeast Conference Championships with a throw of 17.21 meters. He received the rookie of the meet award.

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Women’s indoor track & field

Clarion: Freshman Jenna Uncapher (Hempfield) tied for third in the high jump by clearing 1.50 meters at the Edinboro Open.

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Women’s swimming

Cal U: Senior Karley Owens (Latrobe) posted the third-best time in program history in the 100-yard breaststroke at the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Championships. She placed ninth in the ‘B’ finals in 1 minute, 5.76 seconds.

She added a fifth-place finish in the 200 breaststroke with the second-fastest time in school history, at 2:20.88. It was more than two seconds better than her top time in the preliminary races.

Owens tied for fifth in the 400-yard individual medley in the championship finals in a time of 4:33.62.

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Men’s tennis

Penn State Behrend: Freshman Mason Harbaugh (Hempfield) was a double winner as the Lions defeated Waynesburg, 8-1. Harbaugh won a No. 4 singles and No. 2 doubles.

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Men’s lacrosse

Seton Hill: Senior Logan Maloni was named to the USILA Division II Team of the Week and also garnered G-MAC Offensive Player of the Week honors, while senior teammate Jay Scerbo was named the conference defensive player of the week.

Maloni had seven goals and eight assists over a pair of wins, while Scerbo won 28 of 35 faceoffs and added one goal.

Junior Kevin Mo was nammed the G-MAC Defensive Player of the Week. He is 3-0 and carries a 62.1 save percentage for the Griffins. He had 11 saves against No. 11 Mt. Olive.

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Women’s lacrosse

Saint Vincent: Sophomore Joey Smith was named the PAC Offensive Player of the Week. She had a career-high 11 points (3 goals, 8 assists) in a 22-7 win over Muskingum in the season opener.

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Honors

Pitt-Johnstown: Former basketball standout Sally Mosay, a 1989 graduate, will be inducted into the 13th UPJ Athletics Hall of Fame class. Mosay, a two-time All-American who helped the Mountain Cats reach the NCAA Division II Final Four in 1987, went on to coach girls basketball at Norwin, Jeannette and Seton Hill. Mosay, who graduated from Elizabeth Forward, was an assistant at each stop.