West Allegheny Softball Rallies for First Trip To PIAA Championship Game

Posted on:

All season long, the West Allegheny softball team proved they were the team to beat in Class 5A in the WPIAL. And now they have earned the right to represent the WPIAL in the PIAA Championship Game on Thursday at 4 p.m. at Penn State University.

The Indians earned the trip to their first state title game with a 7-5 come-from-behind against Thomas Jefferson at Peterswood Park in the PIAA semifinals. The game was a rematch of the WPIAL Championship Game a couple of weeks ago that West Allegheny also won.

Thomas Jefferson hit a three-run home run in the top of the sixth inning to take a two run lead, but West Allegheny stormed back with four runs of their own to take the lead for good.

Senior Taylor Goldstrohm got the Indians out to an early 2-0 lead with a two-run home run, scoring freshman Angela Costa.

Thomas Jefferson cut the deficit in half in the fourth inning on an RBI single by Liz Block. West Allegheny got the run right back in the bottom half on a single by Costa scoring junior Alyssa Goldstrohm.

Block delivered again in the fifth inning with her second RBI single for the Jaguars, cutting the deficit back to 3-2.

The score stood still until Haleigh Karcher’s first home run of the season in the sixth inning gave Thomas Jefferson a 5-3 lead.

Down to their last six outs of the season, the Indians were not going down without a fight. Costa delivered her third hit of the game to pull West Allegheny within a run at 5-4. With the bases loaded and no outs, the Indians took a 6-5 lead on back-to-back sacrifice flies by seniors Taylor Cummings and Mackenzie Partyka. The Indians tacked on an insurance run on an RBI single by sophomore Savannah Lewis.

Senior Ashley Seamon slammed the door in the seventh inning to send the Indians to the PIAA Championship Game.

West Allegheny improves to 23-1 on the season. Thomas Jefferson concludes its season with a 15-7 record.