Sports shorts
Swimming Nedley finishes 18th
Connellsville’s Marie Nedley placed 18th in the girls Class AAA 500-yard freestyle Thursday at the PIAA Swimming Championships being held at Bucknell University.
Nedley finished in a time of 5:12.24, slower than her seedtime of 5:08.86 she swam while taking the WPIAL silver medal. The junior had 25-yard splits of 27.91 seconds, 58.07, 1:29.03, 2:00.56, 2:32.59, 3:04.72, 4:08.99 and 4:41.19.
Downingtown East’s Steph Roop was the 500 freestyle gold medallist in 4:56.95.
Nedley won the WPIAL gold medal in the 500 last year while finishing third in the 200.
Wrestling
Scott, Driscoll lose
The opening round of the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships on Thursday was not kind to a pair of local wrestlers.
Oklahoma State sophomore and Waynesburg Central graduate Coleman Scott, the No. 6 seed, dropped a 3-2 decision to Wyoming’s Bryce Leonhardt at 125 pounds. The bout was tied 2-2 after two periods, but an escape by Leonhardt was the difference.
Scott was scheduled to face Oregon State’s Eric Stevenson in the wrestlebacks Thursday night. Stevenson dropped a 4-3 decision to Missouri’s Austin Devoe.
Penn State senior and Connellsville graduate DeWitt Driscoll lost his pigtail bout to Tennessee-Chattanooga’s Michael Keefe, 5-3, in his first appearance in the national tournament. Driscoll was scheduled to wrestle Penn’s Cesar Grajales in the consolation round. Grajales lost to West Virginia’s Brandon Rader, 6-3.
Baseball
Sinclair honored
Waynesburg College’s Landon Sinclair was named the Presidents’ Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Week in addition to receiving honorable mention for Division III National Pitcher of the Week after starting the season 2-0.
The junior allotted only one unearned run on three hits in a win against Tri-State (Ind.), and then gave up two runs on six hits against Salve-Regina (R.I.). Sinclair had an ERA of .64 with 12 strikeouts in 14 innings.
He also had a good week at the plate with a .308 batting average with four RBIs and five runs scored.
Cal splits
The Vulcans started Thursday with a victory, but couldn’t finish the sweep in a doubleheader in Savannah, Ga. California defeated Missouri Western State, 9-3, but the opposition turned the tide in the nightcap, 10-9.
Jon Squiglia allowed two earned runs on four hits in six innings to earn the victory in his first collegiate start. The freshman struck out seven.
The offense came alive in the win with five runs on six hits in the fourth inning. Drew Aniceti, Robert Hedrick and Mike Spisak drove in runs. Lee Rohan and Dustin Woodring both had three hits and an RBI.
Jefferson-Morgan graduate Adam Dukate didn’t have it in the second game for his first loss of the season as he allowed nine runs (three earned) on 11 hits in 5 1/3 innings. He struck out four and walked two.
California (7-5) led 4-0 in the second after Spisak’s three-run home run. Missouri Western State scored in each of the next four innings, taking a 9-5 lead after a six-run fifth inning.
The Vulcans rallied back with four runs after two outs in the top of the ninth inning, including Robert Lefcakis’ two-run single. Missouri Western State managed to strand the tying and winning runs on base.
Aniceti, Woodring, Lefcakis and Spisak all had two hits in the loss.
Softball
Waynesburg struggles
The southern swing for the Yellow Jackets wasn’t as successful as hoped with Waynesburg finishing the 10-game trip with a 2-8 record.
Freshman Melissa Schrecengost batted a team-high .474 in the seven games before the first baseman was injured. She had a slugging percentage of .526, on-base percentage of .500 and four RBIs.
Amanda Snoke, another freshman, pitched a team-high 25 1/3 innings with a 2.49 ERA in six appearances, including three starts. She finished 1-2.
Waynesburg defeated Muhlenberg (7-3) and U.S. Merchant Marines (3-1) while losing to Coe College (7-0), Maryville University (9-1), Eastern Mennonite (4-2), Bluffton (4-2), Wartburg (12-0), Indiana Wesleyan (9-0) and Mount Union (6-1).
Vulcans drop two
California University of Pa. dropped a pair of games Thursday at the Rebel Games in Orlando, Fla. The Vulcans lost to Nebraska-Omaha, 5-0, and Southwest Minnesota State, 6-5, to drop to 3-5 overall.
Jen Doty went 4-for-7 with two runs scored and two RBIs in the losses.
California could only muster three singles in the loss to Nebraska-Omaha (18-3), two by Doty.
The Vulcans trailed 3-1 in the nightcap, but rallied back with three runs in the top of the fifth inning. Southwest Minnesota State came right back with three runs in the bottom of the inning for a lead it would not relinquish.
Becky Mezyk had a pair of RBI hits in the second game. She also drove in a run on a fielder’s choice. Mezyk lost her first game of the season, slipping to 4-1.
Tennis
Local at UPG
Two Connellsville graduates are on the University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg men’s tennis roster this spring. Nathan Romesburg, who played doubles for the Falcons, and Michael LaFisca are on the 15-man squad.
Football
Steelers add club seats
PITTSBURGH (AP) – The Pittsburgh Steelers plan to add about 700 club seats at Heinz Field.
“The Steelers are pleased to be in a position to expand the seating capacity at Heinz Field. The demand for club seats has proven to be very strong since moving to Heinz Field,” Steelers president Art Rooney said Thursday.
The team submitted the plans to the Sports and Exhibition Authority, the city-county entity which owns the stadium and leases it to the team.
The additional seats would bring the stadium’s capacity to 65,050. The project also includes adding about 20,000 square feet of enclosed club space.
Construction is scheduled to begin in April at a cost of approximately $4 million.
The seats will be offered to those on the season ticket waiting list and some season ticket holders who want club seats.