May 10, 2007 By The 6 min read

Trojans claim Section 1-A title outright There’s nothing like going down to the wire.

On Wednesday, the final day of the regular season, California’s Ben Carson doubled twice and Dominic Roach once en route to an 8-5 Section 1-A win over host Bentworth in boys baseball action as the Trojans claimed the section title outright.

Also in Section 1-A, Carmichaels upended Mapletown 14-4 to share a second-place tie with Bentworth. Both Carmichaels and Bentworth will participate in post-season play.

Winning pitcher Matt Hartman had a busy day with three singles and his fourth win with eight strikeouts and three walks.

Zack Jeney also singled twice for the winners.

Bentworth’s Ryan Anderson went home with the loss. He worked four plus innings with four strikeouts and four walks.

Lincoln Gibson singled twice for two of Bentworth’s six hits.

California (12-2, 18-2) and Bentworth (10-4, 13-4) look forward to postseason play.

Carmichaels 14, Mapletown 4 – The Carmichaels bats were in full swing with a total of 16 hits, led by Ethan Virgili and Tim Voithofer’s triples, en route to a Section 1-A win over Mapletown.

The win locks the Mikes into second place with Bentworth and secures a playoff spot.

Virgili went 4-for-4 at the plate, while Joby Lapkowicz (3-for-4), Chuck Gasti (2-for-3), Aaron Thompson (2-for-3) and Logan Phillips (2-for-3) were all multiple hitters for the Mikes.

Winning pitcher Marcus Robinson (4-0) picked up another win with three and one-third innings of action, four strikeouts and no walks. All four runs were earned.

Don Hilenbrant suffered the loss with three innings of action, 13 hits, one strikeout and one walk.

Mapletown’s Ashly Menear tripled for the Maples, and Charlie Grim doubled.

Teammates Zack Novak and Wes Loring were both 2-for-2 at the plate.

Jefferson-Morgan 9, West Greene 0 – Michael Mox tripled and singled as Jefferson-Morgan blanked host West Greene in Section 1-A action.

The Rockets (9-5, 12-7) narrowly missed a playoff berth behind Carmichaels and Bentworth’s 10-4 section record.

Jarrod Moskola, Noah Pust and Ryan White each doubled for J-M.

Winning pitcher Travis Watson fanned nine batters, while Kevin Nakutis took the loss.

Nakutis struck out five and walked two.

Buck Raber doubled and singled for two of West Greene’s four hits.

Washington 3, Waynesburg Central 0 – Washington held a slim 1-0 advantage over visiting Waynesburg Central until Joe Ward gave the Little Prexies a little breathing room with a solo home run in the bottom of the sixth inning, en route to a Section 2-AA shutout victory.

Brownsville clinched the section title Monday, while Waynesburg and Washington fill the remaining playoff spots tied for second place with 7-5 records.

Washington’s Eric Poland was next in the offensive column with a double, single and one RBI.

Teammate Tanner Gorby singled twice and drove in a run.

Winning pitcher Chad Smith (2-3) hurled a three-hitter with five innings of action, two strikeouts and a walk.

Defensively, the Little Prexies turned three big double plays to keep the Raiders in check.

Kenny Blackwell went on record as the losing pitcher with five hits, five strikeouts and two walks.

Scott Throckmorton singled twice for two of Waynesburg’s four hits.

Softball

Jefferson-Morgan 8, Geibel Catholic 0 – Playoff-bound Jefferson-Morgan rebounded from a 6-3 loss to California yesterday with a shutout win over Geibel Catholic in Section 2-A action.

Heather Herbert led the Lady Rocket offense with a leadoff home run in the fifth inning and a double.

Teammate Lindsay Olson doubled twice for the winners.

Both Herbert and Olson each drove in two runs.

Winning pitcher Emily Cottle (9-5) fanned 10 Lady Gator batters and allowed two walks.

Chelsea Lasosky went on record with the loss. She struck out six and allowed one walk.

Geibel’s season comes to a close with an 0-15 record.

Boys track & field

WPIAL Individual Regional qualifiers – Brownsville’s Phil Shaw extended his season by a week after finishing in the top eight in the javelin Tuesday in the WPIAL Class AA Individual Track & Field Southern Regional qualifier at South Side Beaver.

California’s Justin Long qualified in the pole vault.

Southmoreland had a handful of athletes advance to next Tuesday’s WPIAL Championships at South Side Beaver from the regional hosted by Mars High School.

Kevin Hagerman qualified in two individual events, the triple jump (41-10) and javelin (162-8), and joined Bryan Meteny, Tyler Vivio and Kory Kiefer to advance in the 1,600 relay with a time of 3:36.

The Scotties’ Ben Poorbaugh advanced in two events, the discus (153-8) and shot put (43-10). Mike Prinkey (42.2) and Jimmy King (42.3) both qualified in the 300 intermediate hurdles. Zach Berch, Ryan Clarkson, Justin Najewicz and Vivio won a spot into the district finals in the 400 relay with a time of 52.4 seconds.

Girls track & field

WPIAL Individual Regional qualifiers – Brownsville’s America Cardine once again qualified for three individual events in Tuesday’s Southern Regional hosted by South Side Beaver, earning berths in the 100 high and 300 intermediate hurdles as well as the long jump. Teammate Erika Coffey earned a spot in the 1,600.

Southmoreland’s Brittani Eicher set a school record of 16.2 seconds while qualifying in the 100 high hurdles at the Northern Regional hosted by Mars High School. Jamie Henry (long jump, 14-10¾), Rachel Mast (javelin, 103-0), Alyssa Laird (100, 13.1), and Rachelle Thompson (200, 28.0) all finished in the top eight to advance to next Tuesday’s WPIAL Championships at South Side Beaver.

The 400 relay team of Thompson, Laird, Eicher and Alyssa Himes finished in 52.4 seconds to advance.

Women’s tennis

California (Pa.) 5, South Carolina-Upstate 4 – Freshman Olga Alekseeva rallied after losing the first set to win at No. 6 singles in a third-set tiebreaker to lift sixth-ranked California (28-1) to a victory over ninth-ranked South Carolina-Upstate (19-6) in the third round of the 2007 NCAA Division II Women’s Tennis Championship Tournament.

The victory lifts Cal into today’s 1 p.m. “Elite Eight” match against West Florida (21-6), which posted a 5-1 victory over Abilene Christian. Cal will take a 15-match win streak into the quarterfinal match.

Cal, which shut out 10-straight opponents and 23 of 28 this season entering the match, was surprised in the doubles competition when junior Inga Chilingaryan and freshman Yumi Matsuto, ranked among the Top 10 in the country all year, suffered an 8-6 setback.

The other two Vulcan doubles teams posted wins, sending Cal into singles action with a 2-1 lead. The No. 2 doubles team of juniors Lisa Santoro and Helena VanEysendeyk posted an 8-5 victory while the No. 3 team of senior Katie Anderson and freshman Nina Reiswich gained an 8-3 triumph.

USC-Upstate battled back again, upsetting Cal’s top two singles players, to tie the match at 4-4. Chilingaryan, ranked No. 11 nationally, suffered a three-set loss at No. 1 while Santoro, ranked 41st in the country, dropped a straight-set decision at No. 2 singles.

The winner of Cal’s match against West Florida will advance to Friday’s 1 p.m. national semifinal against the winner of the Hawaii-Pacific vs. Lynn match.

In the other side of the bracket, Armstrong Atlantic will meet Valdosta State in one quarterfinal match while BYU-Hawaii will challenge Florida Southern in the other.

All four quarterfinal matches today begin at 1 p.m.