May 11, 2007 By The 3 min read

Eight local high school softball teams are heading to the WPIAL playoffs with dreams of a District 7 crown. Though the road to a championship is long and winding, most of these squads will start their journey at a similar point, California University of Pa.’s Lilly Field. Of the eight teams going to the postseason, six of them will start their runs at Cal, including Laurel Highlands, which will take on No. 2 seeded Elizabeth-Forward on May 16.

In Class A, the 10th-seeded West Greene Lady Pioneers (12-5, 11-4) will represent Section 2 when they get the show started at 2 p.m. on May 14 at Lilly Field against the second-seeded Lady Chargers of Our Lady of Sacred Heart (14-4, 12-3). OLSH finished in second place in Section 3.

Also in Class A, the 11th-seeded Jefferson-Morgan Lady Rockets (10-7, 9-6) will head to Cal for their opening round showdown on May 16 against the sixth-seeded Lady Bearcats of Bentworth (15-3, 12-3). Bentworth finished as the runners up out of Section 1.

After J-M and Bentworth, it’ll be Section 2-A champion Carmichaels’ (14-2, 13-2) turn to hit Lily Field as the fifth-seeded Lady Mikes are scheduled to take on 12th-seeded Fort Cherry at 4 p.m. The Lady Rangers (10-8, 8-7) finished in third place out of Section 1.

Just one local Class AA school made it to the postseason. The ninth-seeded Beth-Center Lady Bulldogs (13-5, 11-4), who finished in second place in Section 2, will travel to Elizabeth-Forward on May 14 for a 2 p.m. dust up with eighth-seeded South Park. The Lady Eagles (17-3, 13-2) ended the regular season as the runners up in Section 6.

Moving up to Class AAA, three local squads out of Section 4, will try to bring home WPIAL gold in Waynesburg Central, Belle Vernon and Laurel Highlands.

The 13th-seeded Lady Raiders (14-5, 10-5), who are going to the playoffs after their first year in AAA, finished in third in the section and will travel to Gateway High School at 4 p.m. on May 14 for a showdown with fourth-seeded Greensburg Salem. The Lady Golden Lions finished the year with a perfect 14-0 record and were the queens of Section 2.

Also on that day, the eighth-seeded Lady Leopards (15-5, 12-3) head to Cal. U. to square off against ninth-seeded West Allegheny.

The Lady Indians (11-7, 9-6) finished in second place in Section 3.

Laurel Highlands was seeded 15th. The Fillies will head to Lily Field for their first round matchup against the Section 4 champion and Lady Warriors at 6 p.m. on May 16.

Laurel Highlands (10-8, 8-4) finished third in Section 2. Elizabeth-Forward was 14-2 overall and 13 in section play.

Last, but not least, is the lone local AAAA representative in this year’s WPIAL playoffs, the 12th-seeded Lady Falcons of Connellsville. The Falcons, who finished 6-9 in Section 1 and 6-11 overall, face a very stiff test in fifth-seeded Kiski Area when they take their turn at Lily. The Lady Cavaliers are the regular season champions out of Section 2 and went 15-3 overall with a 14-1 section mark.