Manic Monday
Nine area teams take the field in baseball, softball quarterfinals
The WPIAL baseball and softball quarterfinals are set and they’re chock full of area teams looking to reach the final four.
Nine of those teams will be action Monday, including both Carmichaels and Jefferson-Morgan teams.
Also playing on Monday will be California in baseball and Brownsville, West Greene, Frazier and Mount Pleasant in softball.
The 13th-seeded Lady Falcons’ 7-1 first-round upset victory over No. 4 South Allegheny (12-7) was their first ever playoff win. Brownsville’s Ava Clark threw a five-hitter and knocked in three runs with a double and a single.
Brownsville (13-7) goes up against No. 5 seed Neshannock (15-5), which beat No. 12 Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, 11-1 in six innings, in the first round.
The Lady Lancers and Lady Falcons play a 3 p.m. game at Montour High School.
Brownsville coach Jane Bock felt her team was under-seeded.
“We felt slighted,” Bock said. “We knew we were a better seed than a 13.”
The Lady Falcons pretty much proved that with two non-section wins late in the season over Class 4A playoff teams Uniontown, a 12th seed, and Laurel Highlands, a sixth seed, both of whom won their first-round games and play in the quarterfinals on Tuesday.
Brownsville and No. 9 Frazier tied for second place in Section 4 behind third-seeded Bentworth. Neshannock finished in second place in Section 1 behind No. 1 Laurel.
Frazier (12-9), which won its last five section games to clinch a playoff spot, took out No. 8 Seton LaSalle (12-5), 6-3, in the first round and now faces top-seeded Laurel (14-5), which pummeled No. 16 Shady Side Academy in a three-inning game, 15-0.
They will play at 5 p.m. at North Allegheny High School.
Frazier fell behind the Lady Rebels, 3-1, on a three-run double by Cheyenne Lamont in the third inning, but winning pitcher Addison Hiles would allow just one hit the rest of the way, allowing the Lady Commodores to rally to tie and then go ahead on Emma Essington’s two-run homer in the fifth with Emme Travalena adding insurance with a solo blast in the seventh.
The Lady Spartans will present a much bigger challenge for Frazier.
“Laurel has a long-standing great program,” Lady Commodores coach Don Hartman pointed out. “We played them in the quarters in 2017 when we won the WPIAL, lost to them in the 2018, 2019 WPIAL title games.”
Frazier rebounded from the 2019 defeat and went on to win the PIAA championship.
“Their head coach Bill Garroway is a good friend and does an outstanding job preparing his teams,” Hartman said. “They have all the pieces needed to win championships this year so we have a monumental task in front of us.
“We have had some great practices this weekend to prepare so hopefully we compete well on Monday.”
The Lady Commodores are one of three local teams facing No. 1 seeds Monday.
In Class 2A baseball, resilient No. 8 California (12-6) was limited to just one hit but still managed to manufacture enough runs to beat No. 9 Freedom (8-11), 3-1, and now faces Section 1 foe and top-seeded Fort Cherry (16-1), which received a first-round bye, in a 6:30 p.m. game at Peterswood Park in Peters Township.
The Rangers won their two regular-season meetings, 9-0 and 12-7, although the Trojans held a two-run lead in the seventh inning of the latter.
“We were literally one out away from beating Fort Cherry the second time we played them and a kid hit a home run in the seventh inning to tie it and we wound up losing,” California coach Jason Rechichar said. “I’ve told them you guys can beat anybody if you bring your ‘A’ game.”
In Class A baseball, the eighth-seeded Mikes (9-8), who knocked off No. 9 Sewickley Academy (8-10) in the first round, 7-4, thanks to a clutch five-run rally in the bottom of the sixth inning, and No. 7 Rockets (12-8), who eliminated No. 10 Union (6-11), 6-2, the keep coach John Curtis’ 42nd and final season alive, are one of two doubleheaders involving local teams.
The two both play at Ross Memorial Park against the top two seeds.
Jefferson-Morgan will take the field first with a 4 p.m. game against second-seeded and undefeated Greensburg Central Catholic (15-0), with Carmichaels going up against No. 1 Eden Christian (13-4) at 6:30 p.m.
The Centurions won the Section 1 title while the Rockets and Mikes tied for third place. Eden Christian is the Section 3 champion.
GCC swept their regular-season series with Jefferson-Morgan by scores of 4-0 and 8-2, although that was early in the season on March 25-26 when J-M was still working in players coming off basketball season for a team that won a section title, a WPIAL playoff game and a PIAA playoff game.
Carmichaels was the sixth seed last year when it upset then No. 2 Eden Christian in the semifinals, 4-3, to reach the championship where the Mikes fell to Serra Catholic, but as coach Dickie Krause pointed out the 2026 Mikes are much less experienced, having lost eight seniors
“To get into the playoffs was a goal at the beginning of the season,” Krause said.
Three Greene County teams will take the field in the Class A softball playoffs on Monday with second-seeded Carmichaels (15-4) and third-seeded West Greene (12-7) both coming off byes and taking part in a doubleheader at Trinity Middle School.
The Lady Pioneers meet No. 6 South Side (10-8), which had to rally to defeat No. 11 Beth-Center in the first round, 4-3, in the first game at 5 p.m.
The Lady Mikes will try to duplicate the Carmichaels baseball team and knock out No. 7 Sewickley Academy (10-3) in their playoff opener in the second game of the twinbill at 7 p.m.
Carmichaels, West Greene and Jefferson-Morgan finished first, second and third, respectively, in highly regarded Section 2.
The Lady Rockets (15-6) erupted for 18 runs in the first inning of its 18-2, three-inning first-round victory over No. 12 Leechburg. They’ll face No. 4 Serra Catholic (12-5), the Section 3 champion which received a first-round bye, in a 6 p.m. game at Pleasant Valley Elementary School in Peters Township.
In Class 3A, third-seeded Mount Pleasant (13-4), the Section 1 champion, received a first-round bye and plays section foe No. 6 Burrell (11-8), which beat No. 11 Charleroi, 6-3, in the first round, in a 5 p.m. game at Gateway High School. The Lady Vikings won both regular-season meetings, 8-2 and 12-2 in six innings.