May 22, 2026 By Jerin Steele 4 min read

WEXFORD – Falling behind by a dozen runs after two innings against a team aiming for its seventh consecutive trip to a WPIAL championship game was not an ideal situation for Jefferson-Morgan.

It proved to be too much to overcome, but the Lady Rockets did not go quietly into the evening.

The Lady Rockets managed to plate a half dozen runs between the third and fourth innings to make it interesting, but for the third consecutive year and fourth in five they lost to the Lady Scotties in the playoffs.

Top-seeded Union earned a 17-7 victory in six innings in the WPIAL Class A softball semifinals Thursday at North Allegheny.

The Lady Scotties (18-2) advanced to the WPIAL Class A championship game against second-seeded Carmichaels, where they’ll look to win a fourth title in five years. Fifth-seeded Jefferson-Morgan (16-7) will play in the consolation game against No. 3 West Greene for the second year in a row with the winner advancing to the state playoffs. The Lady Pioneers won in extra innings last year.

“We have another game to play, so they had to keep battling, and even if we couldn’t come back in this game, work on everything and get ready for the next one,” Lady Rockets coach Rich Rush said. “We had some nice hits and put together some nice innings.”

A walk-off single by Union’s Emily Ross ended a wild, high-scoring game.

Things started well for the Lady Rockets as Emilee Bazzoli drove a pitch the opposite way for a no-doubt solo homer to right field in the top of the first, but the lead was short-lived.

The first five batters for Union singled off Bazzoli in the bottom of the first and each one of them came in to score. Irelyn Fisher and Olivia Benedict had back-to-back RBI singles to bring in Olivia Williams and Maddie Settle.

Ross had an RBI single, a couple of more runs came in on wild pitches and Williams plated a pair with a single in her second at bat of the inning.

Benedict brought in the ninth run on a groundout.

Union did not have an extra base hit in the frame, but singled seven times, drew four walks and one hit by pitch.

“It feels like some of their girls have been there for six years,” Rush said. “They can hit. They have a good offense. They put the ball in play and that’s the name of the game. Score runs. I told our girls going in that it wasn’t going to be a 2-1 game. They were going to put up some runs and we were too. They just got the better of us today.”

The Lady Scotties added four runs in the second and sent nine more batters to the plate.

Bazzoli was able to get two quick outs, but Samantha Confer and Williams hit consecutive doubles down the left field line for Union’s 10th run.

Settle followed with an RBI single. Then Fisher hit a towering home run that landed in the trees behind the right field fence to increase the Lady Scotties’ lead to 13-1.

“It seems like our hits are contagious,” Union coach Doug Fisher said. “One gets a hit and the rest seem to feed off it. It’s almost like blood in the water with sharks.”

Jefferson-Morgan battled back to score four runs in the top of the third. Ashlynn Snyder ripped an RBI double that scored Beautiful Medlen, who ran for Kesley Vessels after she had an infield single to lead off the inning.

Gabbie Marmie brought in a run with a groundout and Addie Larkin had an RBI single to center field.

Snyder brought home two more in the fourth with a single and the lead was cut to 13-7, but Union got those two runs back on in the bottom of the fourth.

One scored on a passed ball and the other came in via a sacrifice fly by Neveah Hunt.

Williams drove in her fourth run with an RBI single in the fifth.