West Greene, J-M meet again in consolation game
Rob Burchianti | Herald-Standard
The teams, site and stakes will be the same as they were a year ago when West Greene and Jefferson-Morgan meet on Wednesday in a WPIAL Class A consolation game.
The Lady Pioneers and Lady Rockets will clash at 4 p.m. at Pleasant Valley Elementary School with the winner earning a spot in the PIAA tournament and the loser packing things away for the season.
“Like Yogi Berra used to say, ‘It’s deja vu all over again,'” West Greene coach Bill Simms said.
Simms will certainly be happy if he gets a case of deja vu in his team’s third meeting of the season with J-M.
The Lady Pioneers swept Jefferson-Morgan during the regular season last year by scores of 9-0 and 7-4. Both teams advanced to the WPIAL semifinals before losing to set up a similar consolation clash with West Greene claiming a 4-3 walk-off win on a dreary, rainy day at Pleasant Valley Elementary School.
This year the Lady Pioneers (13-8) again swept their regular-season series in Section 2 by scores of 10-8 and 10-1. In the WPIAL playoffs, third-seeded West Greene defeated No. 6 South Side, 15-1 in five innings, after receiving a first-round bye but then lost to Carmichaels in the semifinals, 9-0.
Meanwhile, the fifth-seeded Lady Rockets (16-7) eliminated No. 12 Leechburg, 18-2 in three innings, and No. 4 Serra Catholic, 2-1, thanks to a game-ending diving catch by second baseman Braelynn Bayles to strand the potential tying and winning runs on base, to also reach the semifinals. Jefferson-Morgan lost there to top-seeded Union in a six-inning slugfest, 17-7.
The third game with the Lady Rockets, coached by Rich Rush, didn’t surprise Simms.
“We kind of knew at the beginning of the season that the three teams from our section, us, Jefferson and Carmichaels, could get to the semifinals again, it was just a matter of what order we would fall,” Simms said. “We both have good programs and I expect another good game between us.”
The second-seeded Mikes finished in first place in the section with West Greene second and J-M third. Carmichaels will play in the final against Union on Thursday at PennWest California’s Lilley Field.
Simms is aware that his team will need to mentally bounce back from another loss to the Lady Mikes.
“You kind of worry about that gut-punch syndrome when you lose a game like that,” Simms said. “Things didn’t go our way, but there’s a lot of teams that didn’t find success against (Carmichaels pitcher) Bailey Barnyak.
“Now we’ve just got to do the best job we can, like we did last year, to rebound and see if we can get into the state playoffs. It’s going to be a tough test with Jefferson-Morgan as it always is.”
Again, the forecast calls for the possibility of rain for Wednesday’s game.