Surprising changes

Sep 1, 2026 By Rob Burchianti 4 min read

Carmichaels baseball coach Dickie Krause was aware the section his Mikes played in would have a bit of a different look for the 2026 season.

“I knew there would be some change because Jefferson-Morgan had moved up,” Krause said.

The Rockets were bumped up to Section 1-2A while Carmichaels remained in Section 1-1A according to the realignment recently released by the WPIAL for the next two-year cycle.

Even so, Krause was surprised when he saw the make up of the new Section 1-1A.

Gone are Greensburg Central Catholic and Jeannette, in addition to J-M, with Monessen and Geibel Catholic entering.

“It’s a pretty significant change,” Krause said. “I’ve been coaching a long time and that’s probably the biggest shift I’ve seen in one two-year cycle to the next.

“I just didn’t anticipate the other schools not returning to our section. I figured Greensburg Central and Jeannette would be back with us and I also thought we might see one of the other private schools moved in, but I was way off, they went local.”

The Greyhounds benefitted greatly from the realignment.

“I was happy for Monessen because they had to play in that section with Serra (Catholic), Eden (Christian), Bishop Canevin, Sewickley Academy,” Krause pointed out. “None of us would’ve done well in that section. So I was glad to see they got put into a more public school section, I think that was fair.”

On paper, the Eagles and Mikes, who finished second and third behind section champion GCC last year, would look to be the section favorites in 2027, but Krause wasn’t so sure.

“You still never know how it’s going to play out overall,” Krause said. “I know Avella returns (Chas) Rush, one of their top two arms from last year and should be good again. But you can’t count out anybody.

“West Greene has a really strong, young pitcher, Joel Rizor, who I think is going to be very good. Mapletown has a good pitcher also, Carson Vanata, who throws pretty hard and is going to be a senior. He’s a nice-sized kid with a good arm.

“That’s the one thing about high school baseball, if you have that guy on the mound, anything is possible.”

The Gators will have a team competing in the WPIALL for the first time since 2019. They fielded a squad the past two seasons and played a non-section schedule to prepare for their return.

“I honestly don’t know much about what Geibel has,” Krause said. “But we scrimmaged Monessen the last two years so we know a little bit about them.

“This also necessitates that we change something with the scrimmages that we have. We scrimmaged Laurel Highlands first and then Monessen second for years but that won’t be available for us now with Monessen now in our section so we’ll have to find a new scrimmage partner.”

Krause was pleased with the timing of the WPIAL’s new realignment.

“With our fall baseball program starting, this is a good time to have the schedule released so we can have some sense of who we’re going to see,” Krause said. “With six teams in our section, it’s also going to require that we pick up some additional non-section games. I would imagine that we would keep J-M on the schedule and I wouldn’t mind seeing GCC as one of our non-section games.

“It’s exciting to see. But like anything else, you take it one day at a time. You get your kids ready, work really hard and try to make the program the best you possibly can and see where it leads.”