‘Finally’
Brownsville happy to join softball playoff party
Brownsville’s softball team was waiting out a lightning delay in its non-section game against Laurel Highlands on Thursday and Jane Bock found the perfect way to entertain her team during the break, which coincided perfectly with the WPIAL playoff pairings being revealed.
“We decided to go in the gym and actually had a watch party for the pairings, pulled it up on the screen in our gym and I ordered some pizza,” said Bock whose team is in the postseason for the first time in a decade. “It was a really nice experience.
“Our boosters got us some playoff T-shirts for the kids to wear to school. So this is exciting for the kids. It’s different. We’ve been disappointed the last two years and it was frustrating. You work so hard and then you’re just missing getting in. Last year we lost the tiebreaker to get in.”
So how did Bock sum up her team qualifying for the 2025 playoffs?
“I think of one word: finally,” Bock said. “Finally we pushed through the door. I’m excited for the kids. A lot of them have never been in this type of environment. We have some young kids who are especially excited to be in the playoffs.”
Brownsville was one of 11 area softball teams who found out where they were placed in the playoff brackets Thursday. The Lady Falcons (11-5, 7-3/third Section 4) were seeded 10th in Class 2A and will play No. 7 Seton LaSalle (9-5, 7-3/second tie Section 3) at Trinity Middle School, 5 p.m. Tuesday.
Also in Class 2A at 5 p.m. Tuesday, No. 4 Frazier (13-3, 9-1/first Section 4) plays No. 13 Shenango (9-8, 7-5/third tie Section 1) at Fox Chapel and No. 6 Waynesburg Central (11-5, 8-2/second Section 4) plays No. 11 Riverside (7-8, 7-5/third tie Section 1) at North Allegheny.
The highest seeded area teams were both in Class A with Carmichaels at No. 2 and West Greene at No. 3, with Jefferson-Morgan not far behind at No. 5.
Uniontown under third-year head coach Jason White, in the playoffs for the third straight year for the first time in program history, was seeded 10th in Class 4A with Belle Vernon 11th.
Connellsville drew the No. 15 seed in Class 5A while in Class 3A Mount Pleasant was put at No. 5 and Southmoreland at No. 7.
Bock is familiar with her team’s first-round opponent.
“Seton LaSalle was in our section the last few years,” she said. “We split with them last year. They still have the same pitcher.”
Bock isn’t worried about playing on a turf field at Trinity.
“We’ve played there before when we had to make up some games several years ago, so I’m familiar with it,” Bock said. “Every spring we go down to Tennessee and we play on turf. We played four games down there at the beginning of the season in March so we do have some experience on turf.”
Uniontown (10-8, 8-4/third Section 2) will play No. 7 Indiana (9-10, second tie Section 1) 5 p.m. Monday at Norwin while Belle Vernon (9-10, fourth Section 2) plays No. 6 Beaver (13-5, 8-4/second tie Section 3) 6 p.m. at Pleasant Valley Elementary School in Peters Township School District.
The winner between the Lady Raiders and the Lady Indians will play No. 2 Hampton. While being seeded seventh or 10th actually didn’t have an effect on the way the bracket broke down, White felt his team was slighted by being made the lower seed.
“We were expecting an Indiana matchup either 7-10, us being the 7, or an 8-9,” White explained. “We beat them early in the season (2-0 at Uniontown on March 26). Obviously it doesn’t matter, the winner plays Hampton, but I was hoping just out of a respect factor and in showing the improvement in our program we would’ve been seeded seventh.
“Indiana has a freshman pitcher that really came on during the season and she pitched a couple innings against us. I’ve got plenty of good freshmen, too. I’m looking forward to that matchup.”
White noted that Norwin’s field has a split surface, turf infield and grass outfield, but doesn’t feel that will be a factor for his team.
White, who is in his fifth year overall at Uniontown, is making strides in changing the perception of Uniontown softball.
“We haven’t been known for softball but we’re trying to change that,” White said. “I have a junior pitcher (Emmaleight Noah) and I have a couple excellent freshmen right now, one being my daughter (Juliet White) at catcher who’s leading the team in hitting and really killing it this year.”
White’s niece, sophomore Lauren is also a starter on the team at third base.
“I have some young talent that’s trending towards exceptional and I know I’ve got a couple really good eighth graders coming,” White pointed out.
Connellsville coach John Burd wasn’t pleased with his team being put at No. 15 in Class 5A. The Lady Falcons (12-6, 7-5/fourth Section 4) play No. 2 Shaler (14-4, 11-1/first Section 1) in a 3 p.m. game at Plum on Monday.
“I didn’t expect to be much higher but I thought we’d at least be a 14 or 13,” Burd said. “We beat (14th-seeded) Latrobe (10-8, 7-5/fourth Section 2) at their field (10-8 on March 24) and we have a better record than them so that doesn’t make me very happy to see them above us. Every non-section win we have has been against a playoff team except for Laurel Highlands.
“I don’t think they showed us the respect we were due.”
Carmichaels (14-0, 10-0, first Section 2) is the lone undefeated team in Class A. The Lady Mikes and West Greene (13-3, 8-2/second Section 2) both have first-round byes.
Carmichaels will play the winner between No. 7 Serra Catholic (12-5, 11-1, first tie Section 3) and No. 10 Cornell (7-7, 4-6/fourth Section 1) while the Lady Pioneers will play the winner between No. 6 South Side (10-7, 7-3/second tie Section 1) and No. 11 Leechburg (8-8, 6-6/third tie Section 3) with both of the games scheduled for Monday.
Also on Monday, Jefferson-Morgan (8-6, 5-5/third Section 2) will play No. 12 Greensburg Central Catholic (6-6, 6-6/third tie Section 3) in a 3 p.m. game at Waynesburg University.
If the Lady Mikes and Lady Pioneers both win their playoff openers, the two would meet for the third time this season in the semifinals. The Lady Mikes won the two regular season meetings, 9-1 at Carmichaels in a game much closer than the final score indicated, and 6-1.
Carmichaels coach Dave Briggs wasn’t stunned his section drew three of the top five seeds.
“I’m not surprised about that part of it,” Briggs said. “I think everybody realizes our section was the strongest last year and is the strongest this year. I was a little bit surprised about Serra being seeded that low. I thought they might be up around 3, 4 or 5 because, obviously, they were a section champ, and then they got seeded seventh and they’re playing well. They’ve been trending in the right direction.”
The Lady Mikes finished an undefeated regular season for the second time under Briggs.
“It’s an accomplishment,” Briggs said. “We just hope to keep it going.”
West Greene coach Bill Simms agreed with Briggs on the committee showing great respect for Section 2.
“We’re happy to get a three seed,” Simms said. “I think that speaks to the overall strength of our section, with Carmichaels, us and Jefferson-Morgan, we all battled this year, and Avella (which owns a win over J-M) is right in that mix.
“We’re happy to represent our section but we’ve got to play hard enough to make things pan out. Looking ahead to South Side or Leechburg, I think South Side has been in the playoffs like 30-some straight years so kudos to them, they’re obviously doing something right. No matter who wins that game we’re probably going to have our hands full.”
Simms has never been one to quibble with the seedings.
“Those guys have a difficult job,” Simms said. “I sit in on the WPIAL wrestling committee and everybody in the wrestling world questions whether you got it right or not so I never like to get into who got what and who didn’t get what.
“Locally you hope everybody in the section wins games then if we get to the point where we play Carmichaels again, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”
In Class 3A, Mount Pleasant and Southmoreland play first-round games on Monday.
The Lady Vikings (12-5, 8-2/first Section 1) take on No. 12 Keystone Oaks (8-8, 5-5/fourth Section 3) at 5 p.m. in the second game of a doubleheader at Waynesburg University following J-M and GCC. The Lady Scotties (9-7, 6-4/second Section 1) plays No. 10 Hopewell (10-7, 5-5/fourth Section 2) at 7 p.m. in the first game of a doubleheader at Trinity Middle School following Brownsville and Seton LaSalle.