Sincerely yours
Dunlap key in historic victory for Uniontown
IRWIN — Sincere Dunlap has been involved in plenty of high-pressure situations, which was one of reasons Uniontown head coach Jason White had no problem in starting the ninth grader at pitcher in Monday’s WPIAL Class 4A first-round softball playoff game against Indiana at Norwin High School.
Dunlap, who is the younger sister of Sequoia, a current starter for Robert Morris University and the first Division I commit in the history of the Red Raiders softball program, pitched four scoreless innings and drove in two runs as Uniontown defeated the Little Indians, 5-3, for the first postseason victory in team history.
“She (Dunlap) has grown up around ball and seen good ball,” White said. “She knows good ball, and it was just a matter of executing, and she definitely did that. She was fantastic. People may say about her being a freshman and all, but I knew that she was up for it. She has played softball at a high level for a long time. I was very happy with her performance, but I was not surprised because I knew she could do it.”
White and his staff were brainstorming the last few weeks with the idea of starting a freshman in the circle.
“I had been toying around with my coaches the last several weeks on starting Sincere,” White said. “I finally pulled the trigger at Frazier last week. They have some pretty legit bats in that lineup. She did a fantastic job in striking out nine over seven innings, so I knew it was time to mix it up, do something different and definitely time to do something no one expected.”
Sequoia’s legacy remains intact, as she has been confused with Sincere in several instances this season, but after Monday’s performance, there won’t be any confusion when it comes to the younger Dunlap’s abilities.
Sequoia attended the game and was pleased with how Sincere handled herself in a tense situation.
“I was definitely jittery the first few innings,” Sincere Dunlap said. “I knew I was going to pitch, which was something we decided last week.”
The Red Raiders, who improved to 11-8 this season, will play Hampton (14-5) on Thursday in the quarterfinals at a site and time to be determined. The Talbots defeated Greensburg Salem, 14-4, in five innings on Monday in the first round. Hampton is the defending district champion in Class 4A.
“We just have to get right back to it,” White said. “I have said before that we play in the toughest section in the WPIAL, so our girls are battle tested. We know we have a tough opponent, but we told the girls the objective is to finish 1-0 at the end of the day.”
Uniontown is in the playoffs for the fourth straight season, but the postseason has been unkind to the Red Raiders, as White’s squad was 0-3 with losses to Knoch (7-6 in nine innings) in 2023, West Mifflin (10-1) in 2024 and a 3-2 setback to Indiana last season.
“It is so great to finally ‘get the monkey off our backs,’ and that is what we did today,” White said. “We had several close losses, too, which really stung, but we were able to break through and win.”
Uniontown seniors Lyric McLee, Emmaleigh Noah and Graci Rodeheaver experienced the three playoffs losses, but were able to exorcise those demons to qualify for the round of eight.
“I didn’t want my senior year to end without winning a playoff game,” Emmaleigh Noah said. “It feels so good to break through and get this victory. I didn’t realize this was the first playoff win in the history of our softball program.”
The Red Raiders jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning before the Little Indians (14-6) battled back with two runs in the fifth and one in the sixth for a 3-3 contest heading into the top of the seventh frame.
Noah, who relieved Dunlap in the fifth inning, singled to left field to lead off the inning, but was caught stealing on a perfect throw from Indiana catcher Sophia Boyer to shortstop Rylin Blystone, who applied the tag for the first out.
Little Indians sophomore pitcher Sam Martin recorded a strikeout for two outs, but Alivia Noah kept the frame alive with a single to center field.
Rodeheaver delivered what would be the game-winning hit when she jumped on a 2-2 pitch for a double to center field that scored Noah for a 4-3 advantage.
“She threw a pitch that was away when I got the hit,” Rodeheaver said. “I was crowding the plate a little bit, and you couldn’t get any closer than that. As seniors, we didn’t want to have our final season of high school softball end without winning a playoff game, but we want to keep it going.”
Rodeheaver scored on Dunlap’s double to left field for a 5-3 lead. Dunlap fell behind in the count 0-2 after fouling off two pitches, but worked back to a 2-2 count before connecting on the eight pitch in the at-bat. Dunlap fouled off five pitches prior to driving in an insurance run.
“My approach in that last at-bat was mainly to protect,” Dunlap said. “She threw a changeup, I waited on it, and it flew.”
Emmaleigh Noah pitched a 1-2-3 seventh inning and was mobbed by teammates after earning a strikeout for the historic win.
After allowing the tying run to score on Rachel Livermore’s solo home run to left field to lead off the bottom of the sixth inning, the Red Raider senior recorded six straight outs, with five coming via groundouts to Rodeheaver at shortstop before the final strikeout.
Noah yielded one earned run on one hit over three innings for the pitching victory. She had three strikeouts and no walks.
“I just had to let it go after giving up the game-tying home run,” Emmaleigh Noah said. “Home runs have never bothered me before, ever since I was little. Hitters are trained to hit and I’m trained to pitch.”
Dunlap allowed two earned runs on five hits over four innings. She had three strikeouts and walked one.
Uniontown’s three runs in the opening frame came on three hits, as Katie White singled to center field, stole second and scored on Emmaleigh Noah’s base hit to left field.
Emmaleigh Noah stole second, Lauren White walked and scored on Alivia Noah’s RBI to right field for a 2-0 lead. White advanced to third on the play.
Rodeheaver walked and White scored on Dunlap’s sacrifice flyout to right field for a three-run advantage.
Dunlap was glad to have a cushion, but she knew Indiana wouldn’t fold.
“It felt great to have that early lead, but I knew they wouldn’t give up,” Dunlap said.
Martin settled in after the first, and didn’t allow a hit in the second, third and fourth innings. Alivia Noah broke up Martin’s hitless streak with a single up the middle in the fifth frame. Tessa Livingood singled and Katie White doubled in the sixth, but Martin induced a groundout to third base for the final out of the inning.
Martin allowed five earned runs on 10 hits over seven innings. She had eight strikeouts and walked five.
Indiana’s two runs in the fifth came on the strength of three hits and some heads up baserunning to cut the deficit to 3-2.
Anna Carnovale singled to left field to lead off the inning before courtesy runner Paisley Wolff scored on Hannah Ianarelli’s double to center field.
Jason White put Emmaleigh Noah in the circle after Claire Brewer singled to right field, and following a strikeout, Ianarelli scored on Martin’s groundout to Noah.
Noah fielded the ball cleanly and looked Ianarelli back to third base, but the Little Indians’ right fielder broke to the plate and beat the throw from Dunlap to Juliet White at home.
Livermore, who hit the game-tying homer on a 2-1 count, had an infield single in the fourth for two hits.