Penn-Trafford beating up foes

Offense gets team off to explosive start

Tri-State Sports & News Service

As a first-year head softball coach at Penn-Trafford, it didn't take long for Denny Little to realize the best way to approach this season.

“Just unleash the beast,” he said.

The mighty Penn-Trafford lineup has followed that script and put up some monster numbers.

The WPIAL Class 5A No. 3 Warriors (5-2, 5-1 heading into Thursday) have been downright scary for opposing pitchers. They put up a whopping 73 runs through the first five games, which is good for an average of 14.6 runs per game.

“I expected them to be a very strong offensive team, but it’s hard to expect the way they’ve pounded the ball,” said Little.

Bree Ginther is leading the hit parade with a .619 average heading into this week, including nine RBIs. Meghan Marasti is batting .591 with three doubles, a home run and 11 RBIs. Maura Mallon (.579) and Emma Nedley (.500) are batting above .500. Sarah Koscho has a pair of home runs and nine RBIs.

Hannah Dobrinick, last season’s leading hitter, missed two games due to a school trip, but is batting .500 with two doubles.

Little knew a good team when he saw it. He doesn’t micromanage the games, but rather lets the girls swing away.

“Our approach is just to see a good pitch and hit it,” he said. “We don’t like to let good pitches go by. You just wait for your pitch and rip it.”

Penn-Trafford has lost just twice, once to Hempfield, the top-ranked team in the larger Class 6A. The Warriors plated five runs on Hempfield, a squad that was coming off a 2016 in which it did not allow a single run from the WPIAL championship through the PIAA championship.

On April 4, the Warriors had their most impressive showing by bashing six home runs during a 23-5 rout against Plum. The Mustangs are no slouches and took a no-hitter into the seventh inning the very next day, Little said.

Penn-Trafford uses a pair of freshmen pitchers in starter Morgan Hilty and reliever Samantha Schickel. Having a dominant offense takes the pressure off those youngsters.

“Knowing that you have that backup offensively, you can give up a home run, give up a few runs and you still have that feeling of confidence that you’ll be backed up by bats,” Little said. “I really believe they can keep a solid pace and keep swinging.”

Chartiers-Houston

It’s a new classification, but the same stellar play from Chartiers-Houston. The third-ranked squad in Class 2A won its first eight games of the season and put up double-digit run totals in six of those contests. The Buccaneers played for the WPIAL Class 1A championship the past two seasons, but were defeated each time. The move up in classification — and away from Class 1A No. 1 West Greene, which beat the Buccaneers for the title in 2016 — could prove to be a good move.

Yough

Through the first seven games of the season, Yough has allowed more than half as many runs as it let up all of last year. The Cougars allowed just 27 runs in 25 games last season en route to a PIAA championship. Yough has already allowed 20 runs this season. But the increase of opponents crossing the plate has yet to haunt the Cougars. Yough is 6-1 and ranked No. 2 in Class 4A. There aren’t as many blowouts this time around, but the Cougars are piling up wins with nearly the same consistency.