Neshannock boys, girls have a shot at PIAA history
Maybe you’ve heard of these destination weddings, where couples decide to marry in a town or place far from where they live. The Neshannock baseball and softball teams are having their own version of a destination wedding Thursday and Friday.
Ceremonies will take place at Penn State. Oh, there won’t be rings that can be placed on Neshannock’s fingers. But there are gold medals that might be placed around their necks.
And while they won’t be walking out of University Park as husband and wife, there is a chance they could leave Penn State after being pronounced state champions.
Both the Neshannock baseball and softball teams have made it to PIAA championship games, which is an extremely unusual circumstance. Since the PIAA starting conducting championships in both baseball and softball in 1977, Neshannock is only the sixth school to send both baseball and softball teams to the title games. Only one WPIAL school (Bethel Park in 1985) has done it. Neshannock could make history and become only the second school to sweep the baseball and softball titles. Loyalsock did it in 2008.
Neshannock is a small school in Neshannock, just north of New Castle in Lawrence County.
While it remains to be seen whether the baseball and softball teams can pull off a double steal of championships, one thing is for sure: The place known for blue and white will have a lot of people in red and white Thursday and Friday. Those are Neshannock’s colors.
“There will be a sea of red going out there,” Neshannock baseball coach John Quahliero said. “We had so many people [for the semifinals] on Monday go right from the softball game at Westminster, and drive to North Allegheny for the baseball game. I think the entire community is booking hotel rooms for two nights at Penn State.”
The Neshannock baseball team (20-7) will play Everett in the Class 2A championship Thursday, 10:30 a.m. at Penn State’s Medlar Field at Lubrano Park. On Friday, the Neshannock softball team (25-0) will try to finish off a perfect season when it plays Conwell Egan, 11 a.m. at Penn State’s Beard Field.
“This is a special time for these kids and this district,” Quahliero said. “School’s out, but the reality is the support has been here for baseball and softball, no matter what is going on with winning or losing. This place is really second to none.”
For Quahliero, making it to the PIAA championship has special meaning for him, just because of what his team has overcome this season and also because this could be his last go-round as the Lancers’ coach.
Quahliero was an assistant under Mike “Bubba” Kirkwood for 23 years before the legendary Kirkwood, who won five WPIAL and two PIAA titles, retired and Quahliero took over in 2020. But there was no 2020 season because of the COVID-19 pandemic and then Quahliero decided to retire from the job after last season because of family reasons. But he stayed retired for less than two months before coming back on the job.
“They didn’t really have much interest in the job, so I said I’d come back,” Quahliero said. “I said I’d take it for one more year, but we’re just taking things one day at a time and see how it goes.”
This year’s Neshannock team has had a number of injuries to key players. Also one of the team’s top players, Andrew Frye, was ineligible for the postseason under the PIAA transfer rules. Frye came from Sharpsville.
“When you say next man up, it’s really true with this team because we’ve had to replace five guys at five different times this season because of injuries,” Quahliero said. “But these kids are very resilient. We were down 3-0 in the fifth inning to West Middlesex [in the first round of the PIAA playoffs], then down 4-1 to Riverside [in the quarterfinals] and down to five outs against Burgettstown [in the semifinals].
“These kids are loose and ready to play, but they’re very grounded, too.”
Montour
Bob Janeda has been Montour’s coach for four seasons, but he has been coaching many of the Montour players for about a decade. That’s what has made Montour’s run to the PIAA Class 4A championship game extra special.
Montour (20-6) plays Holy Ghost Prep for the title Thursday, 1:30 at Penn State. This is Montour’s first PIAA championship appearance.
A number of Montour’s starters started playing together on a travel team when they were 7 and 8 years old and their coach was Janeda, whose son, Brock, also was on the team. Bob Janeda kept coaching the travel team until he got the Montour job in 2019.
“It means everything to these kids,” Janeda said of a possible state title. “Most of these guys are all going away to college. With the COVID year, they would have been four-year starters. My first year on the job, I started a lot of these guys as freshmen. I want to send them away with something good.”
One of the Montour players who has played for Janeda for years is senior pitcher Dylan Mathiesen, who has a 7- 1 record. Mathiesen has been the ace of the staff, but he won Montour’s semifinal game and is ineligible to pitch Thursday under PIAA pitching limit rules.
But Montour still has Mason Sike, who is 5-1 with a 2.03 ERA.
“When we were young, every time we talked about when we were seniors, we knew we were going to be good,” Mathiesen said. “It’s awesome that we’ve been able to make it this far. It feels amazing. This is what everyone wants to do. It would be awesome to have the championship.”
Montour will face a Holy Ghost Prep team that is 18-5, won 11 in a row and averaged 10.3 runs during the winning streak. But maybe Montour’s players can end their many years of playing together with gold medals.
“It’s a special group,” Bob Janeda said. “Seven of the nine starters have been with us since they were young. We’re like a family. Sometimes we fight, but I love these kids. It’s going to be a sad day, which is coming soon, when they go on to college. But they’re ready.”