Sisters hoping to carry the load

West Greene No. behind Renners

Tri-State Sports & News Service

West Greene’s Madison Renner had the best softball season of any player in school history as a sophomore in 2016. She went 19-2 with 118 strikeouts and a 1.72 ERA while leading the Pioneers to their first WPIAL Class 1A title game and their first PIAA championship game appearance.

The returning star pitcher for the Pioneers won’t be returning to the circle quite as much, though. Despite all of the accolades piled up, including a spot on the Post-Gazette’s all-area team, Renner will be splitting time this season ... with her younger sister, Jade.

Sibling rivalry? More like family bonding time. Madison and Jade are used to sharing.

“We have always been inseparable,” said Madison, who will play shortstop when she’s not pitching. “When I was 5 and Jade was 3, Jade’s room was getting repainted. When dad got done repainting it, she didn't want to move out of my room. We’ve had a really good bond ever since.”

Jade Renner is just a freshman, but she has made a name for herself on travel teams throughout the years and has impressed West Greene coach Billy Simms.

“She’s a stud,” said Simms.

Both Renners throw the same mix of pitches: fastball, two-seam fastball, change-up and riser. Madison is a right-hander while Jade is a left-hander, giving Simms the best of both worlds to work with.

“We hope they give us a lot of production,” Simms said. “We know what we have in Madison, but I’d like to think with as much travel ball as she’s played at a high level, we know what we have in Jade, too.”

The West Greene offense is just as loaded.

Madison Renner doubled as the team’s best offensive player last season. She batted .565 and cranked nine home runs and 15 doubles. In just 28 games, she drove in 66 runs.

Simms said those gaudy numbers were helped by an excellent supporting cast. Sophomore twins McKenna (.618 batting average) and Madison (.425) Lampe bat 1-2 in the order and typically set Renner up for RBI opportunities. Teams looking to pitch around Renner probably won’t have much luck. Kaitlyn Rizor, a sophomore, was a .400 hitter last season and will bat cleanup.

In all, the Pioneers return 17 of 19 players from last season. West Greene went 26-2 in 2016 and beat Chartiers-Houston, 12-3, for the WPIAL title. The WPIAL went from four to six classifications this school year, a move that bumped Chartiers-Houston to Class 2A. Rounding out the Post-Gazette top five in Class 1A are Leechburg, Carmichaels, Monessen and Union.

“I preach to the girls to play every inning like we’re down, 2-0,” Simms said. “We’re very proud of what we did, but we don’t want to hang our laurels on it. Everybody is hunting us right now.”

Here is a look at some other top teams around the WPIAL this season:

Class 6A

Hempfield is the clearcut choice as the top team in the largest classification. Notre Dame recruit Morgan Ryan is a two-time Post-Gazette softball player of the year after leading the Spartans to a sweep of the WPIAL and PIAA titles. She went 23-2 with a 1.11 ERA and 188 strikeouts. She tossed a shutout in the WPIAL championship and every PIAA tournament game. Catcher Madi Stoner also returns after batting .519 last season. No. 4 Shaler and No. 2 North Allegheny each graduated allarea pitchers, but bring back slugging shortstops to provide run support. The Tigers return one of the best offensive threats in the area in Pitt recruit Rachel Martindale, while the Titans feature senior Lauren Miller. Latrobe returns senior hurler Madison Carr, who racked up a 14-4 record with 97 strikeouts as a junior.

Class 5A

California (Pa.) recruit Brooke Wilson, a senior catcher, returns to lead No. 1 West Allegheny. It’s a good start, but the Indians will be looking to finish strong. Last season, they won 20 of their first 21 games before losing two of their final three in the playoffs, including a 10-0 defeat in the WPIAL Class 3A championship to Mount Pleasant. No. 2 Montour was a section rival of West Allegheny last season when the Indians won both meetings. Powered by slugging first baseman Brooke Zanotto, the younger sister of Maryland linebacker Brett Zanotto, Franklin Regional made the playoffs after a three-year drought in 2016. Thomas Jefferson is a program on the rise. The Jaguars won the first WPIAL title in school history in 2014 and last season went 16-3 while advancing to the WPIAL third-place consolation game.

Class 4A

Mount Pleasant sneaked up on just about everyone in claiming the school’s first WPIAL Class 3A championship last season as the No. 12 seed. The Vikings will need to take a different approach this year, because they are the top-ranked squad in their classification and won’t be surprising anyone. Junior ace Meadow Uncapher recorded 131 strikeouts last season and is an offense threat, too — she had a three-run home run in the WPIAL championship. Belle Vernon has the kind of player who can dominate a game in Bailey Parshall. The Penn State recruit, only a junior, already has made the all-area team twice. Last season, she went 15-5 with a 0.84 ERA and struck out a WPIALbest 231 batters. She batted .439 to help her cause. No. 2 Yough won PIAA Class 3A gold last year, but graduated star pitcher Macey Mularksi.

Class 3A

She’s only 5 feet 4, but Ellwood City pitcher Skyla Greco stood head and shoulders above the WPIAL last season. Greco went 21-0 against district competition, including a shutout of South Park in the title game before the Wolverines stumbled against Moniteau in the PIAA quarterfinals. Speaking of South Park, the No. 2 Eagles have a tenacious offense that will be a challenge for any team to shut down. Chances are, the most “Ks” you’ll find in the box score will belong to their star players. The Eagles feature shortstop Kaitlyn Morrison, a Penn State recruit, and Katlyn Pavlick, a Pitt commit. No. 5 Deer Lakes has reached the playoffs in each of the past six seasons.

Class 2A

Top-ranked ChartiersHouston was the WPIAL Class 1A runner-up in 2016 and will benefit from the bump up in classification away from West Greene. Now, the Buccaneers need to find a way to get over the title-game hump. They made the Class 1A championship game each of the past two seasons, but were defeated both times. No. 2 Laurel and Vincentian each bring an ace pitcher to the fold. Laurel boasts sophomore Kayla Ruperto, who last season racked up the second-highest strikeout total during the regular season with 206. Vincentian has Elizabeth Arnold, who was the No. 4 strikeout artist with 166. Arnold will need more support this season. Despite her best efforts, the Royals were 3-13. CLASS 2A 1. Chartiers-Houston 14-9 2. Laurel 16-5 3. C.W. North Catholic 16-6 4. South Side Beaver 12-4 5. Mohawk 10-8 CLASS 1A 1. West Greene 26-2 2. Leechburg 12-7 3. Carmichaels 11-9 4. Monessen 15-7 5. Union 12-6

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Elizabeth Arnold, Vincentian, So., P

Meredith Carr, Latrobe, Sr., P

Brittany Crawford, Canon-McMillan, Sr., IF

Skyla Greco, Ellwood City, Sr., P

Madison Lampe, West Greene, So., 3B

McKenna Lampe, West Greene, So., OF

Rachel Martindale, North Allegheny, So., SS

Lauren Miller, Shaler, Sr., SS

Kaitlyn Morrison, South Park, So., SS

Bailey Parshall, Belle Vernon, Jr., P

Katlyn Pavlick, South Park, Jr., 3B

Morgan Pierce, Leechburg, Jr., P

Madison Renner, West Greene, Jr., P-SS

Tayven Rousseau, Beaver, Sr., C

Kayla Ruperto, Laurel, So., P

Morgan Ryan, Hempfield, Sr., P

Madi Stoner, Hempfield, Sr., C

Meadow Uncapher, Mount Pleasant, Jr., P

Lexi Wagner, SetonLaSalle, Jr., SS

Brooke Wilson, West Allegheny, Sr., C which has made six College World Series appearances since 2000 and finished last season ranked No. 7.

Knowing he has options makes it easy to focus on his final year at Montour, Vietmeier said.

“If I think about it too much, I’m going to mess something up,” Vietmeier said. “I just let anything, like I said, go in one ear and out the other and I just play my game like I train every year for. It’s basically what I’m made for, to play baseball.”

At 6 feet 3 and 210 pounds, Vietmeier played football through his junior year. He gave it up this year, at the risk of busting up any fingers.

Vietmeier committed to LSU his sophomore year, when he went 5-3 with one save, striking out 62 in 49⅓ innings. His junior year, he went 5-0 with an 0.98 ERA, hitting .472 and adding 17 RBIs. Montour has made the playoffs the past three seasons, falling in the first round of WPIALs his freshman year, winning the third round consolation game his sophomore year and losing in the quarterfinals his junior year.

Committed to play at a program that’s second all time with six national championships, it might seem like a good time for Vietmeier to take the season off. But that’s not the plan, according to his dad.

“He’s playing for a lot of pride and I think he’s playing to prove a point that Montour is a good team,” Glenn Vietmeier said.