Frazier is one win away from first state title game

From local dispatches

Chartiers-Houston got the best of Frazier the first time the two teams met March 30.

Since that time, however, it has been all Commodores, who now are one win away from their first PIAA championship game appearance.

Frazier (19-4) senior Savannah Berklovich doubled and drove in two runs, then pitcher Logan Hartman did just enough to keep the Chartiers-Houston offense on edge as the Commodores moved into the PIAA Class 2A semifinals with a 4-3 victory over the Bucs (18-5) at Pleasant Valley Elementary School in McMurray.

Frazier now will take on the winner of Friday’s game between WPIAL champion Laurel and District 9 champion Cranberry.

The game, originally slated for Thursday, was rescheduled along with two others as part of a tripleheader at Slippery Rock University.

Class 6A

Hempfield 2, McDowell 0: Spartans coach Bob Kalp picked up his 419th career victory as his team now is two wins away from an unprecedented fourth consecutive title in the state’s highest classification.

No team has ever won four in a row in the PIAA’s top class dating to 1975, when the sport featured only two divisions.

Sophomore starter Callie Sowers picked up the shutout as she surrendered five hits and fanned five in a complete-game victory. Junior outfielder Ashley Orischak, a St. Francis, Pa., recruit, accounted for both Hempfield runs with a two-out, two-run triple off of her future college teammate, McDowell senior pitcher Rachel Marsden, in the top of the sixth.

Class 3A

Clearfield 2, Avonworth 1: The Antelopes’ hopes of playing in their first PIAA Class 3A championship fell by the wayside at St. Francis University.

Clearfield, the District 9 champion, had not won a state playoff game since a 2000 victory against Allderdice before defeating District 5 champion Chestnut Ridge to move into the quarterfinals.

Bison starting pitcher Emma Hipps was staked to an early 2-0 lead and danced around trouble to hold Avonworth at bay. Her biggest stop came in the bottom of the fifth when, clinging to a one-run lead, she wiggled out of a bases-loaded jam and kept the WPIAL champions from tying the score.

Bald Eagle Area 4, Keystone Oaks 2: The Golden Eagles fell into a 3-0 hole thanks to a two-run homer by Megan King in the bottom of the first for the District 6 champions. Sierra LeDonne had a run-scoring single for Keystone Oaks in the second inning.

Class 4A

Mount Pleasant 4, James Buchanon 2 (8 innings): The Vikings were six outs away from elimination, but came back with the tying run on a Sydni Overly groundout in the top of the sixth to tie it and pulled out the win in the eighth.