PIAA softball figures, factoids and memories
FIRST CHAMPION: The PIAA didn’t start softball championships until 1975 when Parkland beat Coatesville, 3-2, at Ferreira Field in eastern Pennsylvania.
FIRST CHAMP FROM THE WPIAL: It took until 1980 for a WPIAL team to win a PIAA title. North Hills captured the Class 3A crown with a 2-1 win against North Penn at Shippensburg University. North Hills won with two runs in the seventh inning.
MOST CHAMPIONSHIPS FROM WPIAL: Heading into this year, Hempfield had four PIAA championships, the most of any WPIAL school. Hempfield’s first one was in 1999. The next three came consecutively from 2016-18. Bob Kalp was the coach for all four championships. The title in 1999 was the first for the WPIAL in the largest classification since North Hills in 1980. Heading into this year, only three other WPIAL teams had won two PIAA championships — West Greene, Shaler and Leechburg.
THE PERFECT FINISH: In 2010, Mt. Lebanon’s Geena Badolato had a performance for the ages when she pitched a perfect game as Mt. Lebanon beat Central Bucks South, 1-0. It was the first perfect game in PIAA championship history. Badolato struck out 11. The last batter Badolato faced, she ran the count to 3-2. A ball would ruin her perfect game, but she got a strikeout to end the contest. Mt. Lebanon scored the only run of the game in the first inning when Tess Apke hit a home run.
ONE BIG TOURNEY IN SHIPPENSBURG: For the first few years of the PIAA playoffs, all teams would go to Shippensburg and the tournament was played over three days. But in 1980, the PIAA tried a different format, which was never used again. All 16 teams that qualified from eastern and western Pennsylvania went to Shippensburg for a double-elimination tournament that lasted from Monday through Friday. Starting in 1981, the PIAA held only the semifinals and championship games at Shippensburg. That format was used until 1989, when only the championships were at one site.
USING THE CURL PATTERN IN 1980: When North Hills won the 1980 title, the Indians won five games over five consecutive days. Junior Leigh Curl pitched all five games. She gave up only 14 hits in the five games and was involved in a double no-hitter against Bedford that North Hills won, 3-0. But Curl also was an excellent basketball player and went on to play basketball at the University of Connecticut. She was elected to the WPIAL Hall of Fame a few years ago and has been the longtime team orthopedic doctor for the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens.
MOST RUNS: The most runs ever scored in a PIAA championship was 16 by Neshaminy Maple Point against Reading in 1979. Neshaminy Maple Point existed for less than 10 years before becoming part of Neshaminy High School near Philadelphia.
MOST RUNS FOR WPIAL: As for WPIAL teams, West Greene scored the most runs in a championship game when it had 11 against Williams Valley last year.
LONGEST GAMES: Two PIAA championship games lasted 12 innings. In 1989, Williamsport defeated Baldwin, 1-0, in Altoona. In 2013, Canon-McMillan defeated Neshaminy, 4-3, at Penn State. The Canon-McMillan game has to be one of the most memorable in championship history. CanonMcMillan’s Alayna Astuto pitched a no-hitter through nine innings, but the game was still scoreless. In the 10th, the international tiebreaker rule went into effect, where each team starts the inning with a runner at second base. Astuto’s no-hitter was broken up in the 10th and Neshaminy scored a run. But so did Canon-McMillan. The two teams scored one run each in the 11th. In the top of the 12th, Linda Rush of the Big Macs hit a big two-run homer and CanonMcMillan went on to win 4-3.
TERRY FRANCONA’S DAUGHTERS: The Pennsbury team that beat Shaler, 10-0, in the 2005 Class 4A championship had two daughters whose father was rather famous. Alyssa Francona, a senior, was a starting catcher and Leah Francona, a freshman, was a starting outfielder. Their father was Boston Red Sox manager Terry Francona.
HARD-LUCK HIGHLANDERS: The Baldwin Highlanders lost in a PIAA championship three times, all by one run. They lost to Williamsport, 1-0, in 1989, and to Allentown Allen, 7-6, in eight innings in 1990. The 1995 loss might have been the toughest. In eight postseason games, Baldwin’s Kelly McCann allowed only one run. But that came in the sixth inning and Baldwin went on to lose, 1-0. That was the only loss of the season for Baldwin (22-1).