Jun 9, 2022 3 min read

SLIPPERY ROCK – Billy Simms and George Heigel are pretty good friends.

Simms, the head softball coach at West Greene High School, even helped Heigel, who coaches at Dubois Central Catholic, with the all-state selection process.

When the two teams meet each other in the PIAA Class A playoffs, it’s been Simms who has gotten the better of Heigel. West Greene had won four out of the last five meetings, including one by 10 runs last year.

So you had to know how good Heigel was feeling, and how terrible Simms felt, after Thursday’s sixth straight postseason meeting, a game won by Dubois Central Catholic, 8-2, Thursday at Slippery Rock University, this time sending West Greene home for the summer.

“It’s always West Greene that has been a thorn in our side,” said Heigel. “That’s only the second time we beat them. Incredible right? Billy called me Monday night to congratulate me. It’s sweeter to beat him than to lose to him four times, or whatever it is.”

For the second state playoff game in a row, West Greene fell behind 2-0. A two-run home run in the first inning against Conemaugh Valley was overcome in a 9-8 victory. Yesterday’s deficit could not be overcome.

“Of all the teams I’ve ever coached, I could love this one as much as any of them,” said Simms. “We don’t have a Jenny Finch or a Syd Romero. We just have a lot of kids who work their tails off and I’m proud of each and everyone of them.”

The big inning was the fourth, when Dubois Central Catholic sent 11 batters to the plate and scored six times for an 8-0 lead. The Pioneers didn’t help their cause with three errors in the inning.

“You just can’t give outs away in big games,” Simms said. “I felt that we did in a couple spots and once we did, the gloves came off and they just hit the heck out of the ball. They caught fire and made us pay.”

West Greene managed to cut the lead to six with a couple of runs in the fifth. But it was way too late by then.

“We felt we were going to hit (starter Melia Miscavage at some time, but it never came to fruition,” said Simms.

In one of those rare occasions, Simms had to remove starter Kylie Meek in the six-run fourth.

“It was very tough,” Simms said. “Kylie Meek is arguably the best girl I ever coached. She has a great work ethic, a workaholic. It was very tough to go out and get her. I’ll go to war for Kylie Meek. If anyone wants to fight that, I’ll be standing outside the bus and we’ll go at it all night.”

Simms said he took Meek out because you can’t take out eight girls.

“You have to try something,” Simms said. “Sometimes, you just change the pitcher, Peyton Gilbert did a nice job out there. And I think we played better defense behind her.”

Simms said it’s tough to end the season with this group.

“When you have kids you’ve coached since 8-under and you don’t know whether they are that good but then they go to the state finals last year and the WPIAL finals this year, I couldn’t ask more or be prouder of this group,” he said. “I love them.”