Jun 16, 2016 4 min read

STATE COLLEGE – Sometimes a sporting event can be best summed up by what happens after the final score is determined.

The PIAA Class A softball championship game between West Greene and Williams Valley played Thursday was one such event.

The medals – the second-place medals – were being handed out by West Greene coach Bill Simms to his players following a gut-wrenching 3-2 loss that ended the Pioneers’ landmark 23-game winning streak and breakthrough season that included a WPIAL championship. Simms made sure he offered a few words of encouragement to each of his players.

When he got to shortstop Bailey Bennington, he put the medal around her neck and the two embraced.

Moments later, Simms was given the silver runner-up trophy. He turned and gave it to Bennington, the only senior on the Pioneers’ 19-player varsity roster.

Simms then spoke for his entire team when he told Bennington, “I apologize for not being able to give you the gold trophy.”

Each of Bennington’s teammates felt the same way. A state championship would not only have been the perfect end to West Greene’s dream season, it would have been the best parting gift for Bennington, the first of the players to pass through the program who helped turn the Pioneers from underdogs for life into statewide powerhouse.

Simms was still choked up talking about that moment with Bennington 20 minutes after it happened.

Sure, West Greene had failed to win the state championship at Penn State’s Beard Field and there were plenty of tears shed afterward. But there was no disgrace in this defeat. The Pioneers simply lost a game they could have won. Williams Valley, a team that averaged a mind-boggling 17 runs per game in its first three state-tournament wins, had squeaked one out against West Greene. One play with a different result here or there and West Greene would have won by a single run.

And Simms and the Pioneers would have reacted with the same show of class they did after this difficult loss.

As Williams Valley’s players were receiving their first-place medals, Simms and his players stood almost at attention and applauded. So did the West Greene fans, who again came out en mass, following their team halfway across the state. They even applauded the Williams Valley players.

Simms said his team wasn’t happy to just get to the first state final for any West Greene team. He wanted to win. His players wanted to win. However, with 18 underclassmen and four freshmen in the starting lineup, and playing on the biggest stage for any West Greene athletic team – an overflow and standing-room-only crowd – against a team that had won a state championship only three years ago, these young Pioneers didn’t buckle under the pressure. The setting wasn’t too big. West Greene played every play like it belonged here, which it did.

“Our eyes were a little big when we took a look at this place (Wednesday),” Simms said. “We acted like we had never seen grass before. It was a Field of Dreams kind of thing. That took the edge off.

“We just came up one run short. I wouldn’t trade my girls for anybody in the state. … We’re going to try to get back here and win one.”

With so many returning players, and a few impact newcomers expected next season, the Pioneers might have another look at Beard Field. And win or lose, you can bet the Pioneers will be a class act.

Again.

Sports editor Chris Dugan can be reached at dugan@observer-reporter.com.