Lampe twins power West Greene to rout of rival Carmichaels
West Greene’s Haleigh Thomas celebrates as she scores on a three-run homer hit by Madison Lampe during the fourth inning Tuesday afternoon against Carmichaels at Rice Energy Park.
West Greene’s Madison Renner delivers a pitch Tuesday against Carmichaels at Rice Energy Park.
Carmichaels’ Gina Ranieri collides with West Greene’s Linzee Stover on a play at first base Tuesday at Rice Energy Park.
ROGERSVILLE – For more than three decades the Carmichaels High School softball program was a powerhouse in the WPIAL’s smallest classification. The Mikes won a bushel of section titles, multiple WPIAL championships and one state title.
Two years ago, the Mikes were bumped up to Class AA and advanced to the WPIAL quarterfinals as one of the smallest schools in the classification. Meanwhile, Jefferson-Morgan and West Greene, two of Carmichaels’ oldest rivals, each won WPIAL Class A championships.
When the PIAA expanded softball from four to six classes for this year, Carmichaels became a rarity. The Mikes’ enrollment numbers allowed them to drop in class, back down to Class A, while many of their most-recent section rivals moved up to Class AAA.
“We should have been in Class A the whole time,” Carmichaels coach Dave Briggs said. “It was tough to watch two Greene County schools win WPIAL championships when we felt we were pretty good.”
Movin’ on down might sound like good news for Carmichaels, but being placed in the same section as defending WPIAL champion West Greene is enough to make teams wish they were playing in Class 6-A.
Twin sisters McKenna and Madison Lampe each hit a three-run homer, and West Greene had runs from eight different spots in the batting order as it remained undefeated with a 12-2 six-inning victory over Carmichaels in a Section 2-A matchup of Greene County rivals Tuesday at Rice Energy Park.
The Lampe sisters, along with winning pitcher Madison Renner and Kaitlyn Rizor – the top four hitters in the West Greene lineup – were a combined 8-for-14 with 11 RBI.
The win moves West Greene to 3-0 in the section and 8-0 overall and gives the Pioneers home wins over Monessen and Carmichaels (3-1, 5-3), perhaps their biggest rivals for the section title, in as many days.
West Greene coach Bill Simms said the game was a measuring stick for his program.
“Year in, year out, Carmichaels is good,” Simms said. “They don’t have 20- or 30-some section-title banners because they don’t know how to play the game. They’re going to be battle-tested when the smoke clears and I’m just glad to have gotten the best of them here. Now that they’re back down in Class A, they’re going to be a force to be reckoned with. We treat them like a state champ every time we play them. That’s how much respect we have for them.”
On this day, Carmichaels hung with the West Greene for only three innings before the Pioneers broke the game open with a five-run fourth that made the score 10-1. Madison Lampe had the big hit in the inning, a towering three-run homer to center field. Rizor added an RBI single and scored the Pioneers’ 10th run on a passed ball.
“West Greene’s better than them,” Briggs said comparing the Pioneers to the Mikes’ former Class AA section rivals. “We knew we had to outhit them. We’re not going to shut them out.
“What we have to do now is hold serve against the other teams to make it mean something when we play West Greene the next time.”
Carmichaels, which lost for the first time this season to a Pennsylvania school, did take a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning when a West Greene error was followed by a run-scoring double by Gina Ranieri. The Mikes, however, would not get another hit off Renner until the fifth inning. Freshman Jade Renner replaced her sister with two outs in the sixth and they combined on a four-hitter.
“We feel like we have two aces,” Simms said of the Renner sisters.
What momentum Carmichaels had after a half-inning didn’t last. West Greene tied the score in the bottom of the first on consecutive doubles by Madison Lampe and Madison Renner. Madison Lampe was a triple shy of hitting for the cycle, going 4-for-4 with two doubles, a homer, four runs and three RBI. She raised her batting average to .679.
The Pioneers took a 5-1 lead in the second. McKenna Lampe hit her three-run homer, and Madison Lampe followed with a single and came all the way around to score on an error.
Carmichaels scored in the sixth on singles by Ranieri and Maddie Ewart around a walk, but West Greene ended the game by scoring twice in the bottom of the inning. Rizor hit a sacrifice fly, and a single by Jade Renner, and error and Lexi Mooney’s single ended the game.
It was the first time Carmichaels had lost via the 10-run rule against a Class A team since 2005 against Chartiers-Houston.
“We hit the ball pretty well,” Simms said. “We’re pretty potent up top. Those girls get the all the press but I like the girls at the bottom of the order who can grind it out and turn the order over and get us back to the top.”