Jun 7, 2018 4 min read

LATROBE – History repeated itself two weeks ago when Belle Vernon’s softball team downed Mt. Pleasant, 1-0, in the WPIAL semifinals en route to a second consecutive Class 4A championship.

Unfortunately for the Leopards, it repeated again Thursday as Belle Vernon was eliminated in the PIAA playoffs for the second consecutive season by Mt. Pleasant, 3-2, in the quarterfinals at Latrobe High School.

“When I saw the draw for the PIAA tournament, I knew this would be a tough one. This isn’t the way we wanted to end the season and I told the girls that this much wins or loses the games,” Belle Vernon coach Tom Rodriguez said while holding his index finger and thumb an inch a part. “There are too many little things, and I believe that you always need a little luck. Look at us in the WPIAL title game and over the last few years.”

In Belle Vernon’s WPIAL semifinal win over Mt. Pleasant May 22, Parshall struck out 18 batters and no-hit the Vikings.

This time, the Vikings got to Parshall in the first inning as they used three singles to take a 1-0 lead.

With one out, Courtney Poulich singled up the middle, and two hitters later Haylie Brunson singled to left centerfield to bring home Poulich.

On the throw to the plate, the runners advanced to second and third and the Vikings had a chance to add more runs. However, Mary Smithnosky grounded to first baseman Mekenzie Sokol, who stepped on first and threw home to catcher Ally Pacak, who tagged out Chloe Poulich to end the inning.

Parshall retired 14 straight batters from the second inning into the sixth, with eight of them being strikeouts.

Belle Vernon would have its chances each inning as the Leopards put the leadoff hitter on base each inning from the second until the sixth. But it wasn’t until the sixth that Belle Vernon scored. The Leopards stranded seven baserunners.

“It is the same old thing,” Rodriguez said. “We needed a timely hit and we didn’t get them.”

Before the Leopards would score, the Vikings extended their lead to 3-0 in the sixth. Addy Kubasky singled to lead off the inning, and it was the Vikings’ first hit since Brunson’s RBI single in the first.

Two batters later, Chloe Poulich drilled a Parshall fastball deep over the right-field fence to give Mt. Pleasant a 3-0 lead.

Belle Vernon got on the scoreboard in the sixth but it ran itself out of a big inning. Kourtney Gavatorta led off with a single and Sokol followed with a single.

Sophia Godzak singled to center field, scoring Gavatorta and sending Sokol to third base.

On the relay throw, Godzak initially attempted to advance to second base and was thrown out when she scrambled back to first base.

Mt. Pleasant coach Lauren Armanious pulled pitcher Carolyn Alcinic in favor of Meadow Uncapher.

Jordan French then hit into a fielder’s choice that scored Sokol to make it 3-2. Uncapher would strike out Natalie French two batters later to end the inning.

Parshall, who struck out 11, retired the side for the fifth time in the game in the seventh inning and the Leopards had one last chance to pull out another postseason comeback.

Uncapher struck out the first two batters before Parshall singled up the middle, as did Gavatorta, to give the Leopards a pair of baserunners with two outs.

However, Sokol grounded out to shortstop to end the game and give Mt. Pleasant, the defending PIAA champion, another spot in the Western finals.

The loss ends the season for the Leopards, who won a school-record 22 games.

The senior class of Parshall, Gavatorta and Alex Sokol led the Leopards to the three WPIAL titles and never lost a WPIAL playoff game.

Parshall, a Penn State recruit, entered the game with an ERA of 0.30 and ended her memorable career holding every school pitching record. She had 984 strikeouts over her four years.

“She is a once-in-a-lifetime pitcher and I will never coach another like her,” Rodriguez said. “She really wanted to get to (the PIAA) finals at Penn State.”