Three-peat: West Greene scores 3 in 7th, rallies to win 3rd straight WPIAL crown
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
Members of the West Greene softball team rush the team captains as they hoist the WPIAL Class A Championship trophy.
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
Monessen’s Mattie Telegraphis makes the catch at the right-field foul line for an out against West Greene.
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
West Greene’s Madison Renner (48) hugs Lexie Mooney as head coach Bill Simms presents his team with the championship medals.
Monessen’s Dana Vatakis is under pressure as West Greene has a scoring chance on third
Jade Renner reacts as her team wins the WPIAL A Championship 5-4 against Monessen in the bottom of the 7th. Her at-bat drove in the tying run to help the team pull ahead
Monessen’s Carly Rock holds the runner up trophy as Dana Vatakis watches as West Greene is presented with their championship medals
Observer-Reporter
West Greene’s Jade Renner celebrates at second base after hitting a game-tying double in the bottom of the seventh inning against Monessen in the 2018 WPIAL Class A Championship game.
Monessen’s Maddie Guzzie is safe at second against West Greene’s Kaitlyn Rizor
Monessen fans react when their team pulls ahead 4-2 at the top of the 7th
West Greene players celebrate as their fans cheer after the Pioneers won their third straight WPIAL Class A softball championship.
West Greene’s Madison Renner goes for the tag against Monessen’s Sydney Caterino
West Greene’s Kaitlyn Rizor is safe at first against Monessen’s Hannah Yorty
GREENSBURG – The West Greene High School softball team is used to doing things in pairs.
Head coach Bill Simms is accustomed to writing “Lampe” twice atop the defending state champion Pioneers’ batting order. He’s also familiar with penning “Renner” right behind the Lampe twins in the potent top four of the order.
Entering Thursday, the one pair that Simms, the Lampe twins and the Renner sisters didn’t want was a pair of WPIAL Class A championship trophies. They wanted a third.
Trailing Monessen 4-2 in the bottom of the seventh inning, the Pioneers scored three runs to win 5-4 and three-peat as WPIAL Class A champions. As West Greene (19-4) held up the trophy for the third straight year, Simms remembers the days when it was inconceivable for West Greene to win one WPIAL title, nonetheless three.
“We try to keep it in perspective,” Simms said. “We are pleased, happy and tickled to death with three, but we understand other schools have never had that chance. We are in extremely rare air to have three for our school.”
To start the three-run seventh inning, McKenna Lampe, who was hitless in her three previous at-bats, singled on a bunt off Monessen pitcher Dana Vatakis. After Madison Lampe grounded out and McKenna Lampe advanced to third on a wild pitch, Monessen (15-4) head coach Bo Teets intentionally walked power-hitting Madison Renner – the tying run – for the second time in the game. It’s not the first time Teets made the unconventional coaching decision, as he walked Madison Renner as the tying run twice in the Greyhounds’ 2-1 section win over the Pioneers in April.
It worked in April. It didn’t work Thursday.
“In our section over the past few years, she’s been the girl who has scared me the most,” Teets explained. “I figure if they have one of the other girls in their lineup – which is loaded behind her – beat us, then so be it.”
Jade Renner, who singled home Madison Renner in the fifth after the latter was intentionally walked, roped an opposite-field double to score McKenna Lampe and Madison Renner to tie the score at 4-4. Courtesy runner Brianna Goodwin then advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored the game-winning run on an infield throwing error after a Kaitlyn Rizor ground ball.
“Having a deficit, you always want to get a hit,” said Jade Renner, who was also the winning pitcher, allowing four runs (two earned) in a complete game. “I don’t want to say I got mad, but, well, they kept intentionally walking (Madison Renner).”
“I feel like something lights under her. She knows I hate (being intentionally walked),” said Madison Renner, who scored three of West Greene’s runs. “I wanted to hit so bad in that last at-bat. … I think she saw that I was upset.”
Monessen jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning, as freshman Hannah Yorty started the game how she finished the WPIAL semifinal. After hitting a three-run walkoff homer in the semifinal, Yorty smacked a two-out double to score Vatakis, who allowed five runs (four earned) in 6 1/3 innings, and Madison Telegraphis. Both runs were unearned, as the Pioneers’ normally sure-handed defense made two errors in the inning.
West Greene cut its deficit in half in the fourth when Kaitlyn Rizor singled home Madison Renner, who doubled to start the inning.
After Jade Renner’s game-tying single in the fifth, Destiny Habeck doubled home two runs with two outs in the top of the seventh to give Monessen a 4-2 lead.
Telegraphis then singled, but Teets held Habeck at third base when she might have scored. That was one of several difficult decisions by the Greyhounds, including committing two outs on the bases early in the game.
“If I don’t make a couple boneheaded plays on third base and run us out of some innings, I think the result, hopefully, could have gone the other way,” Teets said. “This one is going to be tough for me to sleep with. A lot of the things that happened between the lines were a direct result of me not making the right choices. This one falls on my shoulders.”
After Madison Renner was walked in the seventh inning, she was emotional as she thought that her last WPIAL at-bat was taken out of her hands. But after she rounded the bases to score on her younger sister’s game-tying double, she was overcome with different emotions.
“I don’t think (Jade Renner) understands how proud I am of her,” Madison Renner said. “Against a very good team, and facing a really good pitcher, and for her to do her thing, it’s the best thing I could ever ask for. It’s great watching her. I love it. I’m so proud of her.”
West Greene starts its journey to a back-to-back PIAA championships Monday against District 6 runner-up Glendale. Monessen takes on District 10 champion Cambridge Springs. Sites and times have not officially been set by the PIAA.