Apr 14, 2021 3 min read

Life in Trinity’s section of Class 5A softball can be unforgiving.

Just ask Taylor Dunn.

The Trinity sophomore starting pitcher was tossing a no-hitter through three innings and was losing 2-1. Then, in the sixth, the roof caved in.

Dunn gave up a home run and then took a line drive off her left thigh that ended up as an infield single. When the next West Allegheny batter lined a single to center field that came within inches of taking her right ear off, she was removed.

But there was something positive for the Hillers that emerged from West Allegheny’s 7-2 victory at Trinity Middle School on a windy Wednesday.

This Trinity team did not roll over and die against this powerful Section 4 opponent. The Hillers scratched and clawed through five innings before the talented Indians broke it open with seven runs in the final two innings.

And maybe the COVID-19 pandemic affected Trinity more than West Allegheny, Chartiers Valley, South Fayette and Moon, all teams in front of the Hillers in the standings.

“The pandemic has made a huge impact on this program,” said Trinity head coach Shawn Gray. “I have six sophomores playing and to me I have six freshmen. We missed the whole year of teaching them to run the bases correctly, understanding what our defensive alignments are, and we had to shove them into the fire without them getting everything we want them to learn under their belt.”

Gray has a roster of two seniors and the rest underclassmen.

“It’s almost like a fire hose coming at them right now,” Gray said. “For this season, we’ve had a lot of time with them. But there is only so much you can introduce to them. You split your time between offense and defense. What do you focus on then? Today, our bats were quiet so we concentrated on our defense.”

West Allegheny scored two runs in the first without the benefit of a hit. Leadoff hitter Maddie Rieker walked and proceeded to steal second and third bases. Megan Pollinger followed with a walk, then stole second base. A groundout by West Allegheny starting pitcher Angela Costa brought Rieker home and sent Pollinger to third. Another groundout scored Pollinger.

Trinity (1-2, 2-2) got a run back in the bottom of the first when Amber Morgan walked and came around to score on wild pitch.

The two teams traded zeros in the linescore for the next four innings. In the top of the sixth, West Allegheny (2-1, 4-2) took control. Rieker led off with single to center field and Pollinger blasted a two-run home run over the left-field fence. Costa then lined a pitch off Dunn’s thigh and came around to score on a sacrfice fly to center field by Addi Vicari-Baker to make in 5-1. Costa would strike out 11 and walk three.

“This is not the norm. We’ve been struggling to score runs this season so we challenged the kids to make the adjustments they needed to make at the plate,” said West Allegheny head coach Mindy McFate. “We’re still trying to figure things out. After this win, we feel we’re headed in the right direction.”

Madison Miller replaced Dunn and she gave up a pair of two-run home runs in the seventh.