May 18, 2021 3 min read

Riley Pekar went 3-for-3 and scored three times, Devan Clark and Madi Blaker combined on a four-hitter and Mapletown shut out St. Joseph 12-0 Tuesday in the first round of the Class A girls softball playoffs at West Mifflin.

It is believed to be the first WPIAL softball playoff victory in Mapletown history.

The Maples (9-6) advance to the quarterfinals Thursday and will play second-seeded Leechburg (11-4) at a site to be determined.

Mapletown, which lost close playoff games each of the last two years, wasted no time taking control this time, scoring four times in the bottom of the first inning and adding six more in the second when they took advantage of four St. Joseph errors.

Clark, a freshman, pitched the first two innings and Blaker, a senior, worked the final three frames. They combined for four strikeouts. Two of the St. Joseph hits were infield singles.

Taylor Dusenberry had a double and single for Mapletown, which had 11 hits. Hanna Hartley and Macee Cree also doubled for the Maples.

North Hills 4, Trinity 2: Sophia Roncone held Trinity to two hits and North Hills scored three unearned runs en route to a 4-2 victory over the Hillers in a WPIAL Class 5A playoff game at Montour.

North Hills (13-5), the No. 8 seed, scored one run in the second inning and added two more in the third on a single by Abigail Scheller.

Trinity scored without the benefit of a hit in the fifth as Bailey McCullough reached on a three-base throwing error and scored on a sacrifice fly by Alyssa Rager to make it 3-1.

Three North Hills hits in the bottom of the fifth made it 4-1.

Trinity was held hitless until the sixth when Amber Morgan singled.

The Hillers pulled to within 4-2 in the seventh when McCullough, who reached on a fielder’s choice, stole second base and came around to score on a single by Rager, who drove in both Trinity runs.

Roncone walked one batter and struck out nine.

Bishop Canevin 8, Jefferson-Morgan 3: Bishop Canevin used a pair of four-run innings to rally and defeat Jefferson-Morgan 8-3 in a Class A first-round playoff game at Waynesburg University.

Bishop Canevin (7-6) advances to play top-seeded West Greene (15-2) Thursday at a site to be determined. Jefferson-Morgan ends the season with a 5-9 record.

The game started well for the Rockets as J-M took a 1-0 lead into the fifth inning. That’s when Bishop Canevin’s Meadow Lokaitis hit a three-run inside-the-park home run that capped a four-run inning as the Crusaders took the lead.

Jefferson-Morgan closed to within 4-3 with two runs in the sixth, but Bishop Canevin scored four times in the top of the seventh, two coming on a single by winning pitcher Alysha Cutri.

Bishop Canevin outhit J-M 11-8 and four errors by the Rockets led to three unearned runs for the Crusaders.

Armstrong 16, South Fayette 3: Armstrong hit six home runs, including two each by Emma Smerick and Riley Kilgore, and defeated South Fayette 16-3 in five innings in a Class 5A first-round game at Valley.

Armstrong (13-4), the No. 7 seed, scored three times in both the first and second innings, and broke the game open with an eight-run third.

Kilgore was 3-for-3 with five RBI.

South Fayette (12-8) scored its runs in the fourth inning on a three-run homer by Abbey Girman.