May 20, 2021 4 min read

WAYNESBURG – You can forgive Kiley Meek if she let a smile or two escape her lips during Thursday’s WPIAL Class A playoff game against Bishop Canevin.

Among the impressive array of pitches is a changeup that seemingly floats into catcher London Whipkey’s glove. Normally, an opponent is left swinging at air.

Meek used the pitch when she needed it most in this quarterfinal game and West Greene came away with a 10-0 victory over Bishop Canevin in a five-inning game.

The win catapults the top-seeded Pioneers, who are also top ranked in the state in a few polls, into the semifinals against South Side Beaver, a 3-2 winner over Springdale. The game will be held Tuesday at a site to be determined.

Meek struck out eight in five innings and walked three. Not allowing a run over five innings yanked her ERA down to 1.99. The eight strikeouts pushed her season total to 111 in 98.2 innings.

“I’ve been working on the change since I started pitching,” said Meek. “It was my second pitch. Throwing a shutout just means I’m ready for the next game. I’m ready to pitch in the next game.”

“She has great arm speed,” said West Greene head coach Bill Simms. “We want her to keep it down. Her big thing, like any other pitcher, if you can throw your changeup on any count and in any sequence, then you can be devastating with it. We don’t throw it to the lower portion of the lineup because we want to stay hard with them. Where the situation calls for it, she is very confident throwing it.”

For as much success as West Greene is having this season – the Pioneers are 16-2 overall after winning the Section 2-A title by going 10 games undefeated – many of the girls, including Meek, had never experienced taking major roles in a playoff game before. You can thank the COVID-19 pandemic for shutting down last season.

“This is the first time I pitched in a playoff game,” said Meek, who got to bat a bit when the Pioneers were in the playoffs two years ago. “Now that I know what to expect, I’ll definitely be more relaxed.”

If the rest of the team had jitters, they were quickly put to rest when Jersey Wise led off the bottom of the first with a blast over the left-field fence for her second home run of the season.

“I don’t know if that home run is measurable (in taking the pressure off early),” said Simms. “She’s been struggling just a touch. Now how can you say that when she is hitting .418? But she was up in the .460 range and been 1-for-3 or 0-for-2. I don’t know that she touched any of the bases, she was so happy.”

Katie Lampe followed by beating the throw to first base by shortstop Bella Demark for an infield single. Lampe ended up scoring after an error on center fielder Brie Bazich off the bat of Logan Whipkey. Whipkey scored on a fielder’s choice to make it 3-0,

It stayed that way until the fourth when Wise walked, stole second and came home on an error by first baseman Meadow Lokaitis.

West Greene scored six runs in fifth with the big hit a bases-loaded double by Whipkey that made it 10-0, ending the game via the Mercy Rule.

“To play a good team like that, you have to be perfect,” said Bishop Canevin head coach Karen Seitz-Lafianza. “Four 4 1/2 innings, we were having a good game but you can only hold them down for so long.”

Bishop Canevin left eight players on base.

Wise announced after the game she will hold a signing ceremony at 11 a.m. to attend Garrett College in McHenry, Md., where she will try to be a three-sport athlete.