May 25, 2021 6 min read

McKEES ROCKS – After the 2019 season ended, mystery surrounded the future of the four-time defending WPIAL champion West Greene Pioneers.

West Greene’s softball program entered the new decade with a lot of turnover.

The Lampe twins, Madison and McKenna, graduated and moved on to Carlow. Kaitlyn Rizor flipped her tassel as well. A senior class that had been a part of four WPIAL championship teams was now gone, and the Pioneers’ younger players would have to carry the torch into the 2020 season.

Then, COVID-19 put West Greene’s drive for five on hold and brought a cruel end to the careers of Jade Renner and the rest of last year’s senior class. The 2021 season began with even more uncertainty than the previous year.

Without a 2020 season, West Greene’s sophomores from the 2019 team were suddenly senior leaders. The freshmen were now upperclassmen. Only two players with any playoff experience remained. A lot had changed.

Turns out, West Greene is still West Greene.

The Pioneers fought off Western Beaver for a 5-3 win at Montour High School and will be playing for their fifth-straight district championship.

The Pioneers play Union for the Class A title.

Coach Bill Simms has been to the dance more than most in his profession and knows all that goes into it.

“We coaches and players know that it’s a tough road to get there,” Simms said. “We’re just so honored to be back.”

The last time West Greene advanced to the WPIAL title game, Kiley Meek was just a freshman. Now, as a junior, she was in the circle for the biggest game of her life.

She was ready for it, throwing all seven innings and giving up just two earned runs.

Simms compared his pitcher’s performance to that of a racehorse down the stretch.

“That horse knows where that finish line is,” he said. “Just like all great pitchers do, they know where the finish line is too. She took us home.”

Meek and the Pioneers ran into some traffic on the way home. In the top of the seventh, with West Greene (17-2) ahead 5-3, Meek calmly set down the first two batters. Then South Side Beaver’s (12-4) No. 9 hitter Alison Delong, reached on a bunt single, and leadoff hitter Madi Fischer singled as well to put the tying run on base.

Meek regrouped and struck out Grace Woodling to polish off a magical afternoon for the top-seeded Pioneers.

“I just stayed calm,” Meek said. “I just knew I had to pitch a strike, and my team would be behind me. So, I just stayed calm, and got it done.”

South Side Beaver came out of the gates fast with a pair of runs the top of first, courtesy of a two-out, two-run single by Ashley Trillow. The Pioneers jabbed back with three in the bottom half. The first two came in on doubles by London Whipkey and Olivia Kiger, respectively, and two batters later, the Pioneers took the lead when a fly ball by BreAnn Jackson was misplayed by right fielder Woodling. It was the last of three errors on the inning for South Side Beaver, and for coach Amy Pieto, the miscues made a big impact on how the rest of the afternoon played out.

“That was everything, wasn’t it?” Pieto said. “That’s what we told them going in. We were going to have to be close to perfect as we can, and you know, you fall short of that and that’s the difference between a couple runs that the game’s tied or won. So you have to be as close to perfect as you can.”

West Greene added on in the bottom of the second. After Jersey Wise doubled with one out and subsequently stole third, second place hitter Katie Lampe took advantage of a drawn-in infield to single Wise home. Lampe later stole second, and two batters later, Meek helped her cause with an RBI single, scoring Lampe to make it 5-2.

As the leadoff hitter, Wise’s job is to ignite the rest of the lineup, and she did her job well Tuesday, going 3-for-4 with a double and two runs scored.

“She’s a table-setter,” Simms said. “First playoff game, she hit a 300-foot home run that just energizes the crowd, us, got momentum. Today, she comes out, you know, ‘we’re down by two, no worries, I’m a senior,’ and hits one off the fence in left field. … It’s just what comes from that position in the order. You have to have that in that spot, and she came through for us big today.”

“It motivates me, and then it helps motivate my other teammates as well,” Wise said. “Just that, if I started off, they know they can do the same thing just as much as I did. That’s what keeps out bats rolling.”

South Side Beaver, the fourth seed, never let the game get out of hand, scoring a run in the sixth to pull within two and then threatening in its last at-bat. Although the Rams won’t be competing for a WPIAL championship, they have qualified for the state tournament for the first time since 2017, where they just might meet the mighty Pioneers again.

“We planned to come out and do our best against them, and I think we fell a little bit short of that,” Pieto said. “We probably could have hit a little bit better, but they have a good team, good pitchers. So, there’s no shame in a loss like this, and hopefully, we go to the consolation game and come back and maybe get another shot at them.”

West Greene, on the other hand, is seven innings away from becoming just the second softball program to win five straight WPIAL titles, the other being Sto-Rox from 2000-2004. Whatever happens next week and in the PIAA tournament, Simms is proud of who he coaches.

“If it works out, fine, if we don’t (win), fine,” Simms said. “We just know we laid it all on the line, and I’ve got a great group of girls here.”