May 19, 2021 4 min read

ON THIS DATE

May 20

1950 – Washington ties with McKeesport for the WPIAL Class A Track & Field championship in Canonsburg. Donora’s Tom Johnson is the top individual with 14 points, winning the low and high hurdles and finishing second in the broad jump. Washington’s Ed Snodgrass sets the only meet record, winning a heat of the 120-yard high hurdles in 14.8.

1955 – Robert “Red” Worrell of Centerville wins the individual title at the WPIAL Class B Track & Field Championships at Pitt Stadium. Worrell wins the shot put and discus, and places third in the javelin. Mt. Morris finishes second in the team standings.

1957 – Arnold Palmer of Latrobe, taking a break from the professional tour, wins the West Penn Open golf tournament with a 2-over-par 142 at rainy Fox Chapel Golf Course. Mike Pavella of Nemacolin Country Club finishes in a tie for fifth place.

1965 – Mike Popovich’s sacrifice fly in the eighth inning scores Bill Hardy and gives Beth-Center a 1-0 victory over Trinity in the first round of the WPIAL baseball playoffs. Winning pitcher Bill Micsky strikes out eight and throws a three-hit shutout.

1968 – Washington & Jefferson College announces plans for a $2.4 million physical education building. Construction is to begin in the summer.

1974 – Bill Tornabene, assistant football coach at Waynesburg College, is named head coach at Peters Township High School.

1983 – Washington’s Brian Davis wins the WPIAL Class AAA long jump title by more than four inches with a leap of 23-8 1/4 at Latrobe.

1985 – Chuck Hillman pitches a three-hit shutout and strikes out 15 as Mon Valley Catholic defeats Jefferson-Morgan 5-0 in the first round of the WPIAL Class AA baseball playoffs at Charleroi’s Veterans Field.

1986 – Bentleyville native Ron Bertovich is selected as commissioner of the Atlantic 10 Conference.

1988 – Burgettstown’s Ed Mioduski has one of the best and longest days on the mound for any high school baseball pitcher. Mioduski pitches the Blue Devils to two Section 12-AA victories, throwing 17 innings and striking out 26 batters. In a 4-2 win over Immaculate Conception, Mioduski throws a three-hitter and strikes out 10. Then, in a 3-2 10-inning win over South Fayette, he strikes out 16 and pitches a seven-hitter.

1991 – Jason Van Kirk hits a pinch-hit grand slam in the top of the sixth inning to give Washington a 7-4 win over New Brighton in the WPIAL Class AA baseball playoffs at Aliquippa.

1991 – Trinity scores four runs over the first two innings and rides the three-hit pitching of Mike Scouvart to defeat Hempfield 4-3 in the first round of the WPIAL Class AAA baseball playoffs at Mt. Pleasant.

1994 – The Washington-Greene chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame inducts the following: Moe Strnisha (soccer), John Barish (football), Lee Hall (wrestling), George Hildebrand (softball), Richard Kluck (golf), John Unice (basketball), William Ruschel (track and field), Harry Gray (football), James White (wrestling), the 1947 Canonsburg High School wrestling team, Don Clendaniel (football), John Abraham (wrestling official), Joseph Getto (youth service), D. Boyd Marstellar, Stan Milchovich and Frank Preisendorfer (meritorious service).

1998 – Shortstop Diontae Walker drives in six runs and Washington routs Mars 16-1 in five innings in a WPIAL Class AA baseball quarterfinal.

2005 – Waynesburg rallies for three runs over the last two innings, capped by Nikki Coleman’s game-winning hit in the seventh inning, as the Raiders defeat Deer Lakes 4-3 in the first round of the WPIAL Class AA softball playoffs at California University.

2005 – Chelsea Skotka scatters five hits and retires 20 of the final 22 batters she faces to lead Beth-Center to a 3-2 win in nine innings over North Catholic in the first round of the WPIAL Class A softball playoffs. Stotka strikes out six, doesn’t walk a batter and scores the game’s winning run.