After title game loss, Hempfield vows to ‘come out on fire next year’

By: Bill Beckner Jr.
Friday, June 16, 2023 | 11:01 AM

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UNIVERSITY PARK — As Hempfield players made their way through the outfield and back to their waiting charter bus early Thursday evening, they took one last panorama of Beard Field at Nittany Lion Softball Park.

As they left Penn State, they could have chanted, “We Are!” As in, “We Are!” … here to stay.

“One loss doesn’t define us,” junior right fielder Maggie Howard said. “We played a good game and had a great season. We’d love to come back here next year and finish business.”

Hempfield fell to North Penn, 1-0, in the PIAA Class 6A championship game, the program’s first loss in five state title-game appearances. The tradition-laden Spartans (21-4) didn’t come home with their record-tying fifth state title, but they gained big-game experience for next year when they return about 90% of their roster, including 10 starters.

The next couple of years could be interesting for West Point’s next wave.

Only senior Mia Bandieramonte, the designated player who hit the go-ahead home run in the WPIAL title game, will move on.

“You look back at what we could have done better (in the PIAA final),” Hempfield coach Tina Madison said. “Do we squeeze in the first inning? I don’t know. That’s not our game.

“They have a really good pitcher, and we couldn’t come up with the big hit. It’s that simple.”

North Penn, led by star pitcher Julia Shearer, joined Parkland and Pennsbury with record five titles.

Hempfield, which wanted to double-stamp the season with a state title to go with its eighth WPIAL title, will have to wait until next spring to make another run.

“We lose one (starter), and (North Penn) loses five,” Madison said. “We really showed a lot this year. There were 102 teams home watching (the state finals), and we were here. We’ll just have to come out on fire next year.”

This year marked the most wins by a Spartans team since 2018, when that team collected the third of three straight PIAA championships. It also won five WPIAL titles in a row from 2015-19.

Shearer, a Maryland commit, put up some impressive numbers. She went 28-0 with a 0.22 ERA, 355 strikeouts, 14 walks and five earned runs allowed in 166 innings.

Her change in speeds, not to mention the fact she was the first left-hander Hempfield faced all year, kept the Spartans guessing.

The win was her 22nd shutout of the season.

“It wasn’t so much her speed as it was the good movement she had,” Howard said. “I know she was getting me to chase.”

Sophomore pitcher Riley Miller (19-4) was terrific in the postseason for the Spartans, going 6-1 with two shutouts behind a defense that casts a wide net.

Her equally young lineup followed her lead: Left fielder Claire Mitchell, third baseman Lauren Howard and catcher Ella Berkebile are freshmen; shortstop Alli Cervola is a sophomore; and second baseman Sarah Podkul, first baseman Emily Griffith and center fielder Peyton Heisler are juniors.

Maggie Howard has committed to Georgetown and Heisler to Penn. More college recruits are likely to blossom from this group, which also collectively excels in the classroom.

Lauren Howard batted nearly .600 in the state postseason.

“We were prepared for this and showed we belong here,” Miller said. “It was super fun with all of the fans all around you.”

Hempfield has developed a rivalry with Seneca Valley, another team with a power pitcher in sophomore Lexie Hames.

Madison expects Hempfield and Seneca Valley to compete for WPIAL supremacy for the next few years.

“Lexie and Riley, we could be seeing a lot of them for a while,” Madison said. “They are both terrific. It will be fun to watch.”

Bill Beckner Jr. is a TribLive reporter covering local sports in Westmoreland County. He can be reached at bbeckner@triblive.com.

Tags: Hempfield