Trib HSSN softball player of the week for April 27, 2025

By: Don Rebel
Monday, April 28, 2025 | 10:41 AM

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Trib HSSN softball player of the week – Sydney Sekely

School – South Park

Class – Junior

Position – Pitcher

#Earned – A year after helping South Park reach the WPIAL Class 3A softball championship game (losing to Mohawk), junior pitcher Sydney Sekely has the Eagles flying high again as they enter the final two weeks as one of four undefeated teams left in WPIAL softball, along with Hempfield, Neshannock and Carmichaels. This past Monday, Sekely was 2 for 4 at the plate with a double while also allowing only three hits and striking out 11 as South Park defeated Keystone Oaks, 8-1. On Wednesday, the Eagles blanked Steel Valley, 16-0 on a four-inning perfect game by Sekely, who struck out 11 of the 12 batters she faced. Plus, she was 2 for 3 with a pair of RBIs. The next day, Sekely had three more hits while allowing only three hits and striking out 14 as South Park blanked McGuffey, 5-0.

Background – Sekely is hoping to continue her softball career in college and will begin the recruiting process this summer. The Wednesday victory was a memorable one as Sekely picked up her 500th career strikeout. In the 2024 WPIAL championship game, Sekely pitched 6 2/3 innings, allowing seven runs on 10 hits with three walks and five strikeouts as Mohawk blew open a close game with a seven-run fifth inning. At the plate, she was 1 for 3 with a double, run scored and RBI. At the plate this spring, she has a .596 on-base percentage and a .750 slugging percentage with four doubles, two triples and 16 RBIs. In the circle, she has pitched 69 innings and has allowed five earned runs on 28 hits with six walks and 137 strikeouts. She is 13-0 with a 0.57 ERA. Sekely started playing softball when she was 8 years old. She also played soccer and basketball until middle school. Sekely also plays volleyball at South Park and this past fall was a first-team all-section outside hitter in helping the Eagles win the Section 2-2A championship. In the playoffs, No. 4-seeded South Park beat Yough in the first round before falling to Southmoreland in the quarterfinals. Sekely enjoys and does well at math in school and on the diamond in adding up all her strikeouts and is possibly looking to major in business when she gets to college.

What coach says – “Syd has been pretty consistent with the bat all season long with an overall average of .550,” South Park coach R.J. Matetic said. “This past week she went 7 for 11 with an average of .636 for the three games played. What stood out this week were her quality at-bats. Given her 12 plate appearances, she recorded half of those appearances with significant quality at-bats. She is taking opposing pitchers deep into their pitch count with at-bats consisting of six pitches or more. In addition, there were several plate appearances where she started our half of the inning with a hit, which led to runs scored in those half innings.

“Syd’s pitching performance this week is not really surprising,” Matetic said. “She has been doing things like that her whole career. For example, in her career she has pitched 290 innings with 523 strikeouts and only 57 walks, so she has been averaging 1.8 strikeouts per inning over her brief career.

“Syd works extremely hard and continues to get stronger and smarter every year when she takes the circle,” Matetic said. “She continues to improve on her speed and location, along with having command of several different types of pitches, in order to keep hitters off balance. Syd also continues to improve and understand the importance of pitching to batters instead of just being a hard thrower.

“Although our team does have some upperclassmen, Syd continues every year to learn, improve and work hard in being a leader of the team who leads by example,” Matetic said. “More importantly, she continues to work very hard to help and improve others on the team by her leadership.

“What makes Syd special is her competitive drive to be successful,” Matetic said. “Syd is extremely competitive and is driven to succeed in whatever she does. When she takes the field she always has an extremely strong desire and inclination to outperform others in achieving success for her team. She uses that drive as a motivator that pushes her to strive for the highest level of performance in aiding her team success.”

2025 Trib HSSN Softball Players of the Week

Week 3 – Danica Trainer, Mt. Pleasant

Week 2 – Bailey Barnyak, Carmichaels

Week 1 – Toryn Fulton, Franklin Regional

Tags: South Park