Westmoreland County high school notebook: Hempfield senior looks to play 2 ways at Mercyhurst

By: Bill Beckner Jr.
Monday, October 13, 2025 | 5:53 PM

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If all goes as planned, Chase Sikorski will be fielding ground balls one day and coming out of the bullpen the next when he heads off to play college baseball.

The Hempfield senior believes he will be a utility man — a pitcher and infielder — at Mercyhurst, where he committed to continue his playing career.

“I’m really looking forward to continue to try to do it,” he said, “especially at the next level.”

Sikorski also had offers to play at Cal (Pa.), Slippery Rock, Seton Hill, Point Park and Frostburg State.

Mercyhurst began recruiting him late in the summer and early in the fall.

He is the second Hempfield player to choose the Lakers. Sikorski’s batterymate, catcher Ian Kovalcik, also is headed to Erie.

“With Mercyhurst, I wanted to get away from home, and I liked everything about their campus, program and staff,” Sikorski said. “It was the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make, and I’m grateful for every coach that gave me the opportunity to play for their programs.”

Last season, Sikorski was 1-0 with 16 strikeouts in 11 innings. He was not cleared to pitch until late in the season after having offseason elbow surgery.

He was an all-section first-team pitcher as a sophomore.

Sikorski, who played second base for the Spartans, hit .269 with 16 RBIs as a junior.

“Chase works extremely hard and has a great attitude,” Hempfield coach Tim Buzzard said. “He is so coachable, and any program would be lucky to have him. I am very happy for him and look forward to seeing him get an opportunity to play college baseball.”

Hempfield has produced nine Division I players on Buzzard’s watch.

Rally house

It was a rally that seemed to go on forever.

Hempfield trailed Penn-Trafford, 7-2, early in the fourth set of its girls volleyball game Tuesday.

The Spartans were down 2-1 in the match.

But then the improbable happened. Volleyball is full of momentum swings, but this was on the extreme end.

Hempfield scored 17 straight points to pull ahead of the Warriors and took the momentum into the fifth set en route to a 3-2 road victory.

Consider: Of the last 40 points of the match, Hempfield won 33 of them.

“It was incredible,” Hempfield coach Ashten Flynn said. “A full 180 in the momentum of the gym. I have never seen a point run that big in 4A volleyball. I knew that energy we got in the fourth (set) had to go into the fifth with us if we were going to be successful, and thankfully it did.

“That might go down as my favorite match I’ve ever watched this group play.”

Nella Bompeani served all 17 points of the thrilling run.

Lauren Howard had 21 kills, Jillian Sowers added 25 digs, Preslee Horchak had 32 assists and Gabby Coccia had 14 blocks in the win.

Penn-Trafford won the first match against the Spartans, 3-1.

Volleyball playoffs

Hempfield (10-3), Penn-Trafford (9-5) and Kiski Area (10-4) in Class 4A, Greensburg Salem (14-0), Belle Vernon (13-3), Franklin Regional (6-6) and Derry (5-4) in 3A and Southmoreland (10-5) and Burrell (10-2) in 2A are qualifiers for the WPIAL girls volleyball postseason.

Latrobe (8-4) and Norwin (4-7) are still alive in 4A. If they tie for third in Section 3, they both will qualify.

The WPIAL will announce playoff pairings Friday. The playoffs are scheduled to begin Monday.

Perfect day

You have to be pretty good at something to get a perfect score.

A math exam. A driver’s test. “Dancing with The Stars.”

The Norwin girls cross country team is that good.

The WPIAL-favorite Knights rang up 15 points for a faultless score to win the Westmoreland County Coaches Association Championship on Oct. 8 at Westmoreland County Community College.

“I knew we could probably take top four for sure, and our fifth and sixth runners ran very well,” Norwin coach Brian Fleckenstein said. “We pack-ran the first mile and then opened it up.”

Latrobe coach Todd Simpson dubbed Norwin the “Knight Train.”

To get a perfect score, a team must land the top five individual spots in a race. Norwin had the top six.

Annie Czajkowski won the individual title with a time of 18 minutes, 52 seconds.

Jillian Ryba was second (19:02.1), followed by Emily Dansak (10:05.6), Anna Dansak (19:27.7), Addison Farrah (19:40.5) and Kaelyn Lazar (19:43.8).

Runner-up Kiski Area was a long way back with 63 points.

Flag day

Latrobe girls basketball coach Mackenzie Livingston was part of a history-making event Sunday at Acrisure Stadium.

At halftime of the Browns-Steelers game, four women’s flag football teams took the field for the first time in a pair of games.

Livingston was a coach for the Saint Vincent team, which took on Chatham. She also coaches the new Latrobe flag team.

The other game was Pitt against Franciscan.

Recruiting

• Norwin senior wrestler Josephine Dollman has committed to Edinboro. Dollman is 72-12 in her prep career with two WPIAL and regional titles at 142 and 148 pounds.

• Greensburg Central Catholic girls basketball player Abby Dlugos has an opportunity to play at Waynesburg.

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

Tags: Greensburg C.C., Hempfield, Norwin, Penn-Trafford