Westmoreland H.S. notebook: Strikeouts piling up for BVA’s Bailey Parshall

By: HSSN Staff
Sunday, April 15, 2018 | 5:24 PM

Bailey Parshall keeps baffling hitters as her arsenal of pitches and her execution of them gets sharper.

Just when it looked like she could not be more dominant, the hard-throwing senior softball pitcher from Belle Vernon struck out 23 Waynesburg batters Tuesday in a 6-2 nonsection road victory that lasted nine innings.

The left-hander has broken her school record twice in just more than two weeks.

She opened the season with a 20-strikeout performance against Steel Valley to eclipse her mark of 17 in a seven-inning game. She also broke the overall single-game strikeout mark of 19 set by Ashley Nichols during a 12-inning game in 2007.

The Penn State recruit is showing she is much more than just a power pitcher.

“My coaches and I have been working on new pitch sequences,” Parshall said, “and I think that is the main reason for my success for the season so far.”

Parshall has 103 strikeouts in seven games for the Leopards (5-2), who are ranked No. 4 in Class 4A behind Mt. Pleasant (5-0), Yough (8-1) and Elizabeth Forward (8-1) but were no-hit by junior hurler Kierra Waywood and defensively strong Yough on Friday.

Parshall struck out 11 in the loss.

Roundball time

The Roundball Classic basketball all-star games are Friday and Saturday at Geneva. A number of Westmoreland County players are scheduled to compete.

There will be three games Friday night with players from the WPIAL and City League: a girls game at 6 p.m. and boys games at 7:30 and 9. The second boys game also has a team from District 10.

There are four games Saturday: girls Class 4A/District 10 vs. Class 3A/2A/A at 2 p.m.; girls Class 5A vs. 6A at 4; boys Class 3A/A vs. 4A at 6; and boys Class 5A vs. 6A at 8.

Westmoreland boys players selected to compete are: Franklin Regional's Nate Leopold, Hunter Stonecheck and Aidan Sadoski; Marvel McGowan of Greensburg Salem; Sean Kelly of Penn-Trafford; Josh Ratesic of Norwin; Marcus Dudzenski of Latrobe; Joe Sabolek of Belle Vernon; and Robert Kennedy and Tre Cunningham of Jeannette.

Leopold, Stonecheck and McGowan will play for the 5A team against 6A in Saturday night's finale, often the most anticipated game.

Kelly and Ratesic are on the 6A team.

Local girls players are Mackenzie Aunkst of Penn-Trafford (injured), Magen Polcyznski of Norwin, Laura Graytok of Latrobe, Allison Podkul of Hempfield, Kelsey Green of Belle Vernon, Olivia Stawovy of Greensburg Central Catholic and Isi Palamone of Franklin Regional.

Title-game rematch

Jeannette (5-1, 3-1) and Greensburg Central Catholic (3-2, 3-0), rivals and the top two baseball teams in Section 2-A, will get a rematch of their WPIAL championship when the teams meet 4 p.m. Wednesday in West Jeannette.

GCC won two of three meetings last season, 5-4 and 3-1. The Jayhawks downed the Centurions, 7-3, in the title game.

Pulling rank

Hempfield baseball moved into the No. 3 spot in the latest Tribune-Review Class 6A rankings. The Spartans (6-2) have won five of their last six games, averaging 10.2 runs in the victories.

Franklin Regional softball slid into the No. 5 spot in 5A. The Panthers have won six consecutive games.

New assistant

Penn-Trafford boys basketball added a new assistant to its coaching staff, former Kiski Area girls coach Nick Ionadi.

A former standout guard and WPIAL champion at Penn Hills, Ionadi took over an extensive rebuilding project at Kiski Area, where he spent six seasons and saw a boost in roster numbers, improvement in fundamentals and wins.

Recruiting

Latrobe junior football player Trent Holler received a second Division I FCS offer last week as Robert Morris reached out to the 6-foot-2, 280-pound center and defensive end.

He also has an offer from Albany and another from D-II Notre Dame (Ohio).

• Franklin Regional senior basketball player Mike Bartolacci will continue his playing career at Penn State Altoona. A key backcourt player, Bartolacci provided clutch 3-point shooting that often energized the Panthers during their run to the WPIAL Class 5A championship game.

Bill Beckner Jr. is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at bbeckner@tribweb.com or via Twitter @BillBeckner.

Tags: Belle Vernon, Franklin Regional, Greensburg C.C., Greensburg Salem, Hempfield Area, Jeannette, Latrobe, Norwin, Penn-Trafford