Young Mt. Pleasant softball team gets a reset as it prepares for PIAA playoffs

By: Bill Beckner Jr.
Friday, May 29, 2026 | 5:03 PM

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Mt. Pleasant turned the page quickly after Thursday’s WPIAL Class 3A championship loss.

The Vikings are a softball team with a short memory and an urge to keep the season going.

Sure, a 10-1 defeat to South Park stung and lingered but only for a short time. The Vikings (15-5) leaned on more softball to soften the blow: The PIAA playoffs begin Monday.

The season is not finished yet.

The Vikings will travel to play District 10 champion Sharon (21-0) in the first round at noon Monday at Allegheny College.

Forget the finals loss for a moment. How about this team’s bright future?

“We plan to be back here next year,” Mt. Pleasant coach Paul Reho said. “The experience we gained here will keep us motivated. But we’re not done yet (this year). We’re going to talk about it, learn from it and be resilient.”

The thing about Mt. Pleasant is that it has one of the youngest roster makeups of any fof this year’s finalists. The Vikings have only two seniors in Grace Etling and Carly Surma, so some say this year’s WPIAL title run — and whatever might be in store at states — came a year early.

The Vikings start the two seniors, three juniors (Dani Trainer, Kendra Brunson, and Kendell Waters), a sophomore (Jenna Whipkey) and three freshmen (Sadie Poole, Chloe Borelli and Emma Miller).

“If I was Mt. Pleasant, I wouldn’t worry about the outcome,” South Park coach R.J. Matetic said. “I would tell them to believe in the process. They’ll have their nucleus and pitcher back. They are scrappy. They’ll be back in the hunt. They’ll be fine.”

South Park pitcher Sydney Sekely didn’t overpower Mt. Pleasant. She added to her strikeout total with seven more — she’s up to 210 for the season — but allowed five hits. Mt. Pleasant, though, could not capitalize and, to its detriment, committed five errors.

The Vikings have five losses. In four of them, they lost by 10 or more runs.

“This was all new to all of us,” Reho said of the team’s first finals appearance since 2021. “It was a learning experience for me, too. But we were competing. We showed we can compete here. We didn’t capture the moment.”

Mt. Pleasant’s most recent PIAA playoff game was the 2021 state final when it defeated Mid-Valley, 5-3, at Penn State.

This will be the team’s sixth appearance in the PIAA tournament.

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

Tags: Mt. Pleasant