Heritage, WestPAC gold up for grabs in baseball, softball
The Heritage Conference and WestPAC will host baseball and softball championship games Monday across the region.
In the Heritage Conference, Conemaugh Valley (14-3) and unbeaten West Shamokin (19-0) meet for the second straight season in the softball title contest at 7 p.m. in Northern Cambria. Unbeaten Conemaugh Township (17-0) plays Marion Center (12-5) in the baseball championship contest at 7 p.m. at First Commonwealth Field in Homer City.
Turkeyfoot Valley (7-7) battles two-time defending champion Shade-Shanksville (9-4) in the WestPAC softball championship game at 4:30 p.m. at Mount Aloysius College in Cresson. Ferndale (7-10) takes on Blacklick Valley (9-8) in the baseball title contest at 4:30 p.m. at Mount Aloysius.
Conemaugh Valley advanced to the Heritage softball title game for the third consecutive season. The Blue Jays lost 2-1 to Marion Center in 2024 and fell to West Shamokin 5-1 in 2025. Cam Vandervort hit a pair of two-run homers, and Leah Mondi fanned 15 batters for West Shamokin. Mondi and Vandervort are both seniors this year.
The Wolves defeated Conemaugh Valley 4-1 April 16.
Abbi Kimmel drove in two runs, and Mondi struck out seven in a complete-game victory.
West Shamokin has outscored its opponents 184-17 this season and has posted 11 shutouts. Mondi has a 0.92 ERA with 144 strikeouts in 106 innings.
Conemaugh Valley has won five straight games and has a 130-43 run differential this season.
In baseball, Conemaugh Township has a 147-38 run differential this spring. The Indians came back to win each of their past three games. Another win and Conemaugh Township would eclipse the program's longest winning streak set in 2019.
Conemaugh Township, which lost 9-3 to Homer-Center in the 2024 Heritage title game, defeated Marion Center 6-2 April 16.
The Indians tallied five runs in the third inning. Devin Lohr went 3-for-4, and Braden Sarver drove in two runs for the Indians.
Pitt-Johnstown signee Colin Dinyar fanned nine batters over 52/3 innings.
This season, Dinyar is 7-0 with a 0.79 ERA and 56 strikeouts in 352/3 frames.
Marion Center has won seven straight contests and has outscored its opponents 137-87 this year.
The Shade-Shanksville softball team has a 130-100 run differential this season.
The Panthers, who went 6-0 in WestPAC play, beat Turkeyfoot Valley 14-8 April 16 and 9-6 May 5. Shade-Shanksville defeated Ferndale in the 2024 and 2025 championship games.
Turkeyfoot Valley has outscored its opponents 120-104 and has won two straight games heading into Monday's clash.
Blacklick Valley lost in the two previous WestPAC baseball title games to Shanksville-Shade.
This year, Blacklick Valley has scored 108 runs compared to allowing 75.
The Vikings topped Ferndale 1-0 April 9, then lost 4-3 April 16 against the Yellow Jackets. Blacklick Valley junior Eli Sheesley has a 1.38 ERA with 72 punchouts in 452/3 innings.
Sheesley fanned 13 batters in a two-hit shutout April 9 against Ferndale, which received four innings and seven punchouts from Connor Hrivnak.
Ferndale scored all four of its runs in the bottom of the sixth inning April 16 to prevail. Brady Ferenchik drove in two runs for the Yellow Jackets, who received 13 strikeouts on the mound from Sy Werzyn. Ferenchik scored on Werzyn's RBI single in the sixth for the eventual winning run. Blacklick Valley made three errors in the pivotal sixth frame.
Ferndale has scored 102 runs compared to giving up 110.
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