H.S. SOFTBALL: Pine Grove takes down Mid Valley to advance to state title game

HAZLETON - Winning one state championship is hard enough. Defending the crown is even harder. That's what the Pine Grove Cardinals have learned throughout the course of this 2026 season, and the Cardinals' journey to win back-to-back state titles hit another milestone on Monday.

Behind another terrific pitching performance from Chelcy Clark, the Cardinals defeated the Mid Valley Spartans 7-1 to advance to the PIAA Class 3A championship game on Thursday afternoon in State College.

"I'm just proud of the way we started the game off, and we went a full seven innings there," Pine Grove coach Ryan Leffler said. "Great defense behind Chelcy, and offensively, I thought we did a great job passing the bat. Kids stepped up for us, and it was one through nine-they got the job done for us today. This is one of their goals, to get there. Our goal after today was to be 1-0, and today we got that done."

The Cardinals totaled seven hits and four walks in the win on Monday, including three hits from Hannah Aungst and two from Lily Flynn.

Pine Grove struck quickly in the first as Callee Leffler was hit by a pitch before a pair of bunt singles loaded the bases. Freshman standout Khloe Jessman continued her strong postseason, driving in Leffler with a sacrifice fly, but Mid Valley's Ava Hazleton escaped the inning without further damage.

In the second inning, the Cardinals tacked on a second run when Hannah Aungst scorched a groundball off the third baseman's glove to drive in Tailyn Bohr and make it a 2-0 game.

Mid Valley cut the deficit to 2-1 in the third inning as it played small ball of its own with a sacrifice bunt and a double-steal that scored Marley Morano.

The Spartans threatened to tie the game in the fourth after Angela Laskowski's single started the inning; she'd later advance to second on an error on the play. The tying run moved to third on a sacrifice bunt and Mid Valley looked to tie the game on a safety squeeze, but was unable to execute, as Laskowski was thrown out in a rundown between third and home.

One hallmark of a great team is to take advantage of momentum switches, and it took Callee Leffler no time to do just that in the top of the fifth following Mid Valley's base running miscue. The star outfielder launched her 17th home run of the season and sixth of the postseason in opposite-field fashion to extend the lead back to two runs.

In the bottom of the fifth, Mid Valley once again started the inning in promising fashion with a single from Julie Prisco, but any sparks to start a rally were quickly extinguished as Clark induced a soft groundball back up the middle, allowing Aungst to step on second before firing to first for the 4-3 double play.

Once again, the Cardinals took advantage of the momentum shift. Meadow Umbenhauer started the top of the sixth inning with a double into left-center field before moving to third on a Tailyn Bohr groundout. She'd then cross the plate one batter later as Mallory Schneck laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt, making it a 4-1 Pine Grove advantage.

But the scoring didn't stop there.

After Clark worked a two-out walk, the Spartans chose to intentionally walk Leffler for a second time, setting up Aungst to deliver a dagger.

As she did, less than a week ago in the Class 3A quarterfinals against Mifflinburg, Aungst delivered, launching a two-run triple into left field that narrowly missed leaving the park, extending the lead to 6-1 heading into the bottom of the sixth.

"I thought if we could push three, four runs across and play good defense, we had a shot," Mid Valley coach Michael Piercy said. "But once they piled on there in the sixth, you know, it was an uphill battle."

The Cardinals added on another run in the seventh inning to give the game its 7-1 final score.

From there, Clark shut the door on Mid Valley's season and sent the Cardinals back to Happy Valley for a second straight year.

"This is stuff we see in practice," Leffler said about his team's complete performance. "They just carry it over. They have the right mindset. These kids love the game, and they go out there and have fun. They knew what their goal was today-it was to put the pressure on them, whatever we had to do. Today was just an outstanding job by everybody."

The Cardinals, now 26-2 on the season, will take on Sharon High School on Thursday afternoon for the PIAA Class 3A crown.

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This story was originally published June 8, 2026 at 6:59 PM.