Hempfield leaves no doubt, drops defending champ Central Dauphin to reach state finals

PHILIPSBURG - Last year's PIAA softball semifinal for Hempfield was the one that got away.

This year it was more like, get out of Hempfield's way.

Determined to make up for a seventh-inning collapse against Nazareth a year ago, Hempfield took command early facing defending state champion Central Dauphin and cruised to its third shutout in this postseason with an 8-0 victory in the Class 6A semis Monday at Philipsburg-Osceola.

One big inning was the tone-setter as one of the state's premier programs returned to the state finals to play for a fifth title.

The Spartans (24-1) scored seven runs in the second inning, and senior Julia Varhola earned her 20th win of the season behind an error-free defense to advance to Friday's 4 p.m. championship against District 1 champion Owen J. Roberts (28-1) at Penn State's Nittany Lion Softball Park.

Owen J. Roberts earned a 3-0 shutout win over District 1 third-place finisher Haverford (21-6) in the other semifinal.

Hempfield took a 4-0 lead to the seventh last year and was one out away from winning before Nazareth did the unthinkable and scored six runs to stun the WPIAL champs 6-4.

The loss still befuddles the program. But history marches on, and so do the Spartans.

This time, the WPIAL champions clutched the early lead tightly, adding to it and keeping the Rams off the board to reach the state finals for a sixth time, the first since 2023, when the seniors were freshmen.

The Spartans' most recent state title came in 2018.

"We thought about (last year's semifinal shocker) a little bit," Varhola said. "We came out firing with our bats today. This was one of our best offensive games."

District 3 champion Central Dauphin (23-2) had five hits but committed three errors. It also did something it didn't expect to do in the postseason: It used three pitchers - all left-handers - in sophomore Autumn Andreoli, junior Sydney Bertsch and senior Brynn Barkley. But Hempfield's early lead proved to be too steep a climb.

"It was huge," Hempfield coach Tina Madison said. "They're a good team. They have a girl going to Duke. I only had two days to scout them and prepare. It's tough because you think about what might have been last year, but this is a new journey. I told our seniors, 'It's time to step up. Play your best game.'

"We weren't overlooking anybody. Trust me, that was a hard lesson."

The aforementioned Duke commit, senior shortstop Kayla Fletcher, led off the game with a double, but the Rams managed only four singles the rest of the way.

Hempfield sent 13 batters to the plate in the second, twice loading the bases before chasing Andreoli with two outs.

Varhola, a James Madison recruit who attended a summer camp with Fletcher and was familiar with her game, led off with a single, and her courtesy runner, sophomore Faith Orczeck, went to third on senior IUP commit Emily Bozek's double.

Junior Emma Rigby followed with a two-run single to center, and senior Claire Mitchell, a Marist commit, reached on an error to push the third run home.

After senior Virginia commit Lauren Howard reached on an infield single, senior catcher Ella Berkebile smashed a bases-clearing double to the fence in right center, the ball nearly sailing out for a grand slam, to give Hempfield a 6-0 lead.

"I thought it was out. We knew we had to go out and hit today," said Berkebile, a Bucknell commit. "We felt great going onto this game. Once we started scoring, we had them baffled."

After a leadoff single by junior Abby Magill in the third, the Spartans added a final run, this time against Bertsch.

With two outs, Howard's grounder wasn't handled, and the miscue allowed Magill to race home to make it 8-0.

"I think they were a little stunned when we started scoring and creating some chaos," Madison said of the Rams. "They don't see that too often."

Central Dauphin went to Barkley to start the fourth, and she did not allow a hit the rest of the way, retiring nine of 10 batters while walking one.

"We only lost one inning," Central Dauphin coach Sam Hartley said. "We were off today. We put the bat on the ball, but (Hempfield) was the better team today. They played well."

Mitchell robbed Barkley of a double in the top of the seventh. Barkley laced a drive over her head, but Mitchell collected the ball and fired to Howard at second to get Barkley for the second out.

Varhola struck out junior catcher Rosie Reese to seal it.

"I knew this was a good-hitting team," Varhola said. "I had to work on hitting my spots. I tried to let my defense make plays."

The Spartans had 10 hits, with all but two girls recording at least one.

Howard and Magill each finished 2 for 3.

The bottom of the order - hitters six through nine - was a combined 5 for 8 with three walks.

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

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