5 still alive: What county baseball, softball teams should expect in 1st round of PIAAs

Five county baseball and softball teams are still keeping their state title hopes alive.

Three Centre County baseball teams and two softball squads will play Monday in the first round of the PIAA championships. A win means moving on to Thursday’s quarterfinals; a loss means the end of the season.

Bellefonte softball and Bald Eagle Area softball will both be playing nearby, at Penn State’s Beard Field, while Bellefonte baseball will compete at BEA’s ballpark. Philipsburg-Osceola and St. Joseph’s baseball are both on the road.

Here’s a closer look at all of Monday’s matchups:

Baseball

Class 4A: Bellefonte (15-5) vs. Blackhawk (16-5), 4 p.m. Monday (at Bald Eagle Area): All Bellefonte pitcher Ashton Wetzler does is throw strikes. And with a 0.74 ERA this season, the Red Raiders have the ability to hang with nearly any opponent. But Blackhawk, the WPIAL runner-up, is a solid program and should provide a few tests for Wetzler. Center fielder Ray Knallay is hitting around .500, for example.

Class 3A: Philipsburg-Osceola (15-7) vs. Steel Valley (13-8), 6:30 p.m. Monday (at Butler’s Pullman Park): P-O has come a long way since last season, and there’s a lot to be optimistic about. Keegan Soltis is hitting over .500, Ryan Whitehead owns a 2.09 ERA on the mound, and the team is collectively batting .283. But Steel Valley is the WPIAL champ for a reason, and it’s peaking at the right time. It won its last two games after rallying from multiple-run deficits, and senior shortstop/pitcher Mason Haley — who’ll play at Gannon in college — has caught fire already this postesason. He retired 18 of his last 20 batters in the WPIAL semis.

Class A: St. Joseph’s (8-9) vs. Forbes Road (14-6), 4:30 p.m. Monday (at McConnellsburg): St. Joseph’s has a nice one-two punch on the mound with Cam Burris and Jack Mangene, and it might need both players Monday. Forbes Road, the District 5 champ, has a strong lefty with the potential to quiet opponents’ bats. With a lot of new players this season, St. Joseph’s has come on strong this postesason — so don’t let the Wolves’ record fool you.

Softball

Class 4A: Bellefonte (13-8) vs. Mt. Pleasant (17-1), noon Monday (at Penn State’s Beard Field): This is a tough draw for Bellefonte. Mt. Pleasant’s lone loss came in the WPIAL championship against a team riding a 15-game win streak, and the WPIAL runner-up is currently ranked by Maxpreps as the second-best team in the state. Its numbers back that up: Mt. Pleasant is batting .350 as a team and boasts a 0.75 ERA. Bellefonte has one of the county’s best, in sophomore Lexi Rogers, in the circle — but the entire team will have to be on top of its game to get past Mt. Pleasant, who made the state semis last season and won the state title the year before.

Class 3A: Bald Eagle Area (19-3) vs. South Park (15-5), 7:30 p.m. Monday (at Penn State’s Beard Field): There’ll be a lot of talent on the diamond in this one. South Park senior Kaitlyn Morrison, a Penn State commit, is considered a top-100 national prospect as a middle infielder and has been a threat at the plate for years. But she won’t have it easy against BEA ace Madison Peters, who holds a 1.61 ERA over 125 innings. Peters doesn’t offer a lot of free bases as she’s walking less than 4 percent of the batters she’s faced. The Lady Eagles could make a run at the state title, but they’ll have to get past a strong program in the first round.