Making progress: White upbeat about future after Uniontown softball playoff loss
MONROEVILLE 鈥� Jason White didn鈥檛 like the result but he was still upbeat following Uniontown鈥檚 10-1 WPIAL softball playoff loss to West Mifflin on Monday.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 two years in a row in the playoffs for this program,鈥� said White whose team has just three seniors. 鈥淣obody expects us to be here. Last year we were an 11 or 12 seed, this year we鈥檙e an eight seed so you can see the trajectory.
鈥淚鈥檓 really excited. We are going to be making some runs in the future.鈥�
Monday belonged to the Lady Titans, however.
Mia Bey was 3 for 4 with a triple, two doubles and four RBIs in West Mifflin鈥檚 Class AAAA first-round win at Gateway High School.
The ninth-seeded Lady Titans (11-8) advance to Wednesday鈥檚 quarterfinals against top-seeded Elizabeth Forward.
Samantha Tomko doubled twice for West Mifflin, which also got a triple and single from Aubrey Jaskulski and two hits from winning pitcher Rylie Dobnak, who threw a four-hitter.
Ava Livingood was a bright spot for Uniontown. The freshman catcher drilled a pair of doubles, scored her team鈥檚 only run and threw out two runners trying to steal.
鈥淎va鈥檚 a star,鈥� White said. 鈥淭here are some really amazing things coming in her future. Everyone remembers Sequoia Dunlap. Ava is sliding right into that star role.鈥�
Dunlap helped guide Uniontown into the playoffs last year as a senior and is currently playing at Towson State.
West Mifflin jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning thanks in part to doubles by Tomko and Bey, a single by Dobnak and a sacrifice fly by Jasalin Guenther.
The Lady Titans scored four more runs in the third which again included doubles by Bey and Tomko along with singles by Jaskulski and Guenther.
Uniontown (8-7) scored its lone run in the sixth inning when Livingood hit her second double to center and came home when Lauren White laced a double to left.
The Red Raiders鈥� only other runners besides Livingood and White were Emmaleigh Noah who walked twice, Lily Byrd who also drew a walk and Mia Glisan who had a pinch-hit single in the seventh.
Dobnak walked three and struck out 13.
West Mifflin added two more runs in the seventh on back-to-back triples to right field by Jaskulski and Bey and an RBI ground out by Guenther.
Noah took the loss. She surrendered eight earned runs on 11 hits with three walks, two hit batters and five strikeouts.
鈥淪he worked hard,鈥� coach White said of Noah. 鈥淪he threw her guts out for us. She did all we could ask her to do. We just need a little better fate in missing some of those gaps.鈥�
Uniontown played well defensively.
鈥淲e work on our defense endlessly in practice,鈥� White said. 鈥淚鈥檓 a defensive coach and enjoy seeing us make plays, and it helps the pitcher obviously.鈥�
West Mifflin also defeated Uniontown during the regular season, 12-3 on March 28.
鈥淭he first time we were down some players for different reasons. I expected a much different outcome today,鈥� said White, despite attrition taking its toll on his team as the season went along.
鈥淲e鈥檙e really super banged up. I鈥檝e got at least four girls in the lineup now that weren鈥檛 there at the beginning of the year. We just don鈥檛 have quite enough depth to keep it rolling. I lost my catcher, Delaney Ansell. She was very good for us at the beginning of the year. We had to move Ava from third base to behind the plate. A couple of our outfielders went down for different reasons also. It鈥檚 just unfortunate.
鈥淏ut we had a great season. We had a great run. At one point we were 7-0 in our section. We just need to learn how to stay healthy, how to protect ourselves, how to do the right things so we can maintain that in the second half of a season.鈥�
The Lady Raiders have a wave of reinforcements on the way.
鈥淲e have just three seniors and four really stellar freshmen coming into this program so we鈥檙e definitely on the rise,鈥� White said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e excited about our future.鈥�