H.S. SOFTBALL: Pine Grove takes down Mid-Valley to advance to state title game
· Yahoo Sports
HAZELTON – 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 on Monday at Hazleton High School, the Cardinals’ journey to win back-to-back state titles hit another milestone.
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 at Penn State. They’ll look to join Blue Mountain in that state championship game as Schuylkill League teams this decade to win back-to-back state championships.
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The Cardinals 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 as Hannah Aungst drove in Tailyn Bohr as she scorched a groundball off the third baseman’s glove, to make it a 2-0 game.
Mid-Valley was able to cut the deficit to 2-1 in the third inning as they played small ball of their own with a sacrifice bunt as well as 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 Spartans moved the tying run to third on a sac bunt and looked to tie the game on a safety squeeze, but were unable to execute, resulting in Laskowski being 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 3-1.
The Cardinals threatened additional damage in the inning but were unable to get another run across.
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 from Natalie Hricenak, allowing shortstop Hannah Aungst to step on second before firing to first for the double play.
Once again, the Cardinals took advantage of the momentum. Meadow Umbenhauer started the top of the sixth inning with a double that she poked 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, as after Chelcy Clark worked a two-out walk, the Spartans chose to intentionally walk Callee Leffler for a second time, setting up Hannah 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. 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 the Spartans to send the Cardinals back to Happy Valley for a second straight season. The Cardinals, now 26-2 on the season, will take on Sharon High School on Thursday afternoon for the PIAA Class 3A crown.