Mt. Pleasant softball coach Paul Reho and his girls had a pizza party last year and watched the TribLive HSSN playoff pairings show. This year, they had practice during the webcast to change things up.
“Business as usual,” Reho said. “I told them we’d talk about it afterwards. I knew who we were playing, and one of the girls tried to get it out of me, but I told her she had to wait.”
The Vikings will have to wait to play, too.
Four Westmoreland County teams earned top-three seeds Thursday when the WPIAL revealed playoff brackets. Three of them are section champions: Hempfield (6A), Penn-Trafford (5A) and Mt. Pleasant (3A).
Two will be out of action for more than a week: Top-seeded Hempfield (19-1), a defending champion, and No. 3 Mt. Pleasant (13-3), earned first-round byes and won’t play until May 18 and 19.
Two others will play right away: Another No. 3 seed, defending PIAA champ Penn-Trafford (17-3), opens against No. 14 Connellsville (12-7) at 5 p.m. Tuesday at Norwin.
Norwin (10-8) is the No. 3 seed in 6A and takes on No. 6 Pine-Richland (7-11) at 5 p.m. Tuesday at Plum in the quarterfinals.
Hempfield, in search of its WPIAL-record-tying 10th district title, has gone to extra innings in its last two games, against Latrobe (5-4) and South Park (7-6), winning both in the eighth.
“Our last game against South Park was a definite playoff environment, and it was great for our team,” Hempfield coach Tina Madison said. “We are going to get to work and prepare over the next 12 days. We have three scrimmages planned.”
One scrimmage is against Mt. Pleasant, which plays Thomas Jefferson (14-3) on Friday in its final regular-season game.
Mt. Pleasant will get the winner of Burrell (10-8) and Charleroi (5-11), both teams it defeated this year — Burrell twice in section play.
“I prefer to play teams we haven’t played, but that’s just me,” Reho said. “The results of those games mean nothing now. We don’t like to have to sit, but we’re going to scrimmage and fine-tune some things.”
Madison was glad to see Norwin on the opposite side of the bracket. The teams will have to meet in the finals if they see each other for a third time.
Hempfield is on a 17-game winning streak.
“We understand seedings mean nothing this time of the year,” Madison said. “We are excited to compete to reach our second goal of the year.”
Other top seeds are Shaler (5A), Elizabeth Forward (4A), South Park (3A), Laurel (2A) and Union (A).
WPIAL softball steering committee chairman Scot Moore said the 5A bracket caused some consternation with the committee.
Penn-Trafford is the only team to beat Shaler (16-1), but the WPIAL went with Shaler, the returning champion, as the top seed. Thomas Jefferson, which defeated Penn-Trafford in the season opener, is second.
“There was a lot of discussion,” Moore said. “TJ and P-T, you can interchange them. You also look at Montour and Trinity both playing well. They’re all on the same side of the bracket. You talk about loaded; whoever comes out of there is going to earn it.”
Penn-Trafford was the runner-up last year and is seeking its first WPIAL title in softball.
Said Penn-Trafford coach Denny Little, whose team has won 16 of its last 17 games: “I never try to predict what will happen (with the seedings). The eye is always on the prize, no more, no less than any other year.”
Jeannette (Class A), Yough (3A) and Derry (4A) grabbed No. 8 or 9 seeds, so they could see No. 1s in the quarterfinals: Union, South Park and Elizabeth Forward.
Jeannette (10-3) will open against No. 9 Bishop Canevin (5-9) at 3 p.m. Thursday at Plum.
“We put a lot of the better teams on our schedule,” Jeannette coach Tubby Stein said. “Some of them canceled on us. We’re not afraid to go against (Union). It’s just tough. Jeannette softball doesn’t get a lot of love like in football and basketball.”
No. 9 Yough (12-7) takes on No. 8 Avonworth (9-8) at 5 p.m. Thursday at Gateway.
“(The seedings) are what they are,” Yough coach Dutch Harvey said. “We will play whoever they put in front of us. When you lose five games by one run, this is what happens.”
Derry (10-4) had no complaints with the 4A bracket. The Trojans play No. 8 Beaver in the first round at 3 p.m. Monday at Gateway.
“Just getting there is the most important part,” Derry coach John DePalma said. “Anything can happen, like last year with many of the higher-seeded teams.”
Other local matchups:
5A: No. 13 Latrobe (10-8) vs. No. 4 West Allegheny (12-3), 3 p.m. Tuesday at Gateway.
4A: No. 13 Greensburg Salem (5-8) vs. No. 4 Hampton (12-5), 5 p.m. Monday at Gateway.
A: No. 10 Monessen (7-10) vs. No. 7 Sewickley Academy (9-3), 5 p.m. Thursday at Montour.