There is taking one for the team, then there is what Alle Scarpa did in a first-round playoff game Monday.
The Greensburg Salem senior pitcher missed the previous game with a left hip flexor injury and was questionable for the playoff opener against Hampton at Gateway. She essentially took the injury report and ran it through a shredder, gutting out her last start in a Golden Lions uniform.
Greensburg Salem didn’t win, but Scarpa made sure she squeezed out every ounce of effort — and pain tolerance — she had to see her prep career to the finish.
The left-hander winced and sighed between pitches, shaking off the pounding ache in her leg to push through. She limped back to the dugout between innings. Coaches and trainers repeatedly checked on her, but she was emphatic: She wanted to finish.
“She’s been starting for us for four years,” Golden Lions coach Bill Wright said. “She came this far. She didn’t want to go out like that. We owed it to her.”
Scarpa was the losing pitcher in a 14-4, five inning loss, but she did not regret staying in the game.
“I wasn’t coming out of the game,” said Scarpa, a Seton Hill commit. “I didn’t want to give up. We earned the right to be here and play.”
Scarpa made a change to her delivery this season which, she believes, might have contributed to her hip pain. Before she releases a pitch, she now slides forward and puts her weight on her left leg, causing her to slide to the left. She can look off balance at times.
She made the move to get “back in sync” and to simplify her pitching form to better hit spots, sacrificing some velocity as a result.
The delivery is a stark contrast to how she pitched last year, but she trusts it was the right move.
“I started dragging my foot more, and I don’t swing my arm back like I used to,” she said, acknowledging her wind-up is gone. “It’s been tough making the change and it’s been challenging mentally, but I want to keep working at it.
“I am glad I was able to pitch in our last game. I wanted to give my all.”
Scarpa finished with 13 wins and 234 strikeouts in her career. After striking out 194 last year in 109 2/3 innings, she had 40 K’s in 65 innings this season.
Something that didn’t change was her ability to hit. Scarpa batted a head-turning .686 this season (24 for 35) with five home runs, 11 doubles and 23 RBIs.
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Quarterfinals moved
The WPIAL initially had the Class 5A and 4A quarterfinals scheduled for Thursday, but the games were moved to Tuesday of next week.
The reason is umpires. The WPIAL doesn’t want to have too many games in one day and spread thin officiating crews.
Two local teams were affected by the change. No. 3 seed Penn-Trafford (18-3) now will play No. 11 North Hills (10-7) in the 5A quarters at 3 p.m. Tuesday at Plum.
Class 4A No. 9 Derry (11-4), meantime, faces No. 1 Elizabeth Forward (17-3) at 3 p.m. Tuesday at Gateway.
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6A semis set
Hempfield (19-1), the No. 1 seed and defending champion in 6A, will take on No. 4 Canon-McMillan (9-10) at 5 p.m. Tuesday at West Mifflin in the semifinals after a 13-day layoff.
The other semifinal has No. 6 Pine-Richland (9-12) facing No. 2 Seneca Valley (14-5) at 5 p.m. Tuesday at North Allegheny.
Hempfield is on a 17-game winning streak. The Spartans swept two section games from Canon-McMillan, winning both via the 10-run mercy rule: 13-0 and 14-1. Neither game got out of the fifth inning.
Pine-Richland is a surprise final four team. The Rams trailed No. 3 Norwin, 9-4, before scoring six runs in the top of the seventh for an 11-9 upset in Tuesday’s quarterfinal at Plum.
During the regular season, Seneca Valley swept Pine-Richland by scores of 13-10 and 5-2.
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Rematch for Trojans
As much as it tries to forget it, Derry vividly remembers a 23-2 loss to Elizabeth Forward last year in a WPIAL 4A quarterfinal that was sawed off after three innings by the mercy rule.
But Derry will have someone it didn’t have in that game when it faces the top-seeded Warriors in Tuesday’s rematch: pitcher Haylee Myers.
Myers injured her shoulder in a first-round win over Greensburg Salem a year ago and wasn’t able to go against Elizabeth Forward.
“It was tough not being able to play,” Myers said Monday after her team bested Beaver, 8-4, in the first round. “Being able to pitch this time is great. Hopefully, it helps us be more competitive.”
Derry has never been to the semifinals but could make history if it can stun the perennially strong Warriors.
“I love these kind of games,” Derry coach John DePalma said. “Everyone has low expectations for Derry. (Elizabeth Forward) is already expected to win. Let’s go out and play ball and see what happens.”
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We meet again
Latrobe scheduled its final opponent of the regular season for a reason: a reunion.
The Wildcats played Albert Gallatin in the finale before the playoffs so it could reunite with former standout catcher Makayla Munchinski, the head coach of the Colonials.
Munchinski’s mother, Dana, is an assistant coach for Latrobe, so she got to coach against her daughter.
Latrobe won the game 16-8. It finished fourth in Section 1-5A and secured a playoff berth.
Albert Gallatin finished 1-16.