Below is a review of the East posts that appeared Sunday, June 9 through Friday, June 15. We're also including links from the previous Saturday, June 8.

Sunday, June 9
* Sports Town East Week in Review (June 2-7)

Monday, June 10
* Heartbreak for Greensburg Salem softball team

Tuesday, June 11
* Central Catholic's Balego selected as MVP of WPIAL baseball all-star game

Thursday, June 13
* Central Catholic senior golfer wins long-drive contest
* Young alumnus is new Burrell wrestling coach
* Central Catholic crew performs well on a national stage
* Greensburg Salem bows out in PIAA softball quarterfinals

Greensburg Salem advanced to the PIAA softball quarterfinals before losing to Fort LeBoeuf. Nick Tolomeo recaps the Golden Lions season. Click here to read his story.

(Photo: Ambridge's Lauren Sivewright gets into second base safely as Greensburg Salem's Claire Oberdorf reaches for a throw. Matt Freed/Post-Gazette)

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Burrell's Josh Shields has taken over as Burrell's new wrestling coach. Below is his story written by Ken Wunderley.

Josh Shields saw his collegiate wrestling career end a year earlier than expected; but now he's become a high school varsity head coach earlier than expected.

Shields, a 2006 graduate of Burrell High School, was hired as head wrestling coach at his alma mater at the May 21 school board meeting.

"I always wanted to be a head wrestling coach, but never thought it would come this quickly," Shields said. "To be hired at my alma mater is special. I couldn't have asked for a better scenario."

wrestling

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Central Catholic wins a national crew championship. Click here to read Nick Veronica's story.

"After a decade of hard work, Central Catholic rowing coach Jay Hammond is finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

About that long ago, he made it the program's goal to take first place in the "A" division at the U.S. Rowing Youth National Championships. The team hasn't reached that goal just yet, but qualifying for the A division grand final last weekend was a victory in itself.

"It's been probably 10 years since we focused on wanting to win this particular race, and now we're starting to see that we might be in striking distance of that goal, so this is really exciting," Hammond said. "It's been a long process, but we've been making steady progress every year. This was a huge step forward for us.""

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Rick Davis writes of Central Catholic golfer Brent Rodgers, who won a contest with a 429-yard drive. Click here to read his story.

(Photo: Central Catholic senior Brent Rodgers, who won the WPIAL Class AAA golf championship last fall, won a local long-drive competition. Photo taken by Charlie Magovern/Special to the Post-Gazette)

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Cameron Balego was one of several standout players on the Central Catholic baseball team this spring.

In the final high school game of his career, Balego stood out by himself.

Balego was named player of the game after going 2 for 3 with three RBIs and two runs for Class AAAA, which lost to Class AAA, 10-9, in the second of two WPIAL Baseball Coaches Association all-star games held Sunday at Burkett Complex in Robinson.

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There may be no more of a tough luck loser in PIAA softball than Greensburg Salem and may be no more of a tough luck player than Greensburg Salem senior pitcher Jayne Oberdorf.

In the PIAA quarterfinals Oberdorf pitched one of the best games of her four-year career, tossing a one-hitter. However two costly errors that led to a first-inning run proved to be too much and District 10 champion Fort LeBoeuf won 1-0. Greensburg Salem, the WPIAL champion, finishes its season with a 22-3 overall record.

“I think we wish we were still playing,” Greensburg Salem coach Jody Morgan said. “We are a little disappointed, we are happy we got as far as we got but we just keep thinking about it over and over and still feel we could have reached the finals.”

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Below is a review of the East posts that appeared Sunday, June 2 through Friday, June 7.

Sunday, June 2
* Sports Town East Week in Review (May 26-May 31)

Monday, June 3
* Softball: East Feature Athlete - Greensburg Salem's Jayne Oberdorf
* Hempfield softball team accustomed to PIAA playoffs
* After first WPIAL title, Greensburg Salem softball team looks to states

reviews

Derry faced Ambridge in the PIAA Class AA semifinals, on June 4 at North Allegheny High School. The Trojans were defeated 3-0. Below are photos by JJ LaBella of Tri-State Sports & News Service.

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The Golden Lions won the Class AAA WPIAL championship, now they're playing through the state tournament. Greensburg-Salem will take on For LeBoeuf at 4pm.

Enjoy the following photos of Greensburg-Salem in their WPIAL win over Ambridge:

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Name: Claire Oberdorf
School: Greensburg Salem
Sport: Softball
Position: Shortstop
Year: Sophomore

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Craig Meyer's latest feature on the Greensburg-Salem girls' softball team:

(Photo: Greensburg Salem's Jayne Oberdorf pitches against Ambridge in the WPIAL Class AAA championship game. A senior, she will play for Marist College next year. Matt Freed/Post-Gazette.)

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Brad Everett's feature on the Hempfield baseball team:

"Hempfield Area had arguably the greatest baseball season in school history this spring.

Monday, that season came to an end.

The Spartans were defeated by WPIAL champion North Allegheny, 3-1, in a PIAA Class AAAA first-round playoff game at Shaler's Jerry Matulevic Field."

(Photo: Senior Nathan Mori hauls in a fly ball during a WPIAL semifinal game against North Allegheny at Shaler's Matulevic Field. Julia Rendleman/Post-Gazette.)

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Nick Tolomeo's feature on the Hempfield softball team:

"At his team's end-of-the-year banquet, Hempfield Area softball coach Bob Kalp presents all the players who hit home runs with one of their home run balls with the dates of the home runs inscribed on them.

When he heads to DeNunzio's in Latrobe this year for his team's banquet June 18, he will be bringing with him six balls."

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Derry volleyball bows out in PIAA

There's an old saying that goes: "Be careful what you wish for ... it may come true."

Such was the case for the Derry Area High School boys volleyball team this week. The Trojans got the rematch they had hoped for, but the results were similar to its first meeting against WPIAL champion Ambridge Area.

The Trojans faced Ambridge for the second time in 12 days, with hopes of avenging its loss to the Bridgers in the WPIAL Class AA title match on May 23.

The two teams met again in Tuesday's PIAA semifinals and Derry came up short again. Ambridge recorded a 3-0 sweep for the second time, but the rematch was much closer and certainly closer than the shutout score would indicate.

In fact, it was so close that Derry was serving for set-point with a 24-22 lead in the first game. Ambridge rallied to pull out a 28-26 victory. Derry's six serving errors were the difference.

"When you're facing a power team such as Ambridge, you have to serve aggressively," said Derry coach Shawn Spencer, when asked about the serving errors. "So I expected to have serving errors. You just hope they don't come at critical times."

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It was the first ever WPIAL championship contest for Greensburg Salem, although it hardly looked like it.

The Golden Lions convincingly defeated Ambridge 8-0 in impressive fashion in the WPIAL Class AAA championship. Senior pitcher Jayne Oberdorf was dominant and her offense backed her up to bring the first ever WPIAL softball title to Greensburg Salem.

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Only three teams in WPIAL Class AAAA qualify for the PIAA playoffs a season. As difficult as it is, Hempfield has made it look somewhat routine over the past half-decade.

The Spartans are headed to their third PIAA postseason in the past five years. Hempfield bounced back from a 5-0 setback to Canon-McMillan in the WPIAL semifinals to defeat Peters Township 9-5 in the WPIAL third-place consolation game.

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Name: Jayne Oberdorf
Sport: Softball
Position: Pitcher
School: Greensburg Salem
Grade: Senior

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Below is a review of the East posts that appeared Sunday, May 26 through Friday, May 31. We're also including links from the previous Saturday (May 25).

Saturday, May 25
* Hempfield standout leaps to silver medal

Sunday, May 26
* Sports Town East Week in Review (May 19-25)
* Gateway's Rivera, Seneca Valley's Dorogy finish 1-2 in PIAA 100-meter dash

Monday, May 27
* Photo Journal: Derry second in WPIAL AA Boys Volleyball Tournament
* Bats go quiet at worst time for Penn-Trafford softball team
* Alumni Update: Nicole Sleith (Robert Morris)

reviews

Mike Vernon recapped the game, Greensburg-Salem versus Ambridge:

(Photo: Greensburg Salem teammates celebrate their win against Ambridge in the WPIAL Class AAA championship Thursday. Matt Freed/Post-Gazette.)

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