Nick Tolomeo's feature on the Sto-Rox softball team:
(Photo: Bill Palermo, recognized by his team last year after coaching his 700th game, is considering retiring when this season ends. Matt Freed/Post-Gazette.)
To eliminate Sto-Rox in the WPIAL Class A playoffs this season, teams are going to have to show up with their bats. The Vikings are scoring runs at an alarming rate if you are an opposing coach. Sto-Rox (12-4, 11-2) has wrapped up a playoff spot in Class A Section 1 with a second place finish in the section behind Burgettstown (15-4, 13-1).
Only three times this entire season have the Vikings been held to single digit runs and one was a win, an 8-3 decision against Bishop Canevin. Sto-Rox has scored 11 in a losing effort at Burgettstown. It scored 19 at North Catholic, 18 at Avella and 16 at Sewickley Academy. The Sto-Rox bats are not just coming alive against Class A competition. In one-run loss to Seneca Valley on Friday, Sto-Rox still managed 12 runs.
The top bats in the Sto-Rox lineup are junior Mary Cersosimo, senior Rachael Gerster and senior Anja Weisser.
In her four years at Sto-Rox, Natalya Smarra helped lead Sto-Rox with her arm. Now at California University of Pennsylvania, Smarra is leading the Vulcans with her bat.
The former high school pitching standout is getting along just fine at the plate in her freshman season at California.
Smarra is batting .344 with 22 hits in 64 at bats. She has nine extra-base hits including five home runs, three doubles and a triple. Smarra ranks fourth on the team in batting average, home runs, total bases (42) and slugging percentage (.656) and third on the team in RBIs.
Name: Aimee Miller
School: Sto-Rox
Grade: Senior
Sport: Softball
Position: Pitcher
Nicholas Tolomeo's feature on the Sto-Rox softball team:
"Sto-Rox coach Bill Palermo has coached softball long enough to win 575 games and also long enough to develop some old-school ways.
Well aware of the talent on his team this season, Palermo was upset to see his team drop its regular-season opener, 13-7, to Weyauwega Fremont out of Wisconsin at a Disney Tournament in Orlando, Fla.
So as a disciplinary measure, he took away the players' cell phones.
"I told them, call your parents. If they need something, tell them to call me," Palermo said."
(Photo: Rachael Gerster is a returning starter in left field for Sto-Rox. Peter Diana/Post-Gazette.)
softball