Since a three-game losing streak that dropped their record to 2-5, the Yough Cougars have been playing their best ball of the spring.

They’ll need to keep it up this week when they face two of the top teams in their section.

Halfway through section play, Yough finds itself in good position to earn its first WPIAL playoff berth since 2007. The Cougars (5-6, 4-2) were tied for second place in Class AAA Section 2 prior to Monday’s contest at Uniontown.

baseball

Sophomore Nicole Sleith of the Robert Morris softball team was selected as the Northeast Conference Pitcher of the Week.

Sleith, a Yough graduate, claimed her fourth weekly honor of 2013 and has earned one in each of the past three weeks in which RMU has competed. It was also the 12th weekly honor of her career, extending her own program record in that category.

Sleith led the RMU pitching staff in helping the Colonials post a 5-1 mark this past week, including a sweep of Pitt.

Sleith came on in relief in both of RMU’s games against the Panthers to register a pair of saves.

She tossed three innings of shutout relief, allowing a lone hit, an infield single, while striking out six batters, including striking out the side in order in the seventh, to finish off the opener.

She entered the nightcap mid-inning with the tying runs on base and zero outs. She preserved the lead and ended up tossing two innings and allowed one hit.

Sleith then threw a four-hit shutout in the opener of a doubleheader with Monmouth as the Colonials went on to a sweep.

She followed that up the next day by twirling a one-hit shutout against Fairleigh Dickinson in which she had six strikeouts.

Sleith has now gone seven consecutive appearances, including a trio of complete-game starts, without allowing an earned run, a span of 30.2 innings. She now has four shutouts on the season and nine in her career.

For the week, Sleith allowed eight hits in 20.2 innings, which resulted in an opponents’ batting average of .116. She also struck out 20 batters and allowed a lone run, which was unearned.

Yough hasn’t made the playoffs since 2007, but first-year coach Jeremy Zufall believes the Cougars have a good chance to end that drought this season.

So far, the Cougars have looked the part.

Yough is 3-4 overall and 1-1 in Class AAA Section 2. The Cougars have been extremely competitive in all of their games. Their wins have come by scores of 2-1 and 5-3, and their losses were by results of 4-3, 4-3 and 8-3.

Robert Morris sophomore Nicole Sleith was selected as the Northeast Conference Co-Pitcher of the Week.

Sleith, a Yough graduate, claimed her third weekly honor of the eason and the 11th of her career, extending her program record.

Sleith led the RMU pitching staff in its NEC openers, helping the Colonials to a sweep of Mount St. Mary’s with one of her most dominating outings to date as she pitched her first collegiate no-hitter in the opener of a doubleheader.