H.S. SOFTBALL: Tri-Valley’s state title pursuit grounded by Holy Cross
· Yahoo Sports
HAZLETON — Tri-Valley’s pursuit of a third state championship is over.
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On Monday afternoon, the Bulldogs 2026 season came to an end in a hard-fought 3-0 PIAA Class A semifinal loss to Holy Cross.
After a scoreless opening inning, Holy Cross slugger Peyton Graboske made her presence known, launching a pitch into left center for a solo home run, giving the Crusaders a 1-0 lead.
The home run was Graboske’s 11th of the season.
Holy Cross looked poised to add more to their tally as Tri-Valley pitcher Myah Schwalm walked the next batter, Claire Helring, following the blast, but then worked her way out of further trouble with back-to-back strikeouts and a fly out to right field to end the inning.
In the second, Holy Cross once again threatened, as Ava Schmidt ripped a one-out double into center before Lila Kolcharno worked a walk. After getting Jules Galella to pop up, Tri-Valley opted to intentionally walk Graboske in her second at-bat, looking to avoid another homer from the senior. The plan worked to perfection as Schwalm escaped the inning and bases-loaded jam with a first-pitch pop up from Helring.
While Holy Cross’s offense was mustering up scoring chances early, pitcher Ava Schmidt kept the Bulldogs’ offense silent. Through the first three innings, Schmidt allowed just one hit, a Schwalm single in the first, while striking out five.
After Schwalm was able to make quick work of the Crusaders in the fourth, Tri-Valley’s offense looked to manufacture a run in the bottom of the inning, getting a runner into scoring position following a Lydia Rodichok hit-by-pitch and Savannah Steily’s infield single. Still, Schmidt worked out of the trouble with her sixth strikeout of the afternoon.
“We relied on hitting all year, and there’s a cliché of ‘good pitching stops good hitting,’” Tri-Valley coach Marty Shade said. “My hat’s off to Schmidt. She held us to zero. (You) can’t win with zero. She did a good job. We just couldn’t seem to put anything together today.”
While Tri-Valley’s offense continued to struggle, Schwalm looked to keep the Bulldogs in the game. Her biggest Houdini act of the game came in the fifth.
After Holy Cross loaded the bases with one out, thanks to back-to-back singles and a fielding error, Schwalm had to face the middle of the Crusaders’ order, including Graboske.
Graboske almost opened up the game with what would’ve likely been a two-run single up the middle, but ran into bad luck with a hard hit lineout before Helring flew out to right field to end the inning.
The Crusaders’ determination to add an insurance run finally paid off in the sixth on an RBI groundout from Keira Bauman, scoring McKinley Griffiths, who led the inning off with a double before reaching third on a sac bunt from Maya Desantis.
They’d add another run in the top of the seventh as Ava Schmidt scored on a passed ball after working a walk and stealing second and third.
On the other side, Tri-Valley continued to struggle to find any answers for Schmidt. After Schwalm’s first-inning single, the Bulldogs managed just three hits the remainder of the afternoon, including a single from Whitmer in the sixth and a single from Steily in the seventh. Schmidt finished the afternoon with just the four hits allowed while striking out 11 Bulldogs.
“She throws a good rise ball, and we were swinging at that high pitch again,” Shade said. “We tried to tell the girls to lay off the high pitch but, you know, it comes in. It looks so nice coming in and it jumps there at the end. She doesn’t walk anybody. That’s her thing. Her strikeout to walk ratio is real good. She’s a good all-around player.
With the loss, Tri-Valley will end its 2026 season with a 19-6 overall record.
“I just told the girls, ‘We were 3-3 and we ended up 19-6.’ We came back, hung in there, won the division title, won the district title for the sixth year in a row, and made it to the final four,” Shade said. “A lot of teams would be love to be in this position. But, we came here today to win and came up short.”