A jubilant Pittston Area softball team meets at home plate to celebrate a perfect 25-0 season after winning the PIAA Class 5A championship on Thursday at Penn State.
Tony Callaio | For Times Leader
Pittston Area softball polishes off perfect season with state championship win
Pittston Area’s Sage Weidlich, left, holds the state championship trophy after the Patriots returned from Penn State on Thursday to an impromptu parade through Pittston and to the softball field in Hughestown.
Fred Adams | For Times Leader
STATE COLLEGE — On a day when Pittston Area was reminded of one of its past great individual champions, the school district celebrated its first Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association state team champion.
The softball team returned from Penn State to police and fire department escorts Thursday, celebrating not only a state championship in Class 5A — the second-largest of the PIAA’s six enrollment classifications — but also a perfect season.
Sophomore pitcher Gianna Adams threw a two-hitter with 10 strikeouts while providing two hits and driving in a run on a sacrifice fly as Pittston Area defeated Armstrong, the suburban Pittsburgh champion, 4-0, at Beard Field.
The win completed a 25-0 season.
“Perfect season,” Pittston Area coach Frank Parente said. “Perfect day. I’m so proud of them.
“Gianna came and shut them down. Bella (Giardina) had a huge hit.”
It was the culmination of season-long goals.
“They believed,” Parente said. “They believed from the beginning of the year that they could do something special and they finished it off.”
Giardina’s two-run single with two out in the fourth inning doubled the lead to 4-0 and Adams took it from there. They were two of the four Patriots who each provided two of the team’s 11 hits.
Prior to Thursday, Pittston Area’s sports history had been marked by spectacular individuals, including three who combined for four state gold medals.
Brandon Matthews, who played in Thursday’s opening round of the U.S. Open to make his professional major debut, won a PIAA state golf title for the Patriots in 2010.
John Dessoye sprinted to 100- and 200-meter dash gold medals in Class 3A track and field in 1996. James Woodall won a 152-pound wrestling title in Class 3A in 1999.
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