Dave Mackall stories

Nolan Wagoner’s first career complete game couldn’t have come at a better time for the Quaker Valley baseball team. “It was for these boys,” the senior right-hander said Thursday, glancing toward the Quakers’ dugout. “Wouldn’t have wanted to do it for anyone else.” Wagoner threw just 79 pitches (57 for...

Surrounded by a group of former Penn-Trafford players, coach Jim Schall couldn’t stop smiling in the aftermath of the Warriors’ convincing, 3-0 blanking of visiting Peters Township on Tuesday night in a first-round WPIAL Class 3A boys volleyball playoff. No doubt he was glad for their support. “These guys are...

Hempfield has produced an impressive list of softball pitchers, a fact that doesn’t elude current Spartans ace Riley Miller. The names include Jaci Kalp, Morgan Ryan, Lauren (Shaheen) Armanious and, of course, current coach Tina (Skelly) Madison. Kalp, whose 997 career strikeouts are a WPIAL record, is the daughter of...

As she was crossing the finish line well ahead of any challenger, Cecilia Montagnese flashed a smile and seemed barely winded after finishing first in the 3,200-meter run. The Quaker Valley senior counted it as just another routine day. Even though it wasn’t for Montagnese and the Quakers, whose girls...

Calling it “a really good accomplishment,” Jeannette right-hander Grace Stein tossed her second consecutive no-hitter Friday and sixth of her career while reaching 500 career strikeouts as the third-ranked Jayhawks beat visiting Leechburg, 10-0, in a WPIAL Section 3-A softball game reduced to six innings by a 10-run rule. Jeannette...

Phones blared emergency signals in unison as Tuesday’s destructive storm approached Charles A. Huston Middle School in Lower Burrell. On the baseball diamond, host Burrell had just taken the lead against Deer Lakes in the bottom of the fourth inning when the storm hit. With one out, the Bucs stopped...

The world keeps spinning for Seneca Valley softball ace Lexie Hames. Since a pair of losses to Pine-Richland during a five-day span in mid-April, the fire-balling, senior right-hander won her fourth straight decision Monday for the Class 6A second-ranked Raiders. This one was a one-hitter against previously unbeaten and top-ranked...

Ryan Wass has been Burrell baseball’s steady shortstop for two seasons. As a relief pitcher, he’s anything but a pushover. Wass was superb on the mound Wednesday, giving Burrell an opportunity for a payback victory against Freeport. Trailing for much of the game, the Buccaneers rallied for three runs in...

It marked a joyous union of boys volleyball stars when past met present last week at Latrobe High School after the Wildcats’ 3-2 WPIAL victory over Penn-Trafford. Eric Vosefski, say hello to Eric Bisignani. In the aftermath of the Section 2-3A match, Latrobe coach Drew Vosefski walked across the home...

Nearly three weeks after the NCAA transfer portal for men’s basketball reopened for business, Duquesne has added a familiar face to college hoops fans in Western Pennsylvania. Former Pitt big man John Hugley IV, who’ll be entering his sixth college season, will join the Dukes’ roster for the 2025-26 season,...

Amarion Dickerson has become the first men’s basketball player from Robert Morris’ latest NCAA Tournament team to find a new home. The reigning Horizon League Defensive Player of the Year will head to the West Coast and join Southern Cal next season. The 6-foot-7, 185-pound Dickerson, who scored 25 points...

From the time he can remember, John Peterman was inspired to work. And work hard, said the former Kiski Area athletic director. “Growing up, my parents taught us to earn a day’s pay for a day’s work,” he said. “We were raised to do an honest day’s work.” Already retired...

Now that he, apparently, has decided to stay put, Andy Toole’s next order of business appears to be a reconstruction of the Robert Morris men’s basketball roster, decimated by the loss of seven players into the NCAA transfer portal, including the entire starting lineup. If anyone, particularly at the mid-major...

A week after playing in just its second NCAA Tournament, Saint Francis’ decision to reclassify its athletic program to Division III and join the Presidents’ Athletic Conference in 2026-27 has sparked a mass exodus of men’s basketball players. Six more from the Northeast Conference school, including leading scorer Riley Parker,...

Dane Firmstone’s inside-the-park grand slam highlighted a nine-run second inning for Mt. Pleasant, and the Vikings beat Freeport, 14-4, in five innings in a WPIAL Section 3-3A baseball game Tuesday at Freeport Park. Mt. Pleasant (2-2, 2-0) scored all its runs in the first two innings in its second victory...

CLEVELAND — As Amarion Dickerson slowly walked onto the podium inside a Rocket Arena interview room, he wore a towel, as he often does, loosely on his head. His eyes appeared swollen, and he struggled to contain his emotions. So, too, was the case for a pair of his Robert...

Robert Morris’ rotation is tight. On most occasions, it goes just seven players deep. The pride of this particular team, however, extends much further. “Again,” Robert Morris coach Andy Toole began, about to repeat the team’s unofficial slogan, “all year long, we’ve had a group of guys that have been...

As his team was preparing to play in the NCAA Tournament on Friday, Robert Morris coach Andy Toole wanted you to believe there’s value in the little guys. So, please, he implored, don’t minimize them at any cost. “One of the reasons that people watch this tournament is because of...

Robert Morris has made this trip before. Just not for the NCAA Tournament. Now, the Colonials are about to. The Horizon League men’s basketball champions received a No. 15 seed Sunday and will face No. 2 seed Alabama at 12:40 p.m. Friday on truTV in an East Region first-round game...

It’s the time of year for college basketball’s spotlight to shine. The sports world focuses on March Madness. But not everyone is happy while the yearly observance of Selection Sunday approaches and emotions run wild from the shoo-ins to the bid-stealers. Just ask Pitt. After a 22-11 season a year...

For Don Eckerle, winning never gets old. And he’s done a lot of it over the years — 417 times now, to be exact. But if it were always easy, perhaps the Our Lady of the Sacred Heart girls basketball coach would just get bored and call it quits. When...

Dru Joyce III grew up with a basketball in his hand. He’s played the game as a slick point guard at every level, and his father and brother are basketball coaches. Joyce won state championships in high school alongside future NBA superstar LeBron James, to this day among his closest...

Duquesne begins defense of its Atlantic 10 Tournament men’s basketball championship Thursday with an early-bird matchup against a familiar foe. The ninth-seeded Dukes (13-18) and No. 8 St. Bonaventure (21-10) will meet for the 137th time dating to 1920 in a first-round game at 11:30 a.m. at Capital One Arena...

Robert Morris’ first women’s basketball season under new coach Chandler McCabe didn’t go as some had planned — her team was predicted to finish last in the Horizon League — but a late-season run of nine victories in 12 games landed them a surprising No. 4 seed and a first-round...