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The Wyoming Valley Conference is having a banner postseason in baseball and softball. All four teams that played in Thursday’s state quarterfinals won to reach the final four of their respective brackets.
Now they know their next step toward Penn State and a potential state championship.
Dallas and Holy Redeemer baseball will join Hazleton Area and Tunkhannock softball in the PIAA semifinals on Monday.
In baseball, Dallas will face District 3 champ East Pennsboro in a Class 4A semifinal at 4:30 p.m. at Pottsville Area High School. The Mountaineers have won 11 straight games and have not allowed a run in the state tournament, beating Athens 9-0 and West York 2-0. East Pennsboro rallied to beat Wilson Area 5-2 on Monday.
The other semifinal will be a rematch of the WPIAL 4A championship between Blackhawk and South Park at 6 p.m. at North Allegheny High School in Wexford.
The Class 3A baseball semifinals will pit Holy Redeemer against District 4 power Loyalsock at 4:30 p.m. at Central Columbia High School in Bloomsburg. Both the Royals and Lancers outlasted their quarterfinal opponents on Monday with Redeemer beating Oley Valley 4-3 and Loyalsock topping Lancaster Catholic 6-4.
Redeemer is making its first appearance in the state semifinals. Loyalsock won the Class 2A championship in 2008, 2013 and 2014. Monday’s other semifinal will feature a District 6 finals rematch between Huntingdon and Central at 6 p.m. at Penn State’s Medlar Field.
On the softball side, Hazleton Area will have an early start to its Class 6A semifinal against Spring-Ford, the No. 3 seed out of District 1, heading back to Parkland High School at noon.
The Cougars were just at Parkland on Thursday, winning a 6-5 thriller against Council Rock North right around 10 p.m. as the final game of a tripleheader. Spring-Ford has already knocked off two district champions, outscoring St. Huberts and Liberty 25-3.
Chambersburg and Hempfield will play in the other semifinal at 4 p.m. at Mt. Aloysius College.
In Class 4A, Tunkhannock looks to stay hot against District 11 champ Bangor at 6:30 p.m. at Wilkes. The Tigers scored 22 runs in the first two rounds of the tournament, including Thursday’s 15-4 five-inning victory against Eastern York. Bangor already has one win over a WVC team, topping Wyoming Area in the first round before beating Upper Perkiomen on Thursday.
District 7 foes Yough and Mt. Pleasant will meet in the other semifinal at 4 p.m. at California University.