When Sports Were Played: Tears and a WPIAL title for Jefferson-Morgan (2024)

In today’s “When Sports Were Played,” we go back to May 28, 2015 and a WPIAL softball championship game filled with emotion like never before as Jefferson-Morgan edged Chartiers-Houston.

CALIFORNIA – Fans wearing orange and black, or blue and white, took time away from their obligations Thursday, hoping to witness history at California University’s Lilley Field.

Orange and black are the team colors at Jefferson-Morgan, but it was the blue and white that bonded the communities of Jefferson, Rices Landing and Clarksville this month. Those colors were honoring Chris Dugan – the father of Jefferson-Morgan junior second baseman Camryn Dugan and a Rockets assistant coach who died from cancer May 15.

As Jefferson-Morgan attempted to win its first WPIAL softball championship, the Rockets trailed by two runs entering the fifth inning and had just committed their third error. The only noises that could be heard came from the concession stand and the occasional cheers from the Chartiers-Houston dugout.

“It was very discouraging actually. We are used to being the team that’s normally on top at the beginning and we weren’t,” Rockets junior shortstop Morgan Simkovic said. “The benches were quiet, the field was quiet. It was very odd.”

Everything changed within a matter of minutes and it was Simkovic who helped bring life back to the crowd.

Jefferson-Morgan scattered four hits, including Simkovic’s go-ahead RBI double, and senior pitcher Madison Ludrosky struck out 12 batters as the Rockets upset top-seeded Chartiers-Houston, 3-2, to win the WPIAL Class A championship.

It is the Rockets’ first WPIAL softball championship, the school’s first district title in the spring sports season and the first WPIAL team title since 1995. Jefferson-Morgan will open the PIAA playoffs Monday against the District 9 runner-up, Smethport, at North Allegheny High School with first pitch at 3 p.m. Chartiers-Houston (19-3) will play West Branch, the District 6 champion, at a site and time to be determined.

Simkovic capped the rally by hitting a 2-0 fastball into the gap in left centerfield to score junior center fielder Morgan Gamble for the lead. Simkovic, who grew up with Camryn Dugan, asked her former assistant coach for a little help.

“We had one inning where we pulled it together and we got it,” Simkovic said. “I kind of prayed to our coach to pull me through with a hit, score a few runs or something, and he did. It means everything. We started off together as a little 6-year-old family and we’re finishing off as a 16-year-old family.”

Entering the inning, the Rockets (15-2) only had two hits and Dittrich retired 10 of the last 11 batters. Jessica Taylor led off the fifth with a single and Brooke Diamond reached on an error. Both advanced a base on a sacrifice bunt before Gamble delivered an RBI single to right field.

Three pitches later, senior catcher Reagan Rush tied the game with an RBI single to left field. Dugan popped up to the catcher before Simkovic came to the plate. She drove the sixth pitch into the gap to score Gamble, giving the Rockets a 3-2 lead and energizing the large number of fans lining the fence, watching from the outfield grass and sitting in the bleachers.

Dittrich, a crafty right-hander who kept J-M off-balance with an outside curveball, only allowed six hits and one earned run.

“We told them if we could get some hits in the middle and the bottom of the lineup, we would probably score,” J-M head coach Tony Barbetta said. “Simkovic finally came through. We had trouble hitting (Dittrich).”

Given the lead, Ludrosky, who finished the WPIAL playoffs with a 52-0 strikeout-to-walk ratio, was flawless. Despite the Rockets committing three errors, Ludrosky, who was called for five illegal pitches, held the Bucs to 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position for the game and allowed only one hit over the final three innings.

Chartiers-Houston’s Kassie Kesneck hit a one-out single in the sixth inning and advanced to second on an illegal pitch, but Ludrosky got a flyout and a strikeout to end the threat.

“We knew it would be a close game. We just didn’t hit the ball well enough to score enough runs,” C-H head coach Tricia Alderson said. “I thought my pitcher pitched a really good game and we played pretty good defense behind her, but two runs was not enough.”

The Bucs silenced the Greene County crowd, including fans from who came from Waynesburg, Mapletown and Carmichaels, early in the game. Kesneck led off the second inning by hitting a line drive off Gamble’s glove. She advanced to second and scored when Craig reached on a throwing error for a 1-0 lead.

C-H got another run in the third inning when Megan Kraushaar hit a fastball into the gap in left-centerfield for an RBI double. She advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt, but Ludrosky got two strikeouts to limit the damage.

The Rockets’ pitcher allowed only two baserunners the rest of the way and her two seventh-inning strikeouts sent the crowd into a frenzy.

“Did you see the people here? A lot of people who don’t make a lot of money missed work today because it was an 11:30 start time for this game,” Barbetta said. “I think there was more orange than maroon. That was pretty hard to believe.”

It was a highlight to Jefferson-Morgan’s storybook postseason, which the Rockets hope does not end anytime soon.