Western PA Softball All-Star Game pits area's best for 1 last show

Jun. 15—Ava Wamsley and her Fox Chapel teammates spent the past several seasons trying to defeat North Hills and Shaler in section play.Now, Wamsley, a senior catcher, will have the opportunity to win with Shaler standouts Bria Bosiljevac, Alyssa Schaffold and Jayla Antomachi; and North Hills star Abby Sutton when they come together on Team Black for Tuesday's Western PA Softball All-Star Game.

Liana Yusko from section rival Plum and others from Team Gold will try to put up a stiff challenge.The third annual all-star showcase game between top seniors stars from the WPIAL and City League will be at 7:15 p.m.

at Plum High School."This is a nice way to give the kids one last chance to wear their uniform and celebrate their high school careers," said DiLonardo, the lead organizer of the all-star games and a coach of Team Gold with Peters Township's Jenna Muncie.A total of 41 seniors, many of whom will continue their softball careers at Division I, II or III colleges, will be on the rosters.

More than 100 seniors were nominated by their coaches, selected by a committee and accepted an invitational to play."It is a lot of fun to get all of these talented kids together. It's not easy to put them together.

There were so many worthy players who we considered. We want the players to be in the positions that they play. You can't pick 17 center fielders or 17 shortstops.

We try to balance it out by the positions that they play. That does make it challenging at some points along the line. But over the past three years, we've developed a system that, I think, works pretty well.

Hopefully, it will lead to a competitive game."Former Franklin Regional coach Jim Armstrong and Shaler's Tom Sorce will coach Team Black.South Florida standout freshman outfielder Toryn Fulton, a Franklin Regional alum, will be an honorary coach for the Black team."

The talent level for this game is awesome, and it is so much fun to get to coach all of them and let them go out and put their talents on display