Riverside, Blackhawk and Moon all secured top seeds in the WPIAL baseball playoffs, while three other schools earned first round byes.
Riverside, Blackhawk and Moon all secured top seeds in the WPIAL baseball playoffs, while three other schools earned first round byes. Riverside is the top seed in Class 3A, Blackhawk is No. 1 in Class 4A, and Moon earned the top spot in Class 5A. Riverside and Blackhawk are defending WPIAL champions. Moon, meanwhile, earned the top seed over rival West Allegheny, which had spent much of the regular season as the No. 1 team in the weekly rankings. The two teams split the season series, but Moon won the most recent meeting 11-5. Moon also managed to squeeze in a couple more non-section games which may have helped its cause. Even with the No. 2 seed, West Allegheny still received a first round bye.
Baseball teams will be able to pitch their aces in the first round and quarterfinal round if they desire, as the dates are almost a week apart. But the semifinal round is scheduled just one day after the quarterfinals, so teams will need at least two pitchers to reach the WPIAL championship.
Other local teams to earn a first round bye include South Side, which finished the regular season by winning seven of its last eight to grab the No. 3 seed in Class 3A. In Class 1A, Section 3 champ Quigley was awarded the No. 4 seed after winning the first section championship in program history.
Here's the full first round schedule for all local teams:
CLASS 5A
No. 1 Moon - first round bye
No. 2 West Allegheny - first round bye
CLASS 4A
No. 1 Blackhawk - first round bye
No. 10 Hopewell vs. Belle Vernon, Tuesday 4:30 p.m. at Hempfield
CLASS 3A
No. 1 Riverside - first round bye
No. 3 South Side - first round bye
No. 12 Beaver Falls vs. Valley, Tuesday 4:30 p.m. at Shaler
CLASS 1A
No. 4 Quigley - first round bye
No. 8 Cornell vs. West Greene, Wednesday 4 p.m. at Peterswood Park
No. 10 Western Beaver vs. Monessen, Tuesday 2 p.m. at Burkett Complex
No. 11 Rochester vs. Eden Christian, Tuesday 2 p.m. at Shaler