However, a very good Shaler team broke through with two outs and kept rolling from there on its way to a 10-0, five-inning victory over Abington Heights in the PIAA Class 5A Softball Championship Game at a hot and muggy Penn State University Nittany Lion Softball Park Beard Field.<\/a><\/p>\nHaley Machajewski\u2019s grand slam with one out in the bottom of the fifth invoked the mercy rule and gave the District 7 champion Lady Titans (24-1) their third state title. They also won the Class 3A championship in 2004 and the Class 4A crown in 2006.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey broke through and we made a couple small mistakes,\u201d Abington Heights coach John Kelly said. \u201cThat\u2019s all it takes in a game against a really good team. You make one or two mistakes and they compound. We kind of had one real bad inning there.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the District 2 champion Lady Comets (24-2), it was a disappointing end to an otherwise tremendous run to their first state final. They could muster little offense against Shaler senior pitcher and Indiana University commit Bria Bosiljevac with just one hit and only four baserunners.<\/p>\n
Eva Kane led off the game with a walk but was thrown out on a stolen base attempt in between two strikeouts.<\/p>\n
Isabella DeRiggi led off the top of the second with a single and was sacrificed to second by Brianna Bustos. Riley McColligan was hit by a pitch to put two aboard, but Bosiljevac got a strikeout and a flyout to end the inning.<\/p>\n
Bustos reached second on two errors on one play with two outs in the top of the fourth, but was stranded.<\/p>\n
Bosiljevac finished with eight strikeouts.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe had a good rise ball. Got a few of our girls out with that,\u201d DeRiggi said. \u201cShe was a great pitcher. They were a well-coached team, very athletic. They definitely gave us a good fight. We tried our best. I definitely think we gave it all and left it on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the bottom of the second, Bosiljevac got Shaler\u2019s offense going by drawing a leadoff walk. Giada Colamarino and Peyton Nichols both reached on bunt singles to load the bases. Olivia Gieraltowski then walked to force home courtesy runner Ella Hergenroeder and give the Lady Titans a 1-0 lead.<\/p>\n
Condrad appeared as if she might get out of trouble when she struck out Ellie Nickel and got Machajewski to fly out to Bustos in shallow center field. But she walked Jayla Antomachi to force home Colamarino and make it 2-0. Addison Aleski then hit a fielder\u2019s choice that was bobbled for an error, bringing home Nichols. When second baseman Kane got tangled up with Antomachi at second base and fell down on play, Gieraltowski also raced home to give Shaler a 4-0 lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were a really great hitting team,\u201d said Condrad, the Syracuse University commit who allowed six runs (three earned) and six hits in four innings with three walks and six strikeouts. \u201cHonestly, I don\u2019t think I was prepared as a pitcher yet to face a team that was able to hit balls off the plate, things like that. I\u2019ve been a little less challenged. This definitely was an eye-opener for me. I\u2019m ready to make it right back next year. I\u2019m proud of everyone this year and I can\u2019t wait to see what happens next.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shaler extended its lead to 5-0 in the bottom of the third. Bosiljevac led off with a single and courtesy runner Hergenroeder went to second on a wild pitch. Condrad struck out the next two batters, but Gieraltowski had a RBI single.<\/p>\n
Miscommunication in the outfield led to a dropped fly ball and allowed Machajewski to reach second on the error to open the bottom of the fourth. Again, Condrad retired the next two hitters. But Alyssa Schaffold fouled off five pitches during her at-bat before hitting a RBI single to score Machajewski for a 6-0 advantage.<\/p>\n
Kelly replaced Condrad with Bristos to begin the bottom of the fifth. Colamarino, Taylor London and Nickel all worked walks to load the bases. Machajewski then ended it, sending a 1-0 pitch over the left-center field fence for a no-doubt-about-it grand slam.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just trying get the ball on the ground, get a base hit,\u201d Machajewski said. \u201cI\u2019ve been struggling my last couple of games and popping the ball up a lot. So I was just trying to get a solid base hit and hopefully get an RBI there.<\/p>\n
\u201cOff the bat, I knew. That was probably one of the best hits I\u2019ve had in my life. My swing felt very smooth. I knew as soon as I hit it, it was gone. Running around the bases was surreal. This team has been one of the greatest blessings in my life. Everybody is so sweet and they truly are my best friends. To win a state championship with them is literally the best feeling I could ever have.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even though the ending wasn\u2019t what Abington Heights hoped it would be, Kelly could not be prouder of his players.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a tough way to go. But I\u2019ve been doing this a long time and this has been the best season,\u201d said Kelly, in his 26th year as coach. \u201cGreat kids, great parents. I couldn\u2019t be any happier to be their coach. They took me along for a great ride. I\u2019ll never forget this season.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Abington Heights\u2019 Adrianna Condrad releases a pitch against Shaler during the PIAA 5A championship game at Penn State…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[305,178,180,179,726],"class_list":["post-217306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-high-school-sports","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Abington](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/STT-L-AH-SHALER-SB-0612-05.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"Shaler\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/STT-L-AH-SHALER-SB-0612-07.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"Abington](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/STT-L-AH-SHALER-SB-0612-01.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"Abington](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/STT-L-AH-SHALER-SB-0612-04.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"Abington](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/STT-L-AH-SHALER-SB-0612-03.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"Abington](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/STT-L-AH-SHALER-SB-0612-06.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"Abington](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/STT-L-AH-SHALER-SB-0612-08.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"Abington](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/STT-L-AH-SHALER-SB-0612-02.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n