WJPA Sports

The WPIAL has released the 2026 Softball Championship playoff brackets, including 12 Washington/Greene County teams. Chartiers-Houston (2A) and Carmichaels (1A) are the highest seeded teams from the two-county area. Carmichaels and West Greene (1A) received first-round byes and will be joined in the quarterfinals by Canon-McMillan (6A). First-round action for local teams is slated to begin Tuesday when the #4 Big Macs play #5 Mt. Lebanon and #7 Trinity (5A) takes on #10 Plum. Four Washington County 2A teams will descend on Trinity Middle School Thursday for back to back games. Baseball brackets are due to be released Friday afternoon. We will determine our broadcast schedule once we have those pairings. Following is a daily schedule of the WPIAL Softball playoffs. WPIAL Brackets

First Round Byes: 1A #2 Carmichaels, 1A #3 West Greene

Tuesday, May 12
5A 1st Round #7 Trinity vs. #10 Plum, 5:00 pm at Gateway High School
6A Quarterfinals #4 Canon-McMillan vs. #5 Mt. Lebanon, 6:00 pm at Pleasant Valley Elementary (Peters Township)

Thursday, May 14
3A 1st Round #5 McGuffey vs. #12 Hopewell, 3:00 pm at Montour
3A 1st Round #11 Charleroi vs #6 Burrell, 3:00 pm at Norwin
1A 1st Round #5 Jeff-Morgan vs. #12 Leechburg, 3:00 pm at Gateway
2A 1st Round #3 Bentworth vs. #14 Burgettstown, 4:00 pm at Trinity Middle School
1A 1st Round #11 Beth-Center vs. #6 South Side Area, 4:30 pm at North Strabane Intermediate School
2A 1st Round #2 Chartiers-Houston vs. #15 Wash High, 6:00 pm at Trinity Middle School

PHOENIX (AP) — Brandon Lowe had three hits, including his 10th homer, and Joey Bart also went deep to back Mitch Keller, and the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 4-2. Keller (4-1) went six-plus innings, retiring 10 straight between Corbin Carroll’s solo home run in the third and Ildemaro Vargas’ single leading off the seventh. He gave up four hits and two runs, walked two and struck out four. Gregory Soto retired the side in order the ninth for his third save. Arizona starter Zac Gallen (1-3) pitched six innings, allowing six hits and four runs, walking two and fanning five.

The NCAA will expand its March Madness tournaments by eight teams each next season. It will add more early-round games in the first week without altering the overall format. The new 76-team brackets for men and women will feature 12 games involving 24 teams. The winners will join the main 64-team bracket starting Thursday for men and Friday for women. Most new slots are expected to go to power conference teams.