If you’re a fan of action-packed softball games with lots of lead changes and dramatic shifts of momentum, South Park probably isn’t the place for you.
After all, with superb junior pitcher Sydney Sekely starring in the circle, once the Eagles cross home plate for the first time, the game is usually as good as over.
Dating back to April 6 of last season, South Park has won 34 of its past 36 games, with 26 of those victories coming by way of shutout. But while Sekely’s stinginess has taken some excitement out of Eagles games from a fan perspective, don’t expect South Park coach R.J. Matetic to take any issue with the lack of late-inning drama.
“I can’t complain, but I’m always one to think, ‘OK, have we prepared for this, have we prepared for that?’” Matetic said. “Sometimes, something falls off and you’ve got to figure out how to overcome that quickly. … [Sekely] is maturing and getting to the point where she’s realizing that it’s not always going to go perfectly. And what are you going to do when it doesn’t? And how are you going to overcome adversity to be successful?”
If you have been paying any attention over the past two years, Sekely’s excellence should be nothing new to you. As a sophomore, she posted a record of 16-3 with an 0.72 ERA and 14 shutouts while tallying 242 strikeouts to 23 walks in 127 innings pitched. In a remarkable 14-game stretch leading up to the WPIAL championship game, Sekely registered 13 shutouts while allowing a grand total of just one run.
Taking center stage at PennWest California’s Lilley Field, South Park’s dream season then came crumbling down when Sekely and the Eagles’ defense unraveled against Mohawk and its high-powered lineup in the WPIAL title game. A 5-1 loss followed at Chestnut Ridge in the first round of the PIAA Class 3A playoffs, ending South Park’s once-promising season with back-to-back defeats.
“We’ve been talking about this all offseason,” Matetic said. “We don’t want to feel what we felt last year. But we told them — the route to getting there is not just a guarantee.”
Rather than allow those season-ending losses to break their spirits, though, the Eagles have used them as added motivation heading into the 2025 campaign — and so far this spring, you won’t find a more dominant team in the area than South Park.
Through their first 18 games this season, the Eagles (18-0, 12-0) have outscored foes by a combined score of 181-13, with Sekely notching 12 shutouts to go with three perfect games. Her other-worldly numbers are approaching a new stratosphere, boasting a record of 16-0 with a 0.50 ERA, 0.49 WHIP and 162 strikeouts to just seven walks in 83⅔ innings of work.
“She’s obviously got her fastball, which she locates, and she has a curveball that she does locate as well,” Matetic said. “Her changeup has been a lot more effective than it has been in the past. She can throw it whenever she wants to. She has a drop ball that we throw every now and then, and she is working on a rise ball.
“She is willing to learn. She wants to learn.”
Although she might not throw quite as hard as flame-throwers like Seneca Valley’s Lexie Hames and Bentworth’s Sydney Gonglik — both known for sitting in the high 60’s with their fastball velocity — Sekely has been every bit as untouchable as her blue-chip counterparts. Her fastball typically maxes out at about 60 mph, but Sekely’s mastery of the strike zone and impeccable command of her five-pitch arsenal are her greatest attributes.
For proof, just look at her duel against Gonglik and the Bearcats earlier this season, in which Sekely propelled South Park to a 2-0 victory on March 31. She also went toe-to-toe against Chartiers-Houston ace and Kent State recruit Meadow Ferri in a 4-3 come-from-behind win on April 16, avenging a 6-5 loss from last season against the defending WPIAL Class 1A champions.
Then, taking on Class 5A contender Baldwin on the road on Wednesday, Sekely and the Eagles were pushed to the brink once again — and again they prevailed, eking out a 6-4 extra-innings win. Sekely struck out 15 and walked one while allowing one earned run on six hits in eight masterful innings of work.
“We haven’t seen every great pitcher in the WPIAL yet,” Matetic said. “We’ve seen a few. [Sydney] Gonglik, [Meadow] Ferri from Char-Houston. We’ve seen some decent ones. … When we got down in the Char-Houston game — I think it was 3-1. Then I sat back and thought, ‘OK, how are they going to handle this?’ Because all season, we weren’t used to that.
“We were down a couple runs against a really good pitcher. How were we going to handle it? But we were able to overcome it.”
Even if she only specialized in pitching, Sekely would still be regarded as one of the premier players in the WPIAL. But her emergence as one of the most consistent hitters in Class 3A makes her a truly special talent, with Sekely batting .533 with 4 doubles, 2 triples and 19 RBIs on the year.
“We are a team that is always ready to fight back, even if we are down,” Sekely said. “We’re going to give it everything to try to pull it out in the end and overcome any challenge.”
This season, the Eagles are well on their way to an undefeated regular season and likely No. 1 seed for the WPIAL Class 3A tournament — but after last year’s disappointing 9-2 defeat against Mohawk in the WPIAL final, they aren’t settling for anything less than gold this time around.
But if South Park hopes to make it back to the WPIAL championship game and capture its first title since 2003, Sekely certainly won’t be able to do it alone. It’s a good sign for the Eagles, then, that several position players are enjoying breakout seasons to help ease the burden on Sekely’s shoulders.
“I believe we have a good chance to go far this year,” Sekely said. “I’m proud of how we started off this season, becoming section champs. We worked so hard to get out where we are now. … We think about everything we did wrong [last year] and just have been working all season to fix those mistakes.
“We just want to come back stronger this year, and hopefully we can make it as far, if not farther.”
Senior outfielder Kylie Mettrick is batting .615 with 4 doubles, 2 triples, a home run, 14 RBIs and 26 runs scored, and junior infielder Grace Kempton is hitting .522 with nine doubles, a home run and a team-high 33 RBIs. Overall, five starters on the team are batting above .400, and seven have produced double-digit RBIs.
Having a deep, balanced lineup averaging more than 10 runs per game has provided more than enough run support for South Park to rely on. But if all else fails and the offense fails to produce, it always helps to have an ace in the hole to fall back on — and Matetic certainly has the ultimate trump card at his disposal.
“It’s nice to have a pitcher like Sekely,” Matetic said. “I keep preaching to them, it just doesn’t happen just because you did it the year before. That’s not how this works. You must do everything that we preach and talk about and work on at practice, and you have to do it at a high level.
“You do that and take it one game at a time, and hopefully we get deep enough into the playoffs where maybe we get an opportunity for redemption.”
Steve is a sports writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at srotstein@unionprogress.com.
