Excitement level through the roof for Valley, other A-K Valley baseball teams in WPIAL playoffs

May 8—A year ago, Valley baseball went 7-11 and missed the WPIAL playoffs.

That was last year.

This year, the Vikings (14-5) bounced back to have one of the most accomplished regular seasons in Class 4A.

Now, the Section 3 co-champion with Indiana (8-2) is ready to begin what it hopes is a deep postseason run.

Valley will have to wait until May 18 to begin that journey. The WPIAL baseball playoff committee Friday awarded the Vikings the No. 3 seed and a first-round bye. They await the winner of Monday's matchup between No. 7 West Mifflin and No. 10 Ambridge

"I don't think you can measure the excitement level of the guys right now," said coach Jaron Minford, who saw his Vikings hand Class 3A No. 4 Freeport its first loss of the season by a 4-2 score Thursday afternoon.

"They are through the roof with so much energy to get the playoffs started. After last year when they didn't make it, they had something to prove. They set out to prove they belonged, and it is basically the same team as last year, so you can see the hard work they put in to get better paid off. They had goals in mind, and the playoffs were one of them. They are excited to be there, but now the work begins to achieve more of their goals. It won't be easy, as there are so many great teams wanting the same thing as we do. But the guys will be ready."

Indiana (15-4) and Elizabeth Forward (14-5) are the top two seeds in the Class 4A bracket.

Knoch (12-8) is the No. 8 seed and will face No. 9 Blackhawk (11-7) at 6:30 p.m. Monday at Pullman Park in Butler. The Knights, the third-place place team in Section 3 behind Indiana and Valley, will attempt to get back in the win column after a challenging slate of games against Pine-Richland, Montour and Ellwood City to close out the regular season.

There again is depth in the Class 5A field with several teams hoping to make a run.

Plum is squarely in the mix after a 17-3 regular season and a tie for second in Section 1 with Latrobe at 9-3.

The Mustangs are the No. 5 seed and will play close to home at 4 p.m. Tuesday. They will face No. 12 Upper St. Clair (9-8) at Gateway.

"To be honest, seeding doesn't really matter," Plum coach Carl Vollmer said. "We learned that last year. We were the No. 2 seed and lost (1-0) to (No. 15) Mars. It really comes down to who has good starting pitching. It's a matter of who is good that day, who executes and who makes the fewest mistakes.

"I feel we had another really good season. (Class) 5A is extremely difficult. There are many teams who could win this. It is tough to say if any one team is a heavy favorite."

Despite a sweep at the hands of Section 3 runner-up West Allegheny earlier this week, Fox Chapel (12-8) locked up fourth in the standings and will enter the Class 5A playoffs as the No. 15 seed. It takes on Section 1 champ Penn-Trafford (15-5) at 4 p.m. Tuesday at Plum.