Throughout the season, members of the Shaler Area High School softball team continued to learn from their mistakes.

After early season losses to North Hills and North Allegheny, Shaler came back and defeated both section rivals. After two regular-season losses to Seneca Valley, Shaler turned the tables in the WPIAL semifinals with a 3-2 win.

"My team was a bunch of fighters," Titans coach Skip Palmer said. "They hated to lose and you could tell. They worked hard and what we had done wrong, they worked on and we improved on it and got better."

The one rematch the Titans could not overcome was against Greater Latrobe and ace pitcher Alexa Bryson. Latrobe defeated Shaler, 1-0, in the WPIAL Class AAAA title game and ended the Titans' season with a 2-0 PIAA quarterfinal win last Thursday.

After struggling to get any base runners on in the first meeting against Latrobe, Shaler was able to come out swinging in the second meeting with two first-inning hits, something very few teams have been able to do against Bryson this season.

After striking out 17 times in the first game, Shaler batters were able to put the ball in play more the second time. They struck out only 10 times, but the Latrobe defense stepped up. After getting out of a first-inning jam, Latrobe was able to shut down Shaler the rest of the way.

"I really though we could hit her after what we did in the first inning but she knuckled down and she is tough," Palmer said. "By far Latrobe is the best team we have played ... both times."

With five sophomores and a freshman starting this year and an above average feeder program, Shaler looks to remain as a Class AAAA softball power. A big loss will be senior pitcher Megan Daley, who is headed to Clarion University to play softball.

Palmer expects sophomore pitcher Abby Nichter to fit right it as the starting pitcher next year. Nichter saw limited innings for the varsity, but pitched most of the batting practice sessions this season.

"Abby is going to do fine next year. She got a lot of work this year in practice," Palmer said.

"Abby already has a lot of mileage on her and I know she is going to do extremely well. We have a lot of experience coming back around her, too. I know they are going to get a bunch of work during the summer."

Palmer expects Chelsea Siar to step up as a leader next year. Siar will be a junior and she has started at shortstop since she was a freshman. Holly Pefferman got a lot of work at first base this year as a sophomore as did freshman Samantha Montoya at second base. Montoya started every game of the season except the final one. She sustained a broken hand two days before the PIAA quarterfinal game against Latrobe.

Gina Goss a sophomore right fielder this year, will move to center field next year to fill in for Becca Lynch, who is also headed to Clarion to play softball.

"We got a good group of girls coming back," Palmer said. "The program is strong and that is a compliment to the coaching throughout the district. We will be back next year.

"Like I said to the kids after [the Latrobe loss], the seniors have set the bar for the younger players and they know how much work it takes to get there."

Shaler finished 17-6 overall and 8-4 in Section 3-AAAA in a four-way tie with North Hills, North Allegheny and Seneca Valley for the title.

The Titans rebounded from a 2-3 start to win 12 of their final 13 regular-season games. Impressed with the late-season surge, the WPIAL softball committee awarded Shaler a bye and the Titans defeated Trinity in the WPIAL quarterfinals to set up a rematch with Seneca Valley.

Their two losses to Latrobe were sandwiched around a 4-2 come-from-behind win against Erie Strong Vincent in the first round of the PIAA tournament.

"I was very pleased with our season," Palmer said. "At the very beginning we were real young all over and we had to move people around. The girls just bought into the system and worked hard all the time."