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Kyle Busch moves into tie for 9th with 55th career Cup win

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Styling: Get ready for concert season, no matter the genre

<p>Wyoming Valley Conference softball will find out Tuesday whether it&#8217;s a case of quality over quantity.</p><p>The WVC advanced just two teams to the PIAA state playoffs, the fewest since the conference was shut out of states all together in 2011. But both teams have high hopes of making deep runs.</p><p>District 2 Class 6A champion Hazleton Area played for the state championship in 2017. The Cougars have made it out of the first round of states three consecutive years.</p><p>D2-5A champion Pittston Area is fresh off its second consecutive district title and second in school history. The Patriots&#8217; state run ended last year with a 1-0 loss to Solanco in the quarterfinals and they have just about everyone back from 2018.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Hazleton Area (20-1) vs. Pennsbury (18-4)</strong></p><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>4:30 p.m. Monday</strong></p><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Drifton Complex, Freeland</strong></p><p>Don&#8217;t be fooled by Pennsbury being the Class 6A fourth seed out of District 1. District 1 is huge and annually produces several quality teams in states.</p><p>Pennsbury us back in the state tournament for the first time since 2013 when it finished as the D1 third seed at Class 4A. The Falcons went to the state semifinals that season and in 2012 when they were the fourth seed from the district. They played for the PIAA Class 4A state championship in 2011 as the D1 second seed, losing to D1 champion Hatboro-Horsham.</p><p>A red flag has popped up in the last three games. After defeated Neshaminy 2-1 in the D1 quarterfinals, Pennsbury lost 4-0 to North Penn and 1-0 to Spring-Ford. The offense hasn&#8217;t been clicking as of late, but pitcher Ainsley McCue has been strong in the circle. She allowed just two hits to Spring-Ford in the D1 third-place game.</p><p>Hazleton Area won its eight consecutive district title with a 13-2 rout of Delaware Valley. The pitching was off a tick, but the hitting was strong once again. The Cougars are in states for a seventh consecutive season. Although they were D2-4A champs in 2012, they lost to District 4 Williamsport in the subregional championship game.</p><p>The winner played Thursday against the winner of the game between D1 champion Downingtown</p><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Pittston Area (18-3) vs. Upper Perkiomen (17-7)</strong></p><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>2 p..m. Monday</strong></p><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>University of Scranton</strong></p><p>Upper Perkiomen earned District 1&#8217;s third seed in the PIAA Class 5A state tournament with a 6-5 win over Upper Merion. Megan Lindsey leads the Indians with a .511 batting average followed by Alexa Banner at .433. After that, there&#8217;s a bunch of players batting a little over .300.</p><p>Pitcher Lily Dibble struck out seven and allowed 11 hits vs. Upper Merion. She has just 44 strikeouts and has allowed 133 hits in 84.1 innings. The program qualified for states the past two years as a Class 4A team.</p><p>Pittston Area enters off an impressive 5-0 shutout of one-beaten Abington Heights in the D2-5A title contest. The Patriots have two postseason shutouts and five in all. They&#8217;ve allowed one run just five times.</p><p>The Patriots have lost twice to D2-6A champion Hazleton Area and once to Tunkhannock, a team that was favored to win the D2-4A championship.</p><p>The winner played Thursday against the winner of the game between D1 champion West Chester East (22-2) and D3 fourth seed Waynesboro (16-8).</p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By John Erzar</p><p>jerzar@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach John Erzar at 570-991-6394 or on Twitter @TLJohnErzar</p></shirttailMeta></div>

H.S. SOFTBALLPatriots, Cougars to open state play