The Emporia State baseball team came up short in an 11-1 loss in seven innings to #5 Pittsburg State in the MIAA Tournament final on Saturday at Wendell Simmons Field in Edmond, Okla. The Gorillas jumped in front 6-0 through four innings before Logan Myers launched a solo homer in the fifth inning to get the Hornets on the board, but ESU didn’t score again and the Gorillas added three in the sixth and two in the seventh to secure the run-rule victory. E-State was outhit 16-2 in the game as Jake Khasaempanth (3-2) took the loss on the bump. ESU is 37-15 and came into the week ranked ninth in the Central Region rankings. The Hornets must now await their NCAA Tournament fate as the NCAA will announce the field on the Selection Show, Sunday at 9:00 p.m. on NCAA.com.
Pittsburg, PA
About 100,000 blue catfish stocked in Ohio River for future anglers to catch
Historic reintroduction of blue catfish in Pennsylvania
The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission is reintroducing blue catfish to the Ohio River.
Brian Whipkey, Erie Times-News
Anglers in the Pittsburgh area may be catching 50-to 60-pound blue catfish several years from now as part of an ongoing reintroduction effort of this native species of fish.
The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission is in its second year of stocking blue catfish in the Ohio River in the Point State Park area of Pittsburgh and Sewickley.
Blue cats swam in the Steel City until the early 1900s when the water became polluted.
“If it wasn’t for man, pollution and building of the dams on the three rivers, they’d still be here today,” said Gary Smith, the Fish and Boat Commission Area 8 fisheries manager. “Hopefully, we are correcting a wrong that happened with pollution to restore them here in the three rivers.”
In the fall of 2022, the agency stocked 80,000 fingerlings in the river.
“We had requested 40,000 blue cat fingerlings to be stocked in the fall of 2022,” Smith said. “Our hatchery had surplus fingerlings, so we ended up stocking 80,000 fingerlings into the Ohio River.”
Fingerlings are 2 to 4 inches long. The survival rate for them is low because they can become food for the other predators in the river.
In 2023 and beyond, the agency started stocking yearling blue catfish which are about 8 to 10 inches. Each year through 2026, they are requesting 10,000 yearlings to be stocked. “Their survival will be better,” Smith said about the larger fish.
Last year, there were extra fish available and a total of 14,000 yearlings were stocked. About 10,000 of them came from West Virginia and averaged about 9 inches long. The remaining yearlings came from the agency’s hatchery in Tionesta and those fish were about 5 and 6 inches long.
Smith has been looking at the success rates of blue catfish in Kentucky’s portion of the Ohio River and said it takes 17 years for one of them to reach about 35 inches long, possibly weighing 30 pounds. And they will keep growing from there.
In West Virginia’s portion of the Ohio River he said the state record was broken in December and measured 50.5 inches and weighed 69.45 pounds.
“That’s impressive,” he said. In Pennsylvania, he said years down the road 50-60 pound blue catfish may be swimming in the Pittsburgh area, too.
The challenge is the number of years it takes catfish to get that size. Pennsylvania has a shorter growing season compared to the other states to the south.
“We expect slow growth. We see that in our flathead catfish in the Three Rivers. For a flathead catfish it takes 15 years to get to 14 inches,” Smith said.
First stocking: Tiny blue catfish, able to grow near 100 pounds, were reintroduced to the Ohio River in PA
Smith knows of Pennsylvania anglers who travel to other states to target blue catfish.
“There’s definitely a following for blue cats,” he said.
Joe Granata of Monaca, Beaver County, enjoys fishing for a variety of catfish in western Pennsylvania and is looking forward to the blue cats getting big in Pittsburgh’s waterways.
He helped stock the original blue catfish fingerlings in 2022 around Point State Park. He isn’t aware of anyone catching any of them yet.
“It takes several years,” he said for the fish to grow to a catchable size. Anglers may have caught some of the small fish and didn’t realize they were blue catfish.
Granata has caught blues in West Virginia and Virginia where the fish have been living for years. He knows of people catching some upwards of 50 pounds. Granata said the blue cats hit the bait harder than flatheads.
“To fishermen, that’s exciting,” he said. In the river, he uses cut bait and live baits for a variety of catfish species.
He mostly targets flathead catfish in western Pennsylvania where they also get to be about 50 pounds. In the eastern part of the state, he said the flatheads grow faster and get larger.
The new state record for flatheads was caught in the Susquehanna River on May 14, 2023. Mike Wherley, 46, of Fayetteville broke the existing record with his 66-pound, 6-ounce catfish from the river in Lancaster County.
Monitoring the blue cats
The blue catfish that have been stocked in Pittsburgh appear to be surviving. Smith said a blue catfish was captured during their night electrofishing surveys in October on the Pittsburgh Pool of the three rivers. The fish was found on the Monongahela River, just two-tenths of a mile upstream of Point State Park in Pittsburgh.
“Other than that, we have not gone out to target them. The plan is in 2025 to go out on the Ohio River targeting blue cats, doing daytime, low frequency electrofishing. That’s the primary gear biologists use to collect blue cats,” he said.
They will also place hoop nets and trout lines out to catch and inspect blue cats.
“Hopefully, we will pick up a couple then,” Smith said about monitoring the early success after three years of stockings. “I’m not expecting to see a lot of blue cats,” he said. In 2028, another monitoring effort will be conducted. “Hopefully, we will see more blue cats then.”
Every three years they will continue to do monitoring studies of the population.
“Based on what we are seeing, we hope to move to the lower Allegheny River and the Mongahela River for yearling stockings for five years,” he said.
Female blue catfish will start reproducing after they get to be 6 or 7 years old or in some cases they need to be a few years older. Smith is hopeful they will start spawning in the Pittsburgh area. “That’s the plan, that’s the hope, to establish a naturally reproducing population,” he said.
Only in western Pennsylvania
The goal is to keep the blue catfish in the Ohio River area where they are native fish. In other streams, these large fish could be detrimental to the ecosystem.
“The only place they are native in Pennsylvania is the Three Rivers, the Ohio River, the lower Allegheny and the Mon (Monongahela) River,” he said.
Anglers shouldn’t be moving blue catfish to other waterways.
“We don’t even want to see them in our lakes here in western Pennsylvania. They are a big river fish. Only native here in Pennsylvania to the Three Rivers,” Smith said.
In the eastern part of the state, he said unfortunately blue cats have been showing up in the Delaware estuary and Chesapeake Bay.
“They are a large predator, top of the food chain, they need to have lots of area and lots of forage and one of their main forage is gizzard shad but they are omnivores. They will eat other things as well, other fish, freshwater mussels and macro invertebrates. They are adapted to the big rivers,” he said. “Because they are only native to the Three Rivers, we don’t want them elsewhere in the state because it’s possible they could have a significant impact on native fish populations in the Susquehanna and Delaware basins. They can significantly change the ecosystems in places where they don’t belong. We see that with insects, mammals and fish.”
Granata is looking forward to seeing heavy blue cats in Pittsburgh.
“I think it will be awesome. I think it will be good for the environment, too, just to have another apex predator back in the waterways to keep everything else in check,” Granata said about the return of blue catfish. “They’re native here.
“Selfishly as a fisherman, it’s going to be awesome, but I think for the environment, too, the ecosystem of the rivers I think it will be good as well.”
He is concerned that too many catfish will be caught out of the waterways once the population is established. Right now anglers are permitted to keep 50 catfish a day, similar to the regulations for perch and crappies. “It takes them forever to get big,” he said.
Smith said the agency is considering a catch-and-release only regulation on blue catfish in the three rivers area. “To get them established. It’s something we are looking at,” he said.
The blue catfish are expected to expand the opportunities for anglers throughout the year.
“The biggest difference for me would be, it’s an all-year fish. Blue catfish are still pretty active in the winter months as opposed to flathead catfish. Once the water temperature in our rivers gets to the mid 40s, the flathead catfish really slow down,” he said.
Granata said the winter months he travels to other states for blue cats as they are active feeders regardless of the temperature. “It can be 10 degrees below zero and they’re out there feeding,” he said. When the blue cats become prevalent in Pittsburgh, they will create a year-round fishing opportunity, including in the winter months.
“We’re definitely excited. We just have to be patient. When they get to that size, it will be game on,” Granata said about the local catfishing community. “Until then, let’s just hope they are all doing well down there and there’s agood population swimming around there and establishing themselves again.”
Brian Whipkey is the outdoors columnist for USA TODAY Network sites in Pennsylvania. Contact him at bwhipkey@gannett.com and sign up for our weekly Go Outdoors PA newsletter email on this website’s homepage under your login name. Follow him on Facebook @whipkeyoutdoors.
The new policy requiring anyone under 18 to be accompanied by someone over 21 in Market Square may not be as firm as some first thought.
KDKA observed unaccompanied kids in and around the square in Pittsburgh on Saturday evening, but in very small numbers, especially compared to the hundreds of kids who gathered as recently as during the NFL draft last month. Many of the kids were walking through the square or to restaurants like Chipotle.
It was the kids who lingered on Saturday evening who were approached by either youth outreach teams, private security or officers.
Von Madden — the founder of AIM, a youth outreach group — said it’s when kids start gathering in large numbers that they’ll be asked to leave.
“I don’t think they are going to be kicked out of the space for buying food or walking by,” Madden said. “The policy was so they’re allowed to hang out, but if they’re causing disruption, they were asked to move.”
Outreach workers within the square on Saturday evening said they’ve been approaching kids to make sure they are aware of the rules, but aren’t forcing them to leave. Some workers suggested alternative places they could go, as they work to form relationships with the kids
Madden, who was not at the square on Saturday, said in theory, enforcement works by private security engaging kids first, and then if that doesn’t work, outreach staff comes over. Only as a last resort are police officers brought in.
KDKA watched as a group of about 15 to 20 kids formed along Market Street steps away from a police SUV on Saturday evening. A member of the private security approached the kids first, pointing toward the exit of the square. Once more kids gathered, a group of five to 10 officers walked over, and the group dispersed toward Liberty Avenue.
A group of teenagers near Chipotle told KDKA that officers told them they had to leave if they weren’t actually going to the restaurant. Madden said the policy, which is in effect from Thursday to Sunday from 3 p.m to midnight, has worked well this week.
“It was phenomenal. Thursday was great,” Madden said. “The kids came, a lot of kids. They were absolutely excited about everything going on.”
Thursday was the first night for the temporary roller rink in Market Square, and a rainy Friday kept many people away. People enjoying their Saturday evening in the square gave mixed reviews about the policy.
“I think it’s definitely necessary,” Cristina from Butler told KDKA. “It keeps the community safe, and it allows adults and parents to know that their kids are safe as well, and just a more controlled environment.”
Danielle Graham from Robinson said she’d been observing kids interacting with police and believes kids aren’t welcome in Market Square, even if they are not being disruptive. She said there was a discrepancy in what private security and officers knew about the rule, adding that police asked her if the child she was chaperoning was her legal guardian.
She said she offered to chaperone kids to allow them to enjoy the square and so she could observe what was going on.
“There’s no clear understanding from the people that are supposedly enforcing it,” Robinson said. “You just put more vulnerable kids in front of law enforcement, things can go wrong.”
Pittsburgh City Councilwoman Barb Warwick shared her own criticism of the policy during a meeting last week.
“Not only does this feel highly unwelcoming to families with teens, it also seems questionable in terms even of enforcement,” Warwick said. “I don’t know that there’ll be like a private security, what are we checking IDs like, you know? How is this working? My understanding is it’s on an event permit.”
KDKA-TV did not observe any IDs being checked on Saturday and saw at most 12 officers in the square at once, along with the private security.
The Pittsburgh Steelers have largely finished filling their offseason roster, adding 10 draft picks, six undrafted free agents, and a few veteran reinforcements to fill out the 90-man squad. Now Omar Khan’s attention shifts from acquiring talent to sorting through it starting this weekend with rookie minicamp. How many members of the Steelers’ 2026 draft class will survive the final cuts?
This first iteration is the time for bold predictions when we have very little information to work with. You’ll notice a couple surprises in mine. Here’s an early prediction of Pittsburgh’s 53-man roster.
Offense – 25
Quarterbacks (3) – Aaron Rodgers, Will Howard, Drew Allar
Analysis: Rodgers hasn’t signed, but the assumption has been all along that he eventually will. If he does, Mason Rudolph is as good at gone. I suppose they could stash him on the practice squad, if he’s agreeable, to have at least one veteran with starting experience. Allar is a lock, and it would be a shock if the Steelers move on from Howard after they gassed him up all offseason.
Running Backs (4) – Jaylen Warren, Rico Dowdle, Travis Homer, Riley Nowakowski (FB)
Analysis: Kaleb Johnson was drafted for Arthur Smith’s wide-zone scheme, and Smith is gone. Where will his opportunity come with Dowdle and Warren both on the roster through 2027? Johnson also serves no purpose on special teams. It’s hard to move on from a third-round pick so soon, but how do you keep him on the roster while being mindful of special teams? Homer is too important in that area as a four-unit player who can serve as a personal protector on the punt unit.
Wide Receivers (6) – DK Metcalf, Michael Pittman Jr., Germie Bernard, Ben Skowronek, Kaden Wetjen, Eli Heidenreich
Analysis: Going out on a limb here with another surprise cut of former third-round pick Roman Wilson. He was lapped on the depth chart by Marquez Valdes-Scantling late last season and Aaron Rodgers clearly didn’t trust Wilson. If Rodgers is back, Wilson is due for another year of not getting a helmet on game day. He provides nothing on special teams, so it’s hard to justify his spot. Heidenreich makes it as the team’s final seventh-round pick because he can play RB and WR (he’s listed as both on its official roster) and a whole lot of special teams. Wetjen and Heidenreich give them multiple slot options to experiment with.
Tight Ends (3) – Pat Freiermuth, Darnell Washington, Jaheim Bell
Analysis: Freiermuth and Washington are locks, but the third tight end should be one of the more interesting spots on the roster this year. The team lists Nowakowski as a fullback, though he can play both. Jaheim Bell is another versatile option who can play TE, fullback, and H-back. McCarthy’s favorite word seems to be versatility, so Bell makes sense here.
Offensive Tackles (3) – Troy Fautanu, Max Iheanachor, Dylan Cook
Analysis: Broderick Jones may contribute in 2026, but I am predicting him to start the season on the PUP list after reports of a setback with his neck injury. Fautanu, Iheanachor, and Cook are no-brainers, but will the Steelers keep a fourth pure tackle? Spencer Anderson, Gennings Dunker, and maybe even Steven Jones can play the position in a pinch, so I’ll stick with three. This would presumably go back to four if/when Jones is healthy.
Interior Offensive Linemen (6) – Zach Frazier, Mason McCormick, Gennings Dunker, Brock Hoffman, Spencer Anderson, Ryan McCollum
Analysis: Frazier, McCormick, and Dunker are set in stone. Anderson and Hoffman provide experience and familiarity with a chance to win the Week 1 starting LG job. McCollum has been solid as Frazier’s backup when needed.
Defense – 25
Defensive Ends (5) – Cameron Heyward, Derrick Harmon, Yahya Black, Esezi Otomewo, Kevin Jobity Jr.
Analysis: I have Rubio as the only draft pick not to make the 53-man roster. Otomewo was solid in limited action and has experience with the rest of the group. The last spot comes down to Rubio, Jobity, and Logan Lee. Jobity offers a little more pass-rush upside and could flash enough in camp to win a spot at the back of the depth chart.
Nose Tackles (2) – Keeanu Benton, Sebastian Joseph-Day
Analysis: Both are virtual locks and should play a large number of snaps in this defense.
Outside Linebackers (4) – T.J. Watt, Alex Highsmith, Nick Herbig, Jack Sawyer
Analysis: Nothing should change here from last year. It’s one of the deepest and most talented position groups on the entire roster.
Inside Linebackers (5) – Patrick Queen, Payton Wilson, Cole Holcomb, Carson Bruener, Brandon George
Analysis: Let’s include a rookie minicamp tryout player. One or two usually make the 90-man roster, and it’s not unheard of for them to also make the initial 53. George is one of the most athletic linebackers to come out of the draft in a long time. And unlike most athletic linebackers, you don’t have to sacrifice size with him standing 6032 and weighing 246 pounds. He went undrafted and was impressing in Kansas City last year before an injury derailed his rookie season. Malik Harrison was signed to be a force in the run game, but he didn’t do that very well last year. To me, he’s expendable. Bruener is a core special teamer and should be considered darn near a lock for the initial 53-man roster because of it.
Cornerbacks (5) – Joey Porter Jr., Jamel Dean, Brandin Echols, Daylen Everette, Asante Samuel Jr.
Analysis: With the addition of third-round rookie Daylen Everette, fringe guys like Cory Trice Jr. and Donte Kent should have a hard time making the roster given their extensive injury histories.
Safeties (4) – Jalen Ramsey, DeShon Elliott, Jaquan Brisker, Robert Spears-Jennings
Analysis: The top three should be considered locks, which leaves an intriguing battle between Spears-Jennings and Sebastian Castro. The upside on defense is higher for the rookie, and I think he offers enough on special teams to edge out Castro, especially with other special teams guys like Homer, Bruener, Skowronek, and Sawyer already on the roster.
Special Teams – 3
Kicker (1) – Chris Boswell
Analysis: Boswell should soon sign an extension that makes him the league’s most expensive kicker. And it’s well-deserved. This one is obvious.
Punter (1) – Cameron Johnston
Analysis: Pittsburgh’s rookie minicamp roster includes three punters, so this isn’t a shoo-in. But Johnston is the clear favorite if he can stay healthy after back-to-back injury-plagued seasons at 34 years old.
Long Snapper (1) – Christian Kuntz
Analysis: Pittsburgh has always given Kuntz competition, and this year is no different. But he is under contract through 2026 and should keep his job for at least one more season.
-
Pennsylvania16 seconds agoCharles “Yami” Frederick Jamison, New Castle, PA
-
Rhode Island7 minutes agoRhode Island FC steals a point from Tampa Bay; Here’s how it happened
-
South-Carolina13 minutes agoClyburn says record speaks for itself, warns GOP to ‘be very careful what you pray for’
-
South Dakota18 minutes agoAfter Standing Rock, could a canceled mine project offer a roadmap for opponents of a new oil pipeline in South Dakota?
-
Tennessee25 minutes agoTennessee rowing wins first SEC championship in program history
-
Texas31 minutes agoGov. Abbott activates state emergency resources ahead of severe storm threat
-
Utah37 minutes agoProvo’s new Boys & Girls clubhouse gives Utah youth more space to learn, grow and belong
-
Vermont43 minutes agoVermont State Police investigating suspicious death