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
Pro-Palestinian rally and vigil for Israeli hostages killed held separately in Pittsburgh
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A pro-Palestinian rally and a vigil for Israeli hostages killed in Gaza were held a couple of miles from each other in Pittsburgh on Tuesday.
Student groups demonstrating near the University of Pittsburgh’s campus showed their support for people in Gaza and ending the war between Israel and Hamas. And a couple of hours later, a vigil at the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill paid tribute to six people who were kidnapped, held hostage and then killed.
Just down the street from one another stood gatherings representing both sides of the Israel-Hamas war.
There was a pro-Palestinian group of Pitt students at Schenley Plaza.
“It’s not just grief,” Karim Safieddine, a third-year PhD student at Pitt, said. “To people there, this is an end-of-their-world scenario.”
There was a pro-Israel group in Squirrel Hill.
“We stand here together with our non-Jewish allies and friends to unite in grief, in sorrow and in mourning,” said Julie Paris, the Mid-Atlantic regional director of StandWithUs.
Both groups are grieving.
“Every single person in Gaza awaits death,” Safieddine said.
“I’m feeling absolutely heartbroken that there is still a genocide after almost a year,” Pitt senior Cameryn Gray said. “I think it’s absolutely shameful.”
Schenley Park held host to chants, while the Jewish Community Center played host to songs focusing on the deaths of the six Hamas-held hostages found over the weekend.
“We come together tonight to feel each other’s pain,” Congregation Poale Zedeck Rabbi Daniel Yalkut said.
The faces of the hostages flashed across the screen as a community looked on. The names of those who were lost were read. Once face, Hersh Goldberg Polin, was familiar to Yalkut.
“He just came from a family of such incredible warmth and faith and good humor,” he said.
Sen. John Fetterman told KDKA-TV why he attended.
“Those six innocent civilians were executed on Oct. 7 and we’re now coming upon the first anniversary,” Fetterman, a Democrat, said.
The vigil and rally came days after two Jewish students were attacked on Pitt’s campus
“It is that responsibility that makes us release a statement condemning the vicious attack on Jewish students in the Cathedral of Learning,” Safieddine said.
He says they must reject antisemitism in their name
“Grief, death and violence will proceed and will continue to dominate everything that’s happening as long as these structures prevail,” Safieddine said.
There was a small group of pro-Israel protesters at the rally for Gaza, which agitated the pro-Palestinian demonstrators. Despite some tension there, everything remained peaceful
Kennywood honored two longtime employees Saturday who together have worked at the park for a combined 100 years.
Larry Russ and Bobby Trygar started working at Kennywood in 1976.
Russ began his Kennywood career as a games employee, working at the Big Apple dart game. In 1980, Russ applied to the security team and has held positions there ever since, including roles as a corporal, lieutenant, chief, and captain, according to a press release provided by the park.
Trygar began his time at Kennywood by working in the Parkside Café. Since he joined Kennywood, he has helped to maintain some of the park’s most iconic attractions, including the Racer, Log Jammer, and Merry Go Round.
“This is something you dream about. It’s so amazing,” Trygar said. “One of the best things when I worked out here was when I met my wife on the Racer. I was the mechanic. It’s just a great feeling to come here every day, see smiles on people’s faces, it’s tremendous. It gives you that extra boost and happiness.”
“I was planning on going into the mill, like everyone else was during my era,” Russ said. “Of course, the mill shut down. My father told me, ‘You don’t want to [work at the mill]. This place isn’t going to be here that much longer,’ and he was right, so I stuck it out here. I got a full-time position in 1980, and the rest is history.”
The park also dedicated two benches in their honor.
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.
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