CHRISTIAN VALERIANO

SCHOOL: Riverside.

WHO IS HE? A 6-foot-3, 210-pound senior outfielder and outstanding hitter for the Panthers, who will play in the PIAA Class AA championship tomorrow in Altoona.

THE PAST WEEK: Valeriano has been good all season, batting better than .500. But he has been exceptional in the PIAA playoffs. He had two hits in an 8-3 semifinal victory Monday against Philipsburg-Osceola. He had two home runs and three RBIs in a 9-8 victory against Bedford in the quarterfinals. He had two hits and three RBIs in a 14-4 first-round victory against Brookville.

"He's in a zone right now. It's like he's all by himself," said Riverside coach Dan Oliastro.

THE SWING OF THINGS: "I've been doing this coaching for a while now," said Oliastro, who is in his 39th season. "He has one of the sweetest swings I have ever seen for a high school kid. He just gets that bat through the zone so quickly."

Valeriano has been a four-year starter for Riverside. He hit better than .300 as a freshman.

FORGET FOOTBALL: Valeriano has good size and is built well. He looks like he'd make a fairly good football player. But he never played football at Riverside. "The football coaches would've loved to have him, and I think he entertained the thought," Oliastro said. "But whatever reason, he never played. Maybe he thought about the injury factor in football and just figured baseball was his best sport."

THE FUTURE: Valeriano was in the top 10 percent of Riverside's senior class academically. He will play next season at Lehigh.

-- By Mike White

MEGAN LYNCH

SCHOOL: Shaler.

WHO IS SHE? The catcher for the Titans (19-7), who will face Hatboro-Horsham (23-4) for the PIAA Class AAAA softball championship at 5 p.m. tomorrow at Shippensburg University.

PAST WEEK: With her team up, 1-0, in the fifth inning Monday, Lynch crashed a grand slam to center field, propelling Shaler to a 5-1 semifinal win against Downingtown.

"There were two outs and I just wanted to make contact," Lynch said. "A single would have been nice, giving us two more runs."

She has been an offensive linchpin in all three of Shaler's PIAA games. Lynch's two-out double in the 11th inning defeated North Allegheny, 1-0, in the quarterfinals -- three days after her first-inning double led to a 1-0 win against DuBois.

RELUCTANT CATCHER: A senior, Lynch is a three-year starter, mostly behind the plate. She has pain in both knees from catching and would have preferred playing the corners to helping her pitcher work them.

"I wanted to play third base this year," she said, "but my coach [Skip Palmer] told me he wouldn't have me anywhere else on the field [other than catcher]."

BACK IN THE GROOVE: A .400 hitter last year, Lynch is around .270 this season. But she is surging.

"Meg is just lighting it up," Palmer said.

"I was in a slump. I was popping up," Lynch said. "I started concentrating on driving the ball."

FUTURE: Lynch, a top-notch student, has accepted a scholarship to play at Robert Morris University. She said that coach Craig Coleman recruited her to play third base.

-- By Rick Shrum