Mar 20, 2018 4 min read

For Canon-McMillan High School baseball coach Tim Bruzdewicz, it’s days like today, when the snow builds on the ground and the Big Macs grind through an preseason practice, that helps build a championship-winning team.

It’s also the tiresome practices in the middle of the season surrounded by games that will take Canon-McMillan to where it wants to go.

One of those destinations is the WPIAL championship game, a place the Big Macs, despite having a lot of talent and five consecutive trips to the playoffs, have failed to reach.

“I think having seniors help,” Bruzdewicz said of the 13 seniors C-M returns in his third season as coach. “It’s a belief of (the game) coming down to one pitch. It’s about not taking one pitch off. Sometimes its more of a mental thing to get over this hump.”

Canon-McMillan, which rolled to a 12-0 record in section plat last year and finished 14-6 overall, lost to North Allegheny in the WPIAL Class 6A semifinals. Two years ago, the Big Macs lost to Norwin, also in the semifinals.

“I really don’t think it’s an improvement,” Bruzdewicz said. “The kids need to know it’s one and done. Any given day, in Class 6A, you can get beat by any team, no matter what. In my years here at Canon-McMillan, I’ve found out that these are kids who will run through a wall for you. But, sometimes I think we are too big for our britches.”

The Big Macs will lean on the right arms of two-time Observer-Reporter Player of the Year Zach Rohaley and Cam Weston.

Rohaley, now a senior, helped Canon-McMillan separate itself from the rest of Section 3 by earning wins in three of the four games he pitched against second-place finishers Peters Township and Mt. Lebanon. He went 7-0 last year with a 0.75 ERA in 42 innings.

A University of Michigan recruit, Weston lit up the radar gun with a fastball in the low 90s throughout much of his sophomore season last year. He posted a 5-0 record with a 1.25 ERA and with Rohaley was part of a formidable one-two punch on the mound. Weston had 55 strikeouts in only 34? innings.

“Those two are our guys,” Bruzdewicz said. “We are giving the baseball with confidence to those guys all year. Both have improved from a year ago. If we play sound defensive baseball behind them, then our lineup is pretty darn good.”

The highlight of that lineup is Big Macs’ leading hitter, first baseman Ian Hess, who also returns to the mound as a left-handed option. Hess led C-M with a .509 batting average last year with three home runs and nine doubles. He had 27 RBI and also scored 27 runs.

“Any time you can change the look for a batter that’s huge (in high school),” Bruzdewicz said about adding a lefty to the pitching mix. “That’s one of the biggest reasons why I encouraged him to get back on the mound.”

The Big Macs also return shortstop Cam Walker, catcher Brandon Rea and outfielder Nick Serafino. All three are receiving interest from college programs.

If Canon-McMillan is fortunate to get to the WPIAL finals, then the Big Macs will be comfortable playing at the site of the championship game. Drainage problems at the Big Macs’ McDowell Field have forced Canon-McMillan to move all of its home games to Wild Things Park in Washington.

“The expectations are through the roof,” Bruzdewicz said. “That’s what you want. In building a program, you want the expectations every year to be winning a WPIAL championship.

“Our goals haven’t changed. Our first goal is to come out and practice hard every day to make the WPIAL tournament. Once we get there, we have a whole new set of goals. We own those expectations. We feel we are a contender for a WPIAL championship and beyond.”