May 19, 2016 4 min read

WEXFORD – The team that refuses to quit lives to play another round in the WPIAL baseball playoffs.

Canon-McMillan, which had to go on a late-season winning streak just to make the playoffs, then rallied in the bottom of the last inning to win its postseason opener, pulled off an upset of second-seeded Pine-Richland, 5-1, in the quarterfinals Thursday afternoon at sun-baked North Allegheny High School.

Zack Rohaley pitched a seven-hitter and Ian Hess hit a first-inning home run as the Big Macs led wire-to-wire.

Peters Township, Canon-McMillan’s Section 1 rival, was unable to duplicate the Big Macs’ upset of a high seed. The Indians were eliminated by top-seeded Plum, 2-0, in the second game of the doubleheader.

Canon-McMillan (14-7) moves into the semifinals against 11th-seeded Norwin. The Knights upset third-seeded Shaler in the first round and beat Latrobe 7-1 in the quarterfinals. The semifinals are expected to be played Monday at North Allegheny.

That would be a comfortable location for Canon-McMillan, which has played its two postseason games at NA. The seventh-seeded Big Macs defeated North Hills in the first round and were impressive in controlling the game against Pine-Richland (17-5), the Section 1 champion.

“We’ve played two northern schools at a northern venue. But I told our kids that even if we played this one at Pine-Richland, we would win,” Canon-McMillan coach Tim Bruzdewicz said. “No question that we’ve used our seeding as motivation.”

Canon-McMillan struck first, only three batters into the game. Hess lofted a 3-2 pitch from Pine-Richland lefty Tim Zbezinski and the ball carried over the left-field fence for a quick 1-0 lead.

“That sent a message that we were here to win,” Bruzdewicz said, “maybe not so much to us, but for (Pine-Richland) and to the people watching the game.”

Canon-McMillan made it 3-0 in the second inning, taking advantage of two P-R defensive miscues. After Jordan Castinelli drew a leadoff walk, Matt Mish put down a sacrifice bunt. Second baseman Joey Bolick, who was covering first base, missed the throw and C-M had runners on second and third.

Rohaley followed with a fly ball that right fielder Maxx Harpalani momentarily caught, then tripped over Bolick, causing the ball to fall to the grass. Castelli scored on the odd play, and Josh Palma followed with a sacrifice fly to give C-M had a 3-0 lead.

Pine-Richland made it 3-1 in the second on Jacob Maggi’s run-scoring single, but the Rams couldn’t crack Rohaley the rest of the game. Pine-Richland stranded 10 baserunners as Rohaley used his sharp-dropping curveball to work out of several jams. The curve was a pitch that recently was a work-in-progress for Rohaley.

“It has only been the last couple of games that I’ve been using the curve as an out pitch,” said Rohaley, who pitched on two days rest for the first time all year.

The Big Macs made it 4-1 in the third. Hess, who as 3-for-4, singled, advanced on a wild pitch and Tanner Piechnick’s single, then crossed home plate on a sacrifice fly by Castelli. C-M scored another run on a sac fly, this one by Nick Searfino in the sixth, to pad the lead to 5-1.

Rohaley did the rest. Like his teammates, the right-hander was calm and confident. He struck out six, including three in the final two innings.

“That’s a tip of the cap to all the teams in our section,” Bruzdewicz said. “There was a lot of talk about the strength of the northern teams, but our section is great. It prepared us. Every game in our section is a dogfight.”