Peters Township outlasts Canon-Mac, moves back into first place
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
Peters Township’s Tom Colcombe delivers a pitch against Canon-McMillan during Thursday’s Class 6A Section 3 game at Wild Things Park. Colcombe pitched 71/3 innings allowing only one run.
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
Peters Township’s Dax Ploskina against Canon-McMillan’s NoahBurke during a game at the Wild Things Park on Thursday, April 18, 2019.
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
Peters Township first baseman Sam Quinn makes a catches as Canon-McMillan’s Casey Burke stands on first base during a Thursday’s game at Wild Things Park.
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
Peters Township catcher Dom Campagna makes the tag on Canon-McMillan’s Brandon Adams at home plate during Thursday’s game at Wild Things Park.
The book on Peters Township High School lefty pitcher Tom Colcombe is this: If you don’t get him early, then you won’t get him at all.
Canon-McMillan had plenty of chances early to do damage against Colcombe in a key Class 6A Section 3 baseball game Thursday, but the Big Macs never got the pivotal hit they needed.
And Colcombe just got stronger as the game progressed, keeping Peters Township tied until the Indians scored four runs in the top of the eighth inning to beat Canon-McMillan 5-1 on a sun-baked afternoon at Wild Things Park.
The win moves Peters Township (5-1, 8-4) into a tie with idle Bethel Park for first place in the section. Canon-McMillan (3-3, 7-5) slides back into a three-way tie for third place.
For six innings, the game was a wonderful pitchers’ duel between Colcombe and Canon-McMillan righthander Cam Weston. Colcombe went 7 1/3 innings, scattering eight hits and two walks. He allowed one run and left after throwing 98 pitches.
Mark Edenburn got the final two outs.
Weston, a hard thrower, also allowed one run. He gave up four hits and two walks. Weston struck out five but exited after six innings and 94 pitches.
“We knew runs were going to be at a premium with those guys pitching,” Canon-McMillan coach Tim Bruzdewicz said.
That’s what made the game so frustrating for the Big Macs. Canon-McMillan stranded eight baserunners through the first five innings and had another picked off third base by PT catcher Dom Campagna and eventually tagged out at home plate. The Big Macs left a runner at third base in three of the the first five innings.
“That has been the story of our whole year,” Bruzdewicz said. “We’re young. We lost a lot from last year, but we’re still getting everybody’s No. 1 pitcher. We have to keep plugging along. We have some pieces. We’re not going to panic because we’re 3-3 in the section.”
The game also followed a similar script for Colcombe. He was better late in the game than he was early. Colcombe, a Pitt recruit, retired C-M in order only twice – in the sixth and seventh innings.
“We noticed early this year that he’s slow to start but every inning he gets stronger,” PT coach Joe Maize said of his pitcher. “He’s a competitor.”
The game was tied 1-1 in the bottom of the seventh, when Canon-Mac sent the top three hitters in its batting order to the plate. The Big Macs couldn’t have hoped for a better scenario but Colcombe got three quick flyball outs.
“I try to never start the first inning at my top speed,” Colcombe explained. “I try to build up to that. In the sixth and seventh innings, that was when I felt my best and threw my hardest.”
In the top of the eighth, PT used consecutive doubles by Jackson McCloskey and Campagna to put runners on second and third. Matthew Levy was intentionally walked before Mark Lehman smacked a groundball double threw a drawn-in infield and into right centerfield for a 3-1 Indians lead. A wild pitch made it 4-1 and Dax Ploskina drove in Lehman with a sacrifice fly for a four-run lead.
“In the eighth, I was just hoping to get baserunners and bunt them over,” Maize said. “The kids came through. One thing about this team is, if we’re not successful in our first one or two at-bats, we don’t get down. We keep battling.”
The Indians also scored the game’s first run on a sac fly in the fourth inning, with Levy racing home on a ball hit to right field by Sam Quinn.
That run looked like it might be enough as Colcombe escaped jams until the fifth. That’s when, with a runner on first base, Brycen Virgili was hit by a pitch and Mike Murano blooped a two-out single into right field to tie the score.
That run made the pickoff by Campagna in the third inning loom large. Canon-Mac had runners on first and third with two outs when Virgili broke for second base on a pitch. Instead of throwing to second, Campagna fired to third, which caught courtesy runner Brandon Adams, who had to break for home plate.
“My assistant coach, Rudy Pokorny, called that throw,” Maize was quick to point out. “He’s the best baseball mind in high school coaching.”
Canon-Mac, the defending state champion, finished with nine runners left on base.
“We have only three or four guys hitting consistently,” Bruzdewicz said. “We have to keep figuring it out. Our goal is to get in the playoffs, then anything can happen.”