Canon-Mac stranded by late NA comeback
UPPER ST. CLAIR – It was standard procedure for North Allegheny under the lights and overcast skies for its do-or-die game at Boyce Mayview Park.
After stranding 11 runners, and only going 3-for-13 with those runners in scoring position through the first six innings as the Canon-McMillan defense tightened, it was just another day at the office for North Allegheny head coach Andrew Heck.
Heck has seen this story play out one too many times for the Tigers, who have made it a routine to get guys on base but fail to get on the scoreboard.
That was until the final inning, still trailing the No. 2 seed Big Macs 3-1, when North Allegheny was granted the much-needed breaks and hits it was looking for to take its only lead of the game after scoring four runs to defeat Canon-McMillan, 5-3, in a WPIAL Class 6-A semifinal game Wednesday night.
“We’re used to it,” Heck said as North Allegheny (17-6) moves onto the WPIAL championship game against Pine Richland next week.
“We’ve done that quite a bit this year. Our group has been hampered by what you saw in the first inning when we work so hard to get guys on base but never get the big hit.”
Bobby Brown and Colin Cain began the final-inning rally for the Tigers with two, six-pitch walks, eventually scoring on a wild pitch to trim the C-M (14-6) lead to one, 3-2, and an error to tie the game.
North Allegheny finally got the hit it was looking for when Luke Trueman singled up the middle to bring home the game-winning run prior to the Tigers adding an insurance run on a sacrifice fly.
“Tip your hat to that team,” C-M coach Tim Bruzdewicz said. “I think we just ran out of gas. They battled until the very end. Sometimes in baseball that’s what it’s all about.”
As C-M’s Cam Weston stepped to the plate on a 1-1 count in the bottom of the half inning, he nearly extended the battle deeper into the late-night hours. Weston turned on a pitch with a runner on first to send it deep down the left-field line and over the wall, but after going foul by only a few feet.
“It’s really tough,” Bruzdewicz said. “Again, our guys battled every pitch.”
Canon-McMillan () built its lead after Greydon Piechnick brought runners into scoring position with a double that hit the top of the right-field fence and bounded back into play. Cam Walker subsequently drove in the opening run with an infield single to put the Big Macs ahead, 1-0, after two innings.
After North Allegheny scored on a wild pitch in the third inning to tie the game at 1-1, C-M answered with two more on four singles, including a Brandon Rea bunt single.
Both teams then traded three scoreless innings until the seventh.
“The thing about our guys is they just kept believing,” Heck said. “We hit the ball right at people. We ran ourselves out of an inning. What we really did was work our tails off tonight. We just told them to keep working hard and we will eventually crack it. When you have a team that does that, it’s only a matter of time until something good happens.”
After dancing in and out of trouble through most of his start, North Allegheny’s Danny Caropresi picked up the win after finding a groove fourth, fifth and sixth innings after retiring nine of 10 C-M hitters.
Caiden Wood picked up the save for the Tigers after finishing things off in the final inning.
Weston, who started on the hill for the Big Macs, got out of three bases-loaded situations. He struck out eight.
With 6-A only taking two teams to the PIAA Tournament, not only is C-M’s WPIAL playoff run over but so is its season.
“We’re leaving as a team this season,” Bruzdewicz said. “That was our biggest goal was to become a team. We did that.”