Apr 23, 2018 4 min read

Talking before the two teams began warming up, Canon-McMillan High School coach Tim Bruzdewicz and Mt. Lebanon coach Patrick McCloskey joked about the struggles each of their baseball teams were having to hit the ball.

“We were talking about how neither of us have been hitting particularly well,” McCloskey said. “Tim joked that we would both come out and score 10 runs.”

For Bruzdewicz, the Big Macs struggles at the plate, especially with runners in scoring position, was no laughing matter. In addition to costly errors, timely hitting has somewhat tarnished Canon-McMillan’s record.

In this matchup, it was the smallest player in the Canon-McMillan lineup that made the biggest impact.

Diminutive junior shortstop Cameron Walker went 3-for-3 with three RBI, including a two-run single in the second that not only built the lead but ignited the rest of the lineup, as Canon-McMillan overwhelmed Mt. Lebanon, 10-3, in a Class 6A Section 3 game Monday afternoon at Wild Things Park.

The win gives the Big Macs sole possession of second place behind section leader Bethel Park.

“I told our kids that I want to bury these guys today,” Bruzdewicz said. “I don’t want to win a one-run game. I want to make sure (Mt. Lebanon) knows that we are the best team in the section. That’s what we did.”

Walker’s second-inning single was a part of the four-hit, seven-run inning for the Big Macs as they grabbed all the momentum by batting around and taking a 9-1 lead.

“Everything was clicking today,” Walker said. “It was probably one of our best games so far this season. It feels really good to have a game like that because there is a little bit of a rivalry. They beat us last time. We knew we wanted to get them back.”

In earlier games this season, Canon-McMillan (6-2, 9-4) has failed to turn a small lead into a big one – something they were able to achieve against the Blue Devils in the second inning.

“They hit. They hit. They hit,” McCloskey said about the Big Macs. “They weren’t cheap hits, either. They went the other way. They hit good pitches. They hit mistakes. They hit everything we threw. My hat is off to them. We just flat out got beat.”

As both teams badgered the opposing team’s pitcher from the dugout, tensions nearly boiled over when C-M’s Greydon Piechnick slowly trotted down the first-base line while eyeing Blue Devils reliever Cam Knox after being hit in the back of the leg with a pitch in the third inning.

Druing the next at-bat for Piechnick, in the bottom of the fifth, he turned on a pitch and sent it over the right-field fence for a solo homer, then celebrated by getting on a knee and pretending to shoot down his home-run ball that gave the Big Macs a 10-3 lead.

“(Canon-McMillan) was just on,” McCloskey said about the inability to avoid the Big Macs’ firepower.

Mt. Lebanon won 5-4 when the teams met April 5.

“In the last game, we caught some breaks keeping them to four runs. It’s obvious they are a very good offensive team and that showed today.”

The Blue Devils scored the first run when Mark Palmerine hit an RBI single to right field that scored leadoff batter Matt Dalesandro in the first inning. The 1-0 lead was erased in the bottom half of the inning when Walker hit an RBI single, then scored on an Ian Hess single that went under the glove of diving Mt. Lebanon second baseman Dante Borris.

“All year, we’ve been struggling with putting balls in play when guys were in scoring position,” Walker said. “Both of my first two at-bats I had runners in scoring position. I choked up, focused on making contact and was lucky enough to get two hits.”

Ethan Cuccarese and Palmerine each had a pair of hits for Mt. Lebanon (4-3, 6-7) off C-M starting pitcher Zach Rohaley, who surrendered six hits and three runs (two earned) in seven innings.

Brandon Kline had a pair of hits for the Big Macs. Nick Serafino had the other important hit in the second inning with a two-run triple that rolled to the wall in right centerfield.

“People have a book on us (and it says) to throw curveballs and fastballs away,” Bruzdewicz said. “They don’t want to (pitch) inside. We needed to start driving the ball the other way, and I would say two-thirds of our hits went the opposite way. It was a team effort.”