Big first inning sends Canon-Mac into PIAA semifinals

GREENSBURG – If there was ever a time when Cam Weston needed a big inning to rediscover his confidence it would have been Thursday afternoon.
Struggling at the plate throughout the playoffs – Weston was 1-for-15 in five postseason games – the junior cleanup hitter for the Canon-McMillan High School baseball team was searching for answers. He also was patiently waiting for a blister on the middle finger of his throwing hand to heal so that he could regain his touch on the mound.
But after a five-pitch inning and hitting a two-run double into the right-field corner in the first inning, the Michigan recruit was able to say something for the first time in weeks: “It was fun,” Weston said with a smile.
“I was struggling. That first inning did a lot for my confidence.”
The first inning was also the reason the Big Macs’ season continues.
Canon-McMillan used Weston’s double, another run-scoring, two-base hit from Ian Hess that took one bounce before hitting the left-field wall, and a safety squeeze to score four runs in the first inning and went on to defeat North Allegheny 6-3 in a PIAA Class 6A quarterfinal game at Seton Hill University.
“We talked about getting a squiggly number in the first inning because North Allegheny never quits. Never,” said C-M coach Tim Bruzdewicz. “We wanted to send them a message today that we’re the big guys on the block.”
That message was signed, sealed and had an expedited delivery as C-M scored three of the four runs before recording an out to defeat the Tigers for the second time in eight days. The Big Macs edged North Allegheny 2-1 in the WPIAL Class 6A championship game May 30.
Canon-McMillan (19-5) advances to play District 1 runner-up Council Rock North Monday at a site and time to be determined.
“We are just happy,” Bruzdewicz said. “There are four teams left and we are one of them.”
Weston is one of the main reasons C-M is in the final four because he went 2-for-3 with three RBI and allowed only two hits and three runs (two earned) with four strikeouts in six innings.
“I think it was big time from him,” Bruzdewicz said about Weston. “We are never going to pull him out of that four spot. He is our fourth hitter. We have been pumping him up. His mental and physical approaches have not changed.”
Weston did have erratic moments on the mound that forced him to be pulled as he neared the pitch limit with 95 before the seventh inning. He escaped a bases-loaded jam after walking a pair and hitting a batter in the second inning. The two runs he allowed in the fourth inning reached base via walks.
“It doesn’t really get in my head too much,” Weston said about his five walks. “I just need to calm down, get my composure back and go pitch by pitch. It can get pretty tough mentally because you have to repeat your wind up and are just thinking about it too much. I’ve been struggling lately to throw strikes, but you have to hunker down and keep going.”
North Allegheny (14-12) trimmed its deficit to 4-2 in the fourth when C.J. Weller singled into right field to score Caiden Wood. It was the Tigers’ first hit of the game. A groundout by Brett Heckert to second base scored Ryan Dougherty.
“(Scoring runs) has been one of our Achilles’ heels the whole year,” said North Allegheny coach Andrew Heck, a former player and coach with the Washington Wild Things. “That’s just the way it goes. It’s how it went early. It got (Canon-McMillan’s) confidence going. But we’ve been there before. We have had to restart games throughout the playoffs and entire regular season.”
But the Tigers’ deficit was extended in the bottom of the fifth inning when Ian Hess hit a sacrifice fly to bring home Brandon Kline. Weston then hit a hard single up the middle to score Cam Walker and give the Big Macs a 6-2 lead.
“We aren’t going to change a career .400 hitter with a bunch of home runs in his high school baseball career,” Bruzdewicz said about Weston. “With him, I think it’s more pitch recognition. Sometimes, especially during the middle of the season, he was guessing. We’ve been seeing a lot of good pitching lately, too.”
The Tigers scored another run in the sixth on a sacrifice fly by Wood to make it 6-3. Hess and Kline then combined for the final three outs despite allowing the Tigers to get the potential game-tying run to the plate.
“We were able to restart the engines and got some runs back,” Heck said. “It felt like it could have been a lot closer. But it is what it is. You can’t go back and change it now.”