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When Sports Were Played: Big Macs brought out big bats in 2008 state title game

5 min read
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Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac

Canon-McMillan High School players hoist the trophy after winning the PIAA Class AAA baseball championship at Blair County Ballpark in Altoona. The state championship was the school’s first in baseball.

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Observer-Reporter

Canon-McMillan High School players dogpile on the pitcher’s mound after defeating Spring-Ford, 10-2, in the 2008 PIAA Class AAAA baseball championship game at Blair County Ballpark in Altoona. The Big Macs outscored their four opponents, 40-9, in the state tournament.

For today’s “When Sports Were Played” we go back nearly 12 years, to June 13, 2008, when Canon-McMillan turned the state baseball championship game into batting practice and routed Spring-Ford.

ALTOONA – Canon-McMillan High School made its initial journey to the PIAA baseball playoffs a difficult one.

The Big Macs mastered the one-run victory during the regular season. They perfected the game-ending, double-play rundown in WPIAL playoffs and they were forced to win a consolation game just to get to states.

Once they got there, the Big Macs brought the big bats.

Forty runs and four games later, Canon-McMillan made the PIAA Class AAAA playoffs look like a two-week vacation as the Big Macs capped a memorable, historical run with a 10-2 thumping of Spring-Ford Friday afternoon at Blair County Ballpark.

“We had some rough games along the way but every one came together at the right time,” said junior shortstop Matt Pierpont, one of four Big Macs to drive in two runs. “To play like this, it feels great. We came up big.”

Canon-McMillan (22-5) claimed its first PIAA baseball championship and the school’s first state team title since the wrestling squad won the Class AAA crown in 1992. It’s also just the second state baseball championship in Washington County history. Washington won the 1998 Class AA title.

Few have done it in such dominating fashion as the Big Macs.

They scored eight runs against Allderdice and put another eight-spot on Peters Township. Then, they tallied 14 against Central Mountain before putting up a perfect 10 in the final.

“The last few games it’s been our offense. We’ve put up some big numbers,” Canon-McMillan coach Steve Bucci said. “The guys really had confidence coming into this game.”

Confidence swelled with a three-run first inning as Canon-McMillan jumped all over Spring-Ford pitcher Jason Ferrie, who had not lost this postseason.

Mike Hull led off with a double and scored when a Chris Dittmar bunt went over the head of Rams third baseman Mike Haslam and into the outfield. Phil Staab capped the first with a RBI single, one of two for the designated hitter.

His first proved to be the state championship-winner.

“It feels real good anytime you jump on a pitcher like that,” said senior Chris Douglas, who went 3-for-4 with two triples and picked up the win in relief of Dittmar.

“It takes the pressure off Dittmar and it makes all of us looser.”

If the Big Macs were loose after a 3-0 lead, they were totally relaxed after the second inning.

Hull, who finished 3-for-4 with three runs, two stolen bases and two RBI, crushed a run-scoring double. So did Charles Murphy, who also finished with two RBI.

After two, it was 7-0 and the Big Macs had chased Ferrie to the dugout, thanks to a little extra batting practice.

In its 1-0 over Shaler in the quarterfinals of the WPIAL playoffs, Canon-McMillan struggled to hit left-handed pitching. So, the Big Macs spent some time working on the fundamentals.

“We knew coming in Ferrie was a good command guy,” Bucci said. “We told the guys to swing early and make contact. We wanted to take the ball the other way.”

And they did.

Both of Douglas’ triples went to right field. Hull hit a double and a single to right field. Pierpont’s run-scoring single in the fifth also landed in right field. So did a Jeff Lauterbach single in the third.

“Coach told us he was a command lefty and to sit back, be patient and hit early in the count,” Pierpont said. “I really don’t think we hit the ball as hard, as a team, as we did today. Even our outs were shots. There were only a couple of bleeders.”

The Big Macs continued to swing hard, even after a 90-minute rain delay in the bottom of the third inning.

So did Spring-Ford (19-10), which started its season 8-8.

Dittmar allowed one run on one hit through three innings but struggled after the delay. He gave up back-to-back singles on four pitches before being pulled for Douglas.

“My feeling was to shut him down like they do in the majors but Coach (Tim) Miller said he had a one-hitter going, so we put him back out there but on a short leash,” Bucci said. “We came in with the idea Douglas would be our middle guy and we’d use Pierpont at the end.”

Douglas pitched four scoreless innings as Canon-McMillan, overlooked and underrated throughout the season despite winning Section 3, became the second straight WPIAL team to win a Quad-A title (Seneca Valley, 2007).

“We knew we had something special at the beginning of the year,” Hull said. “Maybe we weren’t getting the publicity we should have got but everything fell into place.”

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