Apr 13, 2022 3 min read

McMURRAY – Maybe the inclement weather this spring hasn’t hurt a softball team more than Canon-McMillan.

The Big Macs came into this season with a roster full of underclassmen, save one. An important one. Pitcher Brooke Perri.

Even Perri split time last year with Lauren Duke.

So if the Big Macs are going to repeat last year’s excellent season as WPIAL runner-ups and semifinalists in the Class 6A bracket, they would need two things to happen: Perri to dominate and good weather to develop this team in game situations.

So far, they have Perri and she has been awesome in her two starts. That’s right. The first two games took 14 days to get in.

Perri walked only two batters and struck out 10 and Canon-McMillan showed enough flashes of offense to come away with a 6-2 victory over Peters Township in a Class 6A game in Section 1 Wednesday.

“With the hitting we have, we can win 6-2,” Perri said. “In the field, they helped me a lot. I don’t think we had any errors, so we did what we needed to do.”

Perri was being kind, and supportive. She also made three defensive plays to help out the young Big Macs.

But read the expression on coach Michele Moeller’s face and it says, “We need games.”

“We definitely did have a good defensive day,” said Moeller. “And yes, we had a good inning. But we also had a couple runners on with no outs and didn’t execute. It felt like we could have had a few more. We’re young and it’s only our second game, but I’m pleased with the defense.”

After struggling through two scoreless innings, Canon-McMillan erupted for five runs in the third.

Leadoff hitter Olivia Ford opened the inning with single to center field and came around to score on a sacrifice fly by Cassidy Dice. Ford got to third base on a throwing error by Peters Township catcher Grace Handke on a dribbler down the first-base line by Samantha Merkle.

Kiersten Williams followed with a walk and Samantha Booher drove in Merkle and Williams with a double. Booher scored on an error on a clever play by Morgan Doyle, who walked in her at-bat. Instead of stopping at first base, Doyle broke for second base, beat the throw and raced to third on a mishandled throw to get her at second.

Hailey Swope singled Doyle in to make it 5-0.

Perri wasn’t going to need any more.

“I got more confident as the game went along,” she said. “We came a long way from the beginning of the season. It’s incredible how the freshmen aren’t letting anything get to them. I know they have my back and I have theirs.”

Peters Township scored twice in the sixth inning. Samantha Benick was hit by a pitch and scored on a double by Mia Falbo. Falbo scored on a groundout by Hannah Donoghue.

“We’re working through a lot of issues,” said PT’s first-year coach Carlee Wickstrom. “We have a lot of girls on vacation. We have two seniors on the team. Our girls went to bat a little tentative. I know they have a good defense, but we have to put the ball in play and see what happens.”

Peters Township fell to 4-4 overall and 1-2 in the section. But the Indians have doubled their win total from last year.