Apr 17, 2023 4 min read

Canon-McMillan baseball coach Brendon Steele will never question his team’s heart.

That heart was never more evident in the Big Macs’ 7-6 setback to Hempfield in Class 6A Section 2 play Monday afternoon amid the cold and rain at Wild Things Park.

In a battle for first place in the section, Canon-McMillan (5-2, 7-3) trailed 4-0 after one inning and 7-1 after five before scoring two in the sixth and three in the seventh.

“We dug ourselves a hole, but I love the way we fought back,” Steele said. “I’m proud of these kids and the way they battled back. Our kids have heart. I’ll give them that. They’re never out of it, and they battle to the end.”

Jake Egizio, who was honored prior to the game as a senior, doubled to lead off the seventh, but was thrown out at home plate by center fielder Gage Wheaton. Egizio was attempting to score on Tyson Mead’s single up the middle.

“I’ll take the ownership with that first out at home in the seventh,” Steele said. “That can’t happen.”

The Big Macs continued to battle, and Austyn Winkleblech’s base hit to center advanced Mead to second before Connor Helbling walked to load the bases.

Mead and Winkleblech scored when the Spartans attempted to pick off Mead at third base and the ball sailed into left field to cut the deficit to 7-5. Hebling moved to third on the play and scored on Andrew Kocan’s sacrifice fly to center.

Hempfield pitcher Conner Burkey forced Mason Fixx into a groundout at third for the final out.

“It got a little interesting there at the end,” Hempfield coach Timothy Buzzard said. “It is great to get the first one of the series. I thought we played a pretty good game for five or six innings but gave them a couple at the end.”

The Spartans (6-1, 8-3) scored their four runs in the first on two hits. Canon-McMillan starting pitcher Roman Mollenauer issued three of his four walks in the inning.

Mollenauer settled down after the first and yielded five runs on five hits in 4 1/3 innings. He had four strikeouts and threw 102 pitches. Nick Hilbert relieved Mollenauer.

“Roman threw well,” Steele said. “He threw a lot of pitches early. He battled back after that first inning. It was tough and we didn’t make some plays for him. I thought Nick Hilbert came in and kept them at bay.”

Canon-McMillan scored one run in the third to cut the deficit to 4-1 after Egizio tripled and scored on Mead’s grounder to second.

Hempfield scored three in the fifth on an RBI single by Dylan Firmstone and Max Short’s two-run single to left.

The Big Macs’ two runs in the sixth came from Kocan’s base hit to right field and Fixx’s groundout to third to score Winkleblech and Helbling. Both singled to get on base.

The Spartans’ Jack Kurdziel was the winning pitcher with five strikeouts and one walk. He yielded three runs on six hits in 5 1/3 innings.

“Jack threw really well,” Buzzard said. “Conner (Burkey) did just enough to close it at the end, and our defense made a couple of nice plays. It was really nice to get off to that 4-0 lead.”

The teams are scheduled to meet for Game 2 of their three-game series today (weather permitting) at Hempfield. The finale is scheduled for Thursday at Wild Things Park.

“We got two more,” Steele said. “We will let this sink in, see how it feels, and if we play tomorrow or Wednesday, we got two more, and we got to get those two and try and win the series.”

In addition to Egizio, the school honored Fixx, Helbling, Hilbert, Kocan, Winkleblech, Calvin Daniels, Lucas Dantry, Vincent Sutherland and Ben Urso as seniors.