May 18, 2026 By Jerin Steele 4 min read

UPPER ST. CLAIR – A year ago Canon-McMillan was blanked by Seneca Valley in the WPIAL semifinals, so revenge was on the minds of the Big Macs on Monday.

And boy did they turn the tables in a huge way.

Backed by a grand slam by Nico Patragas and a sterling performance on the mound by MJ Maruschak, No. 2 Canon-McMillan cruised to a 16-1 victory over the seventh-seeded Raiders in four innings in the WPIAL Class 6A baseball quarterfinals at Boyce Mayview Park.

Canon-McMillan (16-5) advanced to play Monday’s late game between North Allegheny and Hempfield in Wednesday’s semifinals. Seneca Valley finished 10-11.

“It feels good,” Maruschak said. “Last year left a bad taste in our mouths. We had a great team and fell short, so all offseason we’ve been preaching that we were going to get to this point we were going to try to play the best baseball we can.

“We were coming out for blood today. It didn’t matter who was on the field. We were going to give it everything we had.”

Patragas’ grand slam, which he drilled over the left field fence, was his first homer of the season and capped a five-run second inning and made it 8-0.

“I knew off the bat it had a chance, but I was worried it was going to curl foul, but I stayed through it enough,” Patragas said. “I told coach (Brendon Steele) rounding third base that there was no better time to get the first one (home run) than that.”

Seneca Valley beat Canon-McMillan 4-0 in the semifinals last year en route to winning the WPIAL title, but couldn’t repeat the feat.

The Big Macs jumped on Seneca Valley’s left-handed starting pitcher Luis Torrenegra early.

With one out and two runners on, Nico Patragas singled up the middle to score Caden Laskosky to make it 1-0. Laskosky was a courtesy runner for Maruschak, who singled earlier in the inning.

Troy Stimpson, who drew a walk with one out, scored on a wild pitch. Patragas moved to third on the wild pitch and scored on a sacrifice fly to right field by Brayden Radue.

The Big Macs continued to put the pressure on in the second and knocked Torrenegra out of the game. Sebastian Shulsky singled, Blake Simmons walked and Massimo Falconi singled to load the bases with one out. Raiders Eric Semega summoned Andrew Palano from the bullpen.

Maruschak hit a sacrifice fly to right field to score Shulsky. Palano hit Stimpson, setting the stage for Patragas’ grand slam.

Canon-McMillan added three more runs in the third and chased another pitcher. Maruschak hit a two-run double and Stimpson followed with an RBI double off the wall in left-center, which ended Palano’s day. Parker Mell came in and got the final out of the third.

Canon-McMillan triggered the mercy rule with a five-run fourth. Radue was hit by a pitch, Alex Eslep walked and Shulsky singled to load the bases. Simmons brought Radue in with a single and an error brought in another run. Noah Westfall followed with a run-scoring single up the middle and another error brought home a second run. The game ended on an RBI groundout by Maruschak that scored Westfall.

Maruschak yielded only one run, which was unearned. He limited Seneca Valley to three hits and had six strikeouts to no walks.

He stayed sharp even through some extended innings for the Big Macs at the plate. On two occasions, Maruschak went to the bullpen and tossed a few pitches to stay loose.

“Usually when we have a long inning, I’ll throw against the wall somewhere in the dugout, but it was a packed house in the dugout today, so I figured I’d go out and throw in the heat,” Maruschak said. “The heat was a huge factor. I felt amazing. I just stayed hydrated. It was great.”

Seneca Valley’s lone run came in the third when Danny Drennan hit an RBI single that plated Owen Voelp.

Everybody in Canon-McMillan’s line up reached base at least once. Falconi and Shulsky singled three times. Patragas and Maruschak had two hits apiece.