Looking for the best-kept secret in WPIAL baseball? Then, take a gander at Canon-McMillan.
At 7-0, the Big Macs, who compete in Section 3-AAAA, are tied with Class A Serra Catholic for the best record in the WPIAL. No other Quad-A club owns more than five wins.
Canon-McMillan beefed up its record by winning five games during a trip to North Carolina and South Carolina. Since returning, wins came against Upper St. Clair and Mt. Lebanon for a 2-0 start to section play.
So far, the Big Macs are getting great pitching from Chris Dittmar and Matt Pierpont, whom head coach Steve Bucci refers to as 1 and 1A. Dittmar is coming off a week where he hit two home runs and drove in six.
Last year was Bucci's first with the Big Macs after a very successful stint at South Park. Canon-McMillan reached the playoffs and were led by ace Brian Muransky, currently at Xavier University. Muransky may have been the best pitcher in the WPIAL a year ago.
The Big Macs play three important games this week. The first comes Monday against Baldwin, followed by Wednesday at Bethel Park and Friday at home against unbeaten Peters Township.
Should Canon-McMillan win all three, or even two of three, it's a safe bet that talk of a section title will intensify. At this rate, Canon-McMillan will not remain a secret much longer.
25 comments:
Shhhhhh….We are hoping to remain under the radar just a few weeks longer but realize that it may be hard to do if the Big Macs continue their winning ways . Lead by seven seniors, six returning from last years play off team, a talented group of juniors and sophomores, this years version of the BIG MAC baseball team has the ingredients to reignite the incandesce glow left by last years Big Macs basketball campaign. Could there be athletic powerhouse growing at CMHS? Without question, the wrestling team continues to dominate, but now 07 baseball, 07 football, 07-08 basketball all making the playoffs, something could be brewing in the CM sports community. We would like to keep this our little secret in the 15317. p.s. the track team isn’t to shabby either! GO MACS!!
Great idea, get really excited, just like a couple of years ago when the Lil Macs went from AAAA to AAA football and got destroyed in the Big 7 when they played the REAL teams. Enjoy the week, Friday will be here soon enough and you'll get hammered by Peters, the real baseball team in the area. The only real sport in CM is wrestling, there is no denying their domination. Outside of that it is same old CM.
the person who left that last comment plz leave ur name address and phone number so i can personally mess u up
Are u kidding me, the real teams in the big 7? Are u on drugs, the only real team in that conference was thomas jefferson. And the basketball team was real this year when they beat number one Mckeesport by 9 and when they beat moon and upper st clair. I would love to know who ur highschool team is
Unless secondary sports (track, cross country,etc.) are not counted as "real sports" you are sadly misinformed. Come to the Washington-Greene County Track and Field Championships next Saturday and you will see the "same old CM."
Dearest "Secondary Sports"- I wouldn't be braggin about beatin up on single and Double A teams in Washington county. There are only 2 quads in this weak county meet. Who cares about track and cross country anyhow? You must be a coach cause no one else cares about "secondary sports" anyhow!
When the Seniors and Juniors on the Canon-Mac baseball team were younger they always had winning teams. Their section is tough,but they are not intimidated by any one team. In fact they have played against many of the section's star players when they were younger! It is a fun section to watch and may end up that the luckiest team will win the section.
You embarass CM with your comments both on this link and the one about Andy Petras. We all know you're a cm baseball player who probably plays with the CH kids in legion and against PT who has beaten you regularly for the past 3 years. Grow Up!
Anonymous CM fan, your comments are irresponsible. As a CM fan, even I am offended by your remarks.
I'm a different poster but how has Peters beaten us regularly over the past 3 years?
Wasn't last year or the year before their first year in quad A? We went 1-2 against them last year...our win and one of theirs weren't that close and the other was a 2-1 win.
And they don't beat us in legion.
what are all you people crying about. grow up. also, i assure you that wasn't a cm baseball player that made that comment.
i also doubt it was a cm baseball player. it was probably some dumb kid. also houston legion dominates peters legion. but since houston no longer has a team peters should be counting their blessings because rumor has it that houston is combining with peters
As far as I know Houston and Peters will be combining this summer.
Oh and to the second post...good call. Peters sure did crush CM.
And I'm pretty sure Peters has now dropped four of their last five.
Speaking of PT, does anyone know why JJ has only pitched twice this year? Does Peters lack a what they feel a dependable replacement behind the dish? WPIAL baseball teams play 3,4, even sometimes 5 games in a seven day span, and the fact that this kid hasn't pitched more boggles my mind. I don't care if you have Johan Santana, he can only pitch 10 innings a week so you better have pitching depth if you wanna be a true contender in the WPIAL, especially AAAA.
On a side note, i was discussing baseball with a friend of mine who played high school ball in miami when we discussed the differences in ball in the north and south. As we all know, florida clearly has much better and more polished players since they can play year long. One thing that struck me as interesting was that teams down there can control a regular season with 2 or 3 good pitchers. Florida baseball's season is a bit longer so games are spread out more which gives more rest to pitchers. Sure the term "good pitcher" fluctuates when describing florida and pa pitchers, but i would be curious to see how a team down there would fare playing a 4 game week...
JJ had a little arm trouble during the past month and Peters pretty much shut him down for the month. He shut down USC on Monday so now it appears he will be a regular part of there rotation. The trouble is that now they are two full games from 3rd place, which as you know, only 3 teams qualify for the play-offs in section 3. Could be a little to late for Peters to recover from there poor start. Peters must play each game from here on out as“one and done” play off scenario for the rest of the year. It will be interesting to see how Peters reacts.
I can't imagine a playoffs with PT in it. With that being said, if they make it, i feel sorry for the top seed that will have to face them. If peters can go 5-1 or maybe even 4-2 and beat the right teams, they will get in the playoffs. I think CM was 7-8 last year in section play and it's tough to see a team going 9-6 and not getting in.
It will be interesting to see how the Peters coaches stagger there pitching staff for the rest of the year. Since Peters is currently 3 games out of first, do you change your pitching rotation based on your opponent or do you roll out JJ without regards to the opponent? As CM found out last year, in a tie for 3rd, the first tie breaker is head to head competition. If Peters does qualify for the WPIAL, it will be funny to hear the griping of the coach from the other section declaring, “Peters ain’t no freaking 10 seed”.
Is it true that merich has been having arm problems, probably due to his overuse?
With teams playing so many games, most teams have a pitcher or two with arm trouble.
Peters Township won its last two rather convincingly. I see them sneaking into the playoffs as either a second or third-place team.
Arm trouble is a little too vague for me to throw up a red flag. Are we talking about something like a little soreness in the shoulder or elbow or something a little more serious like tendonitis or even some severe tear-like damage?
As for Peters playing a lot of games in a short period of time, last week was understandable since they had to make up a rain out against CM which gave them three games in a row and four in five days. But why would they schedule Trinity on Tuesday this week when they play Monday and Wednesday and have Friday off? This kind of schedule with limited pitching has to be tough on these kids' arms, especially Merich and Stratico who I'm assuming have been seeing the majority of the innnings if JJ hasn't thrown much.
The section has become even more interesting...
It will be a very interesting to see how the standings shake out after next week. All 4 teams, Lebo, CM, Peters and BP all play three games in a 5 day period. On paper, it looks like Lebo has the toughest road ahead, facing BP, CM and Peters. Stay tune as it should be an interesting week!
As promised the week, showed who the real pretenders (LeBo) and contenders (CM, PETERS & BP) in section 3. Congratulations to the Big Macs for clinching at least a share of the title after remaining under the radar throughout the entire year despite a 9 -0 start. Fortunately for the Big Macs, you have to show your medal on the field verses relying upon early season prognostications that failed to mention that the Big Macs were even a contender for the coveted section title. We heard about USC, Peters, Lebo and BP returning numerous starters from last years baseball campaign but the Macs returned 8 starters from last year play off run and didn't receive half of the hype that the other power teams received. Peters no doubt will be a tough out in the play offs regardless of where their final record falls. BP has the pitching and fire power to challenge any team in the district on any given day. Once again the true winner remains the teams in section 3 that have been battle tested night in and night out in the toughest section in the WPIAL. Good luck in the WPIAL play-offs and here to hoping that there paths don't cross until the finals or at least the semi final of the WPIAL. Good thing they play the games on the field or Seneca Valley would be rewarded to the WPIAL championship. Congratulations to the BIG MACS for an outstanding season and continued success.
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