Canon-McMillan to play for 6A title

Big Macs’ starter Rohaley shines to win his 13th, carry his team onward

Zach Rohaley reached a milestone, and in the process the Canon-McMillan baseball team reached a state championship game.

Canon-McMillan defeated Council Rock North, 4-1, in a PIAA Class 6A semifinal Tuesday afternoon at Greene Township Park in Scotland. The Big Macs came back from an early one-run deficit to post a victory against a suburban Philadelphia team that finished as the runner-up in District 1.

Rohaley, a senior, pitched six innings to pick up his 20th win over the past two seasons. Rohaley is 13-1 this season after going 7-0 last year.

The victory puts CanonMcMillan (20-5), the WPIAL champion, into Friday’s title game at Penn State. The Big Macs will play Bensalem, which defeated La Salle College, 5-4, in the other semifinal.

By beating Council Rock North, Canon-McMillan is the first WPIAL champ in the largest classification to make the PIAA final since Shaler in 1999.

Canon-McMillan won a PIAA title in 2008, but the Big Macs were the No. 3 team from the WPIAL that year.

Canon-McMillan scored twice in the third and fourth innings to give Rohaley more than enough cushion. Cam Weston pitched the final inning.

“We faced a pretty good leftie [Eric Hoefer],” said Canon-McMillan coach Tim Bruzdewicz.

“He was a little erratic and it took us some time to [go] through the lineup once to get going. … Lately, this is probably the best we’ve hit one through nine, since we played in Florida at the start of the season.”

In the third inning, Brandon Rea’s two-out, two-run clutch single gave the Big Macs a 21 lead.

In the fourth, Canon-McMillan scored a run on a throwing error and Weston hit an RBI double.

Canon-McMillan finished with six hits. Rohaley allowed seven hits and struck out two.

Class 5A semifinal

Marple Newtown 1, West Allegheny 0: Marple Newtown started Tuesday’s PIAA Class 5A baseball semifinal with a hit. The Tigers never got another, but still managed to get one runner home later in the game at Greene Township Park in Scotland. That’s all Marple Newtown needed to send West Allegheny home for the season. West Allegheny, was the No. 3 team from the WPIAL.

West Allegheny sophomore Austin Hendrick pitched the first six innings against Marple Newtown (24-2), a school located near Philadelphia. Hendrick allowed only one hit and struck out nine, but also walked seven. One of those walks was costly and led to the only run of the game.

Marple Newtown’s Sean Donnell and Alden Mathes walked to start the top of the sixth. They moved up on an error and Donnell scored when Luke Zimmerman grounded out to second.

While Marple Newtown managed only one hit, West Allegheny’s offense wasn’t much better. The Indians had only two hits off Mathes, a junior left-hander. Mathes pitched 6⅓ innings, struck out 10 and walked four. Zimmerman got the save.