Flaherty’s walk-off lifts Canon-McMillan past Dallastown in PIAA 1st round

By: HSSN Staff
Monday, June 4, 2018 | 8:03 PM

Previous Next

Previous Next

Canon-McMillan's Connor Flaherty has a knack for walk-off wins.

The Big Macs senior attacked the first pitch he saw in Monday's seventh inning and drove an RBI single into left field to defeat Dallastown, 2-1, in the first round of the PIAA Class 6A baseball playoffs at Wild Things Park.

It was the second time in four games that Flaherty delivered a walk-off hit. The third baseman also had the game-winner against Plum in the WPIAL quarterfinals.

“It's every kid's dream to come to the plate in a heavy-pressure situation and perform,” Flaherty said. “I can't even tell you how good it feels to have done it twice in one season.”

His one-out line drive scored Greg Siller from second.

The win advanced WPIAL champion Canon-McMillan (18-5) to a quarterfinal matchup Thursday with North Allegheny (14-11), a rematch from last week's WPIAL finals. A site and time was not yet announced.

Dallastown (18-6) was the PIAA runner-up last season. The York-area team entered this year's state playoffs as the third-place team from District 3.

“We actually thought this might be a 10-inning game, we didn't know,” Canon-McMillan coach Tim Bruzdewicz said, “but this team is resilient.”

Canon-McMillan starter Zach Rohaley, who pitched all seven innings, allowed only one run on six hits and no walks. The Wheeling Jesuit recruit struck out 10 and picked two runners off base.

He retired the first nine batters in order and faced just one over the minimum through five innings.

“We had gotten some pretty good scouting reports on him,” Dallastown coach Greg Kinneman said. “We wanted to be super aggressive early. We knew the curveball was pretty good and that was sort of his ‘out' pitch. Every report that we got showed that he threw a lot of fastball early to get ahead. Early in the game, we took way too many pitches and put ourselves in 1-2 and 0-2 counts.”

To keep batters off balance, Rohaley said he switched strategies and threw more curveballs and sliders earlier in counts.

“When I wanted to sneak a fastball by them late, I was able to because they were looking for that off-speed,” Rohaley said.

Tied 1-1, Rohaley escaped a two-on, one-out jam in the seventh with consecutive strikeouts, setting the stage for the Big Macs' walk-off later in the inning. Rohaley had also pitched the WPIAL championship last week, so his coach waited until Sunday morning to pick a starter for Monday.

“We sort of based it on Roh,” Bruzdewicz said. “If Roh was healthy enough to go, he was going to go.”

“I want to take the ball as much as possible,” Rohaley said. “That's what I love to do.”

Canon-Mac took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Nicolas Serafino's two-out single scored Ian Hess. Rohaley then protected that one-run lead until Dallastown scored in the sixth. He was locked in a pitchers' duel with Dallastown's Nick Parker, a Coastal Carolina recruit.

Ahead 1-0, the Big Macs almost got to Palmer again in the third when they had runners on second and third with no outs. But Parker pitched out of the jam with an infield popup, a groundout and a strikeout.

Parker allowed just four hits in 6 ¹⁄₃ innings.

“He was going more to his change-up and slider,” Bruzdewicz said, “so we were basically telling everybody, the first good fastball you see, put your bat on it.”

Canon-McMillan's seventh inning started with Brandan Rea reaching base on a throwing error by Dallastown's third baseman Alex Weakland. Siller, who ran for Rea, advanced to second on Rohaley's sacrifice bunt.

Flaherty, who bats eighth, then delivered the one-out winner.

“He's been a big-time hitter in the bottom of our lineup all year,” Bruzdewicz said. “He deserves it, he works really hard.”

Flaherty was looking for a fastball but adjusted to Parker's first-pitch change-up.

“We were prepared to go (extra innings), but I think all of us knew in the back of our heads that we weren't going to have to,” Flaherty said. “Coming into the dugout we were saying, we're going to win it in the seventh.”

Chris Harlan is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at charlan@tribweb.com or via Twitter @CHarlan_Trib.

Tags: Canon-McMillan