Preview: Big Mac Baseball Team Ready to Win

It wasn’t the extraordinary so much as the mundane that got the best of the Canon-McMillan baseball team last season.

Two years removed from a PIAA Class AAAA state championship, the Big Macs lacked focus at inopportune times, botched their share of costly, routine plays, and stumbled to a 7-10 (4-6 WPIAL Section 3) record in 2010.

It was a year in which, admittedly, the Big Macs could have done better.

“Not everybody’s heart was in it,” Canon-McMillan pitcher Rob Semulka said. “People just weren’t working as hard. And if they’d play, they’d give up. It wasn’t a team effort last year.”

But the Big Macs don’t expect to make those same mistakes again this season. With a glut of upperclassmen to fill the ranks, including 15 seniors, Canon-McMillan is primed for a rebound year.

Not only is Coach Frank Zebrasky preaching the necessity of making the routine play, but the Big Macs also have plenty of leaders ready to fill the void that may have been missing a year ago.

And not only that, but the players are motivated as well.

“I think we’re going to be on a different track this year,” junior second baseman Ricky Lonero said. “We’re more mature. We realize this is it. This is our chance to do something.”

Not that achieving that “something” will be any easier in 2011.

Section 3 returns a ton of talent this year, with Peters Township leading the way.

The Indians have their fair share of college-bound talent in uniform this season, as seniors Austin Hancock, Justin Bianco and Ryan Minteer figure prominently on a team that could easily contend for a state title. However, Upper St. Clair, Bethel Park and Baldwin also figure to have formidable teams as well, which will leave the Big Macs fighting an uphill battle through a tough Section 3 schedule.

“Unfortunately, in our section, it’s a dog-eat-dog world,” Canon-McMillan Coach Frank Zebrasky said. “And hopefully, you’re not wearing the Milk-Bone shorts.”

But despite that colorful euphemism, the Big Macs do have a lot of hope for the upcoming season.

Canon-McMillan can boast of a deep pitching staff that includes seniors Robert Semulka, Luke Shumaker, and Nick Coyle as well as junior Matt Douglas among others. And the Big Macs have a strong defensive group up the middle in catcher Mario Trona, second baseman/shortstop Alec Schram, and centerfielder Kelsey Boyle who, according to Zebrasky, should be able to increase his team’s ability to
make those routine plays.

“I just like the fact that they’ve played together for a while,” Zebrasky said.

The Big Macs see themselves as a faster and deeper team than they were last season, and plan to be more aggressive both on the base paths as well as at the plate.

But despite all of that, the lynchpin for any success that Canon-McMillan experiences this season will once again come back to that focus factor—and that is where so much senior leadership should pay off.

“It’s definitely there. All of our seniors try to push the younger guys,” Semulka said. "I think they look up to us. We try to work hard and set an example for them.”
Added Trona: “We know what another person is capable of. If we see they’re not living up to that, we get behind them and let them know that they have to step up.”

The Big Macs should see early on whether or not their “We, not me” motto holds up, and how well their seniors can keep the team on track. Canon-McMillan opens their season today with their annual trip to Myrtle Beach—playing four varsity games in three days—before returning to kick off section play on April 4 at Upper St. Clair.

“It’s everything right now,” Lonero said of that ability to lead and focus. “We have the talent. Whether we do it or not, this is our year.”