NA Staves Off Late Rally, Beats Canon-McMillan In WPIAL Semifinals
By Randy Gore
For the second consecutive playoff game, a North Allegheny starting pitcher went the distance as the third-seeded Tigers outlasted second-seeded Canon-McMillan in the WPIAL Class 6A semifinals, 4-3, at W&J College’s Ross Memorial Park on Wednesday night. Junior Jake Fritz tossed six scoreless innings and staved off a late rally in the seventh to propel the Tigers to their fourth WPIAL title game appearance in the last six seasons. Jake Fritz allowed three unearned runs and struck out 10, including the final batter of the ball game, to earn Wright Automotive Player of the Game honors. He was also 2-for-4 at the plate with an RBI double in the seventh, driving home what turned out to be the game-winning run.
Facing Canon-McMillan right-hander Seb Shulsky, a University of Cincinnati commit, North Allegheny took the early lead in the top of the second inning when Christian Simons delivered a two-out RBI single to score Ryan Evanish for a 1-0 lead. Sophomore Ben Kern followed with an RBI triple down the right field line to increase the Tigers’ advantage to 2-0.
Shulsky settled into the game in the middle innings and retired nine consecutive batters before sophomore Nate Fritz led off the sixth inning with a double. After Dominic Williamson was hit by a pitch, a Canon-McMillan throwing error moved runners to second and third. A sacrifice fly by J.J. Mancuso scored Nate Fritz from third for a 3-0 lead.
Shulsky went six innings on the bump with 10 strikeouts before hitting the pitch-count limit. With Shulksy out of the contest, North Allegheny tacked on an important insurance run against Canon-McMillan reliever Matthew Kocan in the seventh inning. With two outs and a runner at second base, Jake Fritz hit a deep fly ball to centerfield that was lost in the lights by CM’s Massimo Falconi, dropping in for an RBI double that scored Carter Shearon for a 4-0 lead.
Unwilling to go away quietly, Canon-McMillan rallied in the bottom of the seventh. A throwing error allowed Troy Stimpson to score the Big Macs’ first run, trimming the NA lead to 4-1. Later in the inning and down to their final out, the Big Macs came through with a clutch pinch hit, two-out, two-run single off the bat of Alex Eslep and NA’s advantage was cut to 4-3. With the potential game-tying run on the bases, Jake Fritz buckled down and struck out Noah Westfall to end the ballgame and North Allegheny prevailed for a 4-3 victory.
With the win, North Allegheny improves to 14-8 on the season and advances to the WPIAL Class 6A championship to face section rival Butler next week at EQT Park. Canon-McMillan’s season concludes with a 16-6 mark. As always, the WPIAL Class 6A championship game will be broadcast live by the North Allegheny Sports Network.
BASEBALL SUMMARY VS. BUTLER, 5-27-26
| Line Score | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| North Allegheny | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 4 |
| Butler | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | X | 4 | 8 | 1 |
