Canon-McMillan and Camp Hill win 2008 PIAA state baseball championships


Macs quickly buried Spring-Ford's dreams of a state title; Camp Hill halts Carmichael's 21-game winning streak to grab gold for second time since 1999

By Gorden Blain
ALTOONA -- Canon-McMillan didn't win the WPIAL AAAA championship but that matters little tonight after the Big Macs pounced on District 1 runnerup Spring-Ford for a 7-0 lead after two innings and sailed to a 10-2 win to capture the PIAA State AAAA baseball championship Friday afternoon at Blair County Ballpark in Altoona.

Even a 90-minute rain delay in the bottom of the third inning failed to cool off the hot hitting Big Macs (22-5), who pounded out 14 hits and kept the Rams (19-10) from rallying in the late innings.

Mike Hull and Chris Douglas each had three hits and Matt Pierpont, Charles Murphy, and Phil Staab each had two hits for Canon-McMillan.

In the Class A championship game that followed the AAAA game, Matt Speigel pitched a two-hit shutout as District 3 runnerup Camp Hill (18-9) defeated WPIAL champion Carmichaels 2-0. The loss snapped a 21-game winning streak for Carmichaels (23-2).

In the first game of a four-game championship event in Altoona, District 4 champion Loyalsock defeated the WPIAL third-place team Burrell 8-3 in the AA final. Alex Cillo relieved starter Colin Kelly in the third inning with the Lancers (22-4)leading 4-1 and held a potent Burrell (20-3) lineup of hitters in check the rest of the way.

The final game of the day was between Somerset and Berwick in the AAA championship game.