Monroeville’s CCAC Boyce baseball team started the 2024 season 3-11.
Austin Long, who returned to the program last fall after having previously coached Boyce in 2018 and 2018, said he saw the team come together more in the second half of the schedule, and they went 9-10 over their final 19 games.
“It definitely wasn’t the way we wanted it to be starting out, but with me getting back here in August, I didn’t have a lot of time to recruit,” Long said.
“We had 17 guys and six arms. Of those six guys, they did really well. With six games in a week and just the six arms, it was kind of difficult to try and string some wins together.
“With our lack of depth pitching and position-wise, I give the guys a lot of credit for sticking with it. We picked up some nice wins that showed that the guys were getting better and playing as a team. They could’ve rolled over and died, but they stuck together, figured some things out and played some good baseball in the second half.”
CCAC, with local and regional products in sophom*ores Justin Brannagan (Deer Lakes), Logan Mazur (Serra Catholic), Jordan Sullivan (Penn Hills) and Luis Marquez (Allderdice), finished 12-21 and ended its season with a pair of losses (8-2 and 2-0) against Camp Community College in a district championship tournament series May 13 at Boyce.
“We gave Camp all they could handle,” Long said.
A week before, CCAC faced Prince George’s Community College in a regional series with a trip to districts on the line.
Price George’s won the first game, 5-3, before CCAC stormed back to win the second game, 5-3, and the third and deciding game, 9-3.
“We peaked at the right time to win the region,” Long said.
“That was our biggest series of the spring. We needed to beat them to move on. That was our big-picture focus this year. We lost the first game, but the guys did a great job to come back and take the series. I was happy that we were able to accomplish that goal.”
CCAC didn’t field a team in 2020 and 2021 as covid halted the Boyce baseball team’s progress.
“We started to get it back together in the fall of 2021,” Long said.
The team returned for the 2022 season, and in 2023, Boyce went 15-9 overall.
Mazur, Sullivan and Marquez each returned to Boyce for their sophom*ore seasons. Brannagan, also a sophom*ore, came to Boyce after playing his freshman year at Division III Westminster College.
The quartet, and a traditional group of players from Puerto Rico, helped greet Long back to the program.
Long coached beyond the Western Pa. borders in 2022 as an assistant coach at Division I Murray State in Kentucky.
“It was awesome to be able to coach against Ole Miss, who won the College World Series that year, and face teams like Alabama and Kentucky,” Long said.
Long, who graduated from West Allegheny and played baseball collegiately at La Roche, returned to the region and served as an assistant coach with Redhawks baseball for the 2023 season.
“My wife and I have twins now, so we decided to move home,” Long said.
“This job (Boyce) came back open, and based on timing, I came back. It’s been quite the journey the past five years. But it’s been a lot of fun, and I’ve learned so much. But I am glad to be back and in Pittsburgh closer to family and in a position to get this program to where I want it to be.”
Brannagan batted a healthy .370 (34 of 92) with 22 RBIs and 22 runs scored. He struck out just five times in more than 100 plate appearances.
“Justin was probably one of the best nine-hole hitters in the country,” Long said. “He was one who was reliable to turn that lineup over. “
Sullivan caught, pitched and served the team in the outfield while collecting a team-best three home runs with 14 RBIs and 19 runs scored.
“Jordan was one of my biggest assets,” Long said. “He was a great bullpen piece, and he was catching early on based off of our needs. His best fit was in the outfield. He is a gamer. He’s someone that it didn’t matter where I put him. He figured it out and helped the team no matter what his job was.”
Marquez was 4-3 this spring and led the team in wins. The Point Park commit fashioned a 4.23 earned-run average with 41 strikeouts in 381/3 innings.
“He would hit 87 to 88 (miles per hour with a curve ball, change-up and a cutter that we worked on,” Long said.
Mazur tied for the team lead in appearances at 12. He logged 411/3 innings on the mound
Long said the tradition of a strong Puerto Rican presence will continue.
“We still have that pipeline rolling,” he said. “For next year, we have 14 guys from the island coming up and 10 guys who are from the states. We’re going to continue to build this thing up and keep it going.”
Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.
