Burrell Post 868 fell behind Mt. Pleasant by three runs after two innings in Thursday’s District 31 league opener.
But the Bulldogs soon righted their ship on their home field with four in the bottom of the fourth to take the lead.
They added two in the fifth and six more in the sixth for good measure in a 12-4 victory.
“It was a really nice game to get everyone some action,” said Burrell coach Steve Scheftic, who leads the team in its third season of play at the Senior Legion level after a nearly 20-year hiatus.
“We used three different pitchers, and it was nice to see the team jell and come together. We can already sense the group is focused from the success they had last year for the returning players while the new players are excited to prove themselves. Honestly, it is a fun group, and they are going to have fun game-in and game-out, whether they win or lose. But based off what we saw yesterday, I think this group can do a lot of winning.”
Burrell last year went 14-12-1, lost to Bushy Run in the District 31 finals and qualified for the Region 7 tournament.
Of the several players who could not return because of age restrictions, four were starters: Jonathan Walker, Austin McLafferty, Jacob Smith and Henry Krogh.
Nine of the 14 who were eligible to come back did so, and there are nine newcomers ready to make their mark.
Burrell is made up of players who reside in New Kensington, Arnold, Lower Burrell or the Westmoreland County portion of Kiski Area School District.
Of the 18 players, nine — Brayden Mell, Rayden Shirey, Nick Virag, Adam and Ryan Wass, Colton Whitlock, Blake Rivera, Adam Scheftic, and Jack Jarrett — are from a Burrell High School team that went 7-5 (third) in Section 3-3A, advanced to the WPIAL quarterfinals and finished 11-10 overall.
The season ended May 19, and the group shifted its focus to the American Legion season with Brady Dzanaj, Noah Dzanaj, and Nolan Bodycombe from Valley; and Dominick and Rocco Fabrizi from Kiski Area.
“For a kid (going into ninth grade), he is big and should be able to give us some good innings,” coach Scheftic said of Rocco Fabrizi.
Tylar Hanley (Kiski Area/Lycoming College), Nolan Brouwer (Burrell/Westmoreland County Community College) and Noah Matson (Kiski Area/WCCC) are back after completing their first college baseball seasons this spring.
“It’s really nice to see the guys who went away to college to play or went to college in general and got a new taste of life would want to come back, be leaders and get excited to help this team and show how to compete,” coach Scheftic said.
Brady Smith, a Hampton graduate, is closer to the coverage area for District 31 newcomer Plum, but through talks between the two teams, Smith joined Burrell for this season.
Whitlock picked up the pitching win Thursday as he joined Brouwer and Virag on the mound. He gave up four hits and one earned run over four innings, and Brady Dzanaj was the hitting star with two hits, including a double, and four RBIs.
Whitlock delivered a four-hit complete game in a 4-1 Burrell victory over Bedford in the first round of the 2025 Region 7 playoffs.
Hanley combined with Matson to give up just four hits in a 2-0 loss to Claysburg in the Region 7 elimination game.
“Our pitching staff has depth, which is a good thing with how compact the regular season is,” coach Scheftic said.
Burrell faced Bushy Run, made up mostly of players from Penn-Trafford, on Saturday in a title-game rematch and will continue its early-season run Wednesday at Plum. Burrell also will face Latrobe, Hempfield East, Homer City, 14th Ward, Unity and Young Township in a District 31 league that goes through changes from year to year but also is one of the more stable and long-running American Legion leagues in the state.
“At this early point in the season, we’ll show up to games and worry about ourselves and then learn about the teams as the season goes on,” coach Scheftic said. “We talked with the players about it being a challenging season. It seems like all of the organizations are going to bring strong competition. That is one of the reasons the league has stayed so strong in today’s age of baseball with so many different leagues and entities chasing after players.
“The track record of good competition District 31 puts together attracts other teams. We at Burrell are seeing that excitement continue to build, especially in the younger players, that Legion baseball is going to be on their list if they consider themselves a serious ball player. This atmosphere is pretty fun for the players.”