NEW KENSINGTON — After a 1-3 start in section play with a team depleted by graduation, no one could have expected the Burrell Bucs to be doing what what they did about 6:30 Wednesday night. Burrell was celebrating a great in-season comeback with a decisive, 9-3 victory over the Valley Vikings on the final day of the regular season. Burrell and Valley finished tied in the section at 9-3. Both schools will receive section-winning plaques, as per WPIAL policy. For Burrell, it’s the third section title in four seasons. But for Valley, it will be the first section baseball title since 1970, the third year of the school’s existence. Both schools also will enter the WPIAL playoffs, though the Bucs will get the No. 1 seed from Section 3-AAA because they swept the season’s series from Valley. The playoff pairings will be announced at 7 p.m. on WBGG-AM (970). Burrell’s victory was its ninth in the past 10 games overall. Coach Mark Spohn was hard-pressed pick a time when everything started to click. “There’s several you could try to pin it on,” Spohn said. “The first Valley game, we were down, 6-4, going into the bottom of the sixth and won. It’s hard to put your finger on exactly what turned it around.” One main ingredient in the Burrell’s surge has been senior pitcher Craig Canfield, who picked up his sixth victory in eight decisions. Canfield went the distance, striking out seven and scattering seven hits. The senior right-hander’s job was made easier when the Bucs picked up five runs in the second inning. “We got a lot of runs early and a lot of confidence,” Canfield said. “Sometimes, though, you have a lead and you have a tendency to just lay it in there, and that’s what I was doing.” Danny Mangini led off the second with a single off Vikings starter Joe Traini. Justin Zollinger followed with a single, and Ryan McConnell slugged a double to score Mangini and chase Traini. Two runs scored on an error at short and Nick Mangini completed the outburst with a two-run single off reliever Joe Veltri. Burrell added another run in the third on a walk to Danny Mangini and a triple by Zollinger. Danny Mangini scored his third run of the game in the fifth, coming home on Adam Snyder’s single to give the Bucs a 7-0 lead before a much larger crowd than usual for a weekday afternoon. Zollinger was thrown out at the plate, attempting to score on a fly ball to Valley rightfielder Matt Matarrese. Burrell concluded its scoring in the sixth as three Valley errors led to two more Bucs runs. “That was not us out there,” said Valley coach Bill Bates. “For the first time this year, I didn’t recognize my team. It’s a shame that a game of this magnitude this late in the season that it could happen.” Valley finally got on the scoreboard in the fifth as Josh Abati doubled home Tyler Santucci and scored on Chris Marcy’s single. Pinch hitter Brian Marzullo doubled home Abati with the final run of the game in the seventh. Valley will prepare for the playoffs Friday against Mount Pleasant. “As a teacher and a coach, you can only hope for the best, that they can learn from what happens and it doesn’t happen again,” Bates said. Meanwhile, Spohn and his team can try to figure out where the spark came from. “I don’t know if it’s something we said or they decided it’s something they had to do,” Spohn said. “You’ve got to give the players credit.”

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