{"id":156068,"date":"2026-04-03T05:31:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T05:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/156068\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T05:31:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T05:31:12","slug":"poised-erie-off-to-a-blistering-start-on-the-diamond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/156068\/","title":{"rendered":"Poised Erie off to a blistering start on the diamond"},"content":{"rendered":"

All eyes were on Erie\u2019s senior ace Maddox Burnett as he took the mound in Arizona.<\/p>\n

Nine big-league scouts, all armed with their own radar guns, had come to see the BYU pitching prospect at the prominent Coach Bob Invitational last month. There to witness his four-pitch arsenal for themselves, they wanted to see if his fastball really clocked in the mid-90s \u2014 and it did.<\/p>\n

Through it all, Burnett was calm. Dialed in.<\/p>\n

Of course, it wasn\u2019t always like this. The fiery competitor used to show his emotions quite regularly on the mound, coach Eric Dillinger said. But he has since learned what it means to be in control.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t let that stuff influence how you play,\u201d Burnett said. \u201cYou can\u2019t overthrow and stuff like that. So I don\u2019t really focus on any of that. It\u2019s just me and my catcher, and we\u2019re going after hitters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burnett, in a word, is poised. He and the rest of the Tigers are hitting on all cylinders and have the No. 1 spot in CHSAA\u2019s 5A rankings thanks to an 11-0 start to the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never had a team play for each other like this,\u201d said Dillinger, Erie\u2019s third-year head coach.<\/p>\n

Before taking over the program in 2024, Dillinger served under three different coaches during his five years as an assistant with the Tigers. He said that continuity has helped shape the program\u2019s culture, while staying present is helping the Tigers stack wins.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Burnett threw his latest gem in a 13-2 road win over Fairview. He also homered for a third straight game and drove in three.<\/p>\n

On the season, Burnett is now 4-0, with a microscopic 0.88 ERA. He\u2019s struck out 46 of the 96 batters he\u2019s faced and has walked just six.<\/p>\n

At the plate, he\u2019s 7 for his last 9 and is hitting .559 with 12 RBIs on the year.<\/p>\n

Against the Knights, Burnett was one out away from a second straight shutout after tossing a six-inning no-hitter against Centaurus last weekend. However, two errors and a pair of hits in the inning led to two unearned runs before Burnett ended things by fanning Grayson Dinges \u2014 his 10th strikeout of the day.<\/p>\n

Even so, the Tigers had been in control from the outset, snapping Fairview\u2019s three-game winning streak.<\/p>\n

Boston Coslett, a Dayton commit, put Erie on the board in the first inning with his fifth home run of the season. The Tigers led 4-0 before blowing things open with a nine-run fourth, which included a bases-clearing triple from Evan Dillinger and a three-run bomb by Burnett.<\/p>\n

\u201cFairview is a good team. They beat us the last two years,\u201d said Dillinger, the team\u2019s senior catcher, whose 20 RBIs are tied for second in the state this spring. \u201cBut we came out here, forgot about those last two years and just played how we normally play.\u201d<\/p>\n

It starts with poise.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn pregame, (Maddox and I) are sitting there having fun, talking to each other and just being loose,\u201d the catcher said. \u201cThen the second we take the field, a switch flips, and we know it\u2019s go time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Erie's<\/p>\n

Erie’s Evan Dillinger watches his deep drive against Fairview on Thursday, April 2, 2026. (Photo by Brent W. New\/BoCoPreps.com)<\/p>\n

\"Fairview's<\/p>\n

Fairview’s Liam Goetz pitches against Erie on Thursday, April 2, 2026. (Photo by Brent W. New\/BoCoPreps.com)<\/p>\n

\"Fairview's<\/p>\n

Fairview’s Isaac Waymire bats against Erie on Thursday, April 2, 2026. (Photo by Brent W. New\/BoCoPreps.com)<\/p>\n

\"Erie's<\/p>\n

Erie’s Boston Coslett (right) celebrates his scored run with Chase Craddock (left) against Fairview on Thursday, April 2, 2026. (Photo by Brent W. New\/BoCoPreps.com)<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 4<\/p>\n

Erie’s Evan Dillinger watches his deep drive against Fairview on Thursday, April 2, 2026. (Photo by Brent W. New\/BoCoPreps.com)<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

View a list of Prep sports and high school teams we cover.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All eyes were on Erie\u2019s senior ace Maddox Burnett as he took the mound in Arizona. Nine big-league…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[4662,29948,136,138,137,70797,1423],"class_list":["post-156068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-baseball","tag-byu","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-maddox-burnett","tag-mlb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}