CONNORVILLE – Bill Mazeroski is well-known for his home run that clinched Game 7 of the 1960 World Series against the New York Yankees at Forbes Field.

The former second baseman thinks the 2015 version of the Pirates can make another run deep into the postseason.

“I think they are getting set up for the stretch run, and the stretch run is here,” Maz said earlier this week. “I think they learned that last week when they rested a lot of regulars against Cincinnati and lost. That will be the last rest those starters get.

“They will put the best players on the field each game that give them a chance to win.”

Despite going 19-8 in August, including winning series against the N.L. West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers, the N.L. East-leading New York Mets and the reigning World Series champion San Francisco Giants, “Maz” doesn’t think the Pirates have played their best baseball yet.

“They haven’t been hot all season,” he noted. “If they can get for a week or two … win maybe 10 of 12 or 12 of 14 … I think they can come close to overtaking St. Louis, but it’s going to be tough.”

Being an infielder his entire career, Maz likes the situation that manager Clint Hurdle and his staff have at the present. With the return of Josh Harrison and Jordy Mercer from the disabled list, that gives the Pirates a surplus of middle infielders, along with Neil Walker and Jung Ho Kang, who can concentrate on playing third now that Aramis Ramirez is working out at first.

“It’s a problem, but it’s a good problem,” Maz added. “(Clint) Hurdle will work it out. He does a good job and they’ve got all the statistics about how each player hits against a certain pitcher. He’s on top of that. They will put their best hitters out there against the pitchers they hit the best.”

Speaking of Ramirez and switching positions, Maz knows – first-hand – it will be a challenge going from one side of the infield to the other.

“It’s definitely going to be new to him. I tried the same thing towards the end of my career when I moved to third base,” Maz recalled. “I played 16 seasons at second base and then tried to play third. I know I felt like a fish out of water. I can tell he’s not comfortable, but it’s hard to be comfortable once you’ve played one position your entire career.

“The ball comes off the bat differently,” he continued. “I didn’t know how long I could hang onto the ball before I got rid of it. It’s an adjustment that he’s going to have to make.”

Maz was in the Ohio Valley to present a check to Buckeye Local High School from proceeds of a golf tournament he holds every year near Pittsburgh. Afterwards, he, and his entourage, stopped by Bill’s in Yorkville to sample some of the tasty ribs that he and long-time friend Bill DeVecchio used to serve up.

“It’s been about two years since I’ve been here,” Maz revealed. “We had a lot of times in here. We also had a lot of ribs here. Even when I moved away, we used to come down here two or three times a year just to get the ribs.

“It’s all different now,” he said of the remodeling project the new owners have done. “It looks nice and i know the ribs will be good because they’ve got the same cook as before!”

Among those in the group of about a dozen were former Pirates pitchers Elroy Face and Ron Necciai (pronounced necktie). Face if the more familiar name of the two for his remarkable career as a relief pitcher, but Necciai accomplished something that has never been done before or since in a 9-inning professional game.

On May 13, 1952 while pitching for the Pirates Class D farm team in Bristol, Tenn., the 19-year-old righthander struck out all 27 batters he faced in an Appalachian League game against the Welch Miners in which he tossed a 7-0 no-hitter.

However, it was far from a perfect game as four of the Welch hitters did reach base: one runner each via a walk, an error, a hit-batsman and a passed ball charged to Twins’ catcher Harry Dunlop on a swinging third strike. This resulted in a four-strikeout ninth inning. Only two batters put the ball in play: Bob Ganung grounded out to first base in the second inning and Mike Whitehead got on base on an error in the ninth.

“It wasn’t 27 up and 27 down,” he noted. “There was some action.”

He said he doesn’t remember much about that day because he was just trying to get batters out and moved up the ladder.

“When you’re playing in the minor leagues batters chase a lot of bad pitches,” he downplayed the fete. “I don’t know how many bad pitches I threw and they chased. At that stage of my career, I wasn’t worried about striking everyone out. I was just trying to have a good day, get noticed and move up to another league.”

In his next start, Necciai threw a 24-strikeout, two-hitter. In that season, he struck out 109 hitters in 43 innings with Bristol, and a Carolina League-high 172 in 126 innings at Burlington before quickly climbing the ranks of the organization and eventually getting called up to the major leagues amid heavy publicity in August 1952.

He finally made the ‘bigs’ with Pittsburgh that season, but after a 1-6 record with 31 strikeouts and a 7.08 ERA in 54.2 innings, he suffered a rotator cuff injury that ended his brief career.

“It was fun while it lasted.”