Dwyer Duo No-Hits Seminole Ridge in 3-0 Victory

Dwyer’s Hunter Hope, who has committed to Tulane, hit his second home run of the season in the Panthers 3-0 win over Seminole Ridge.

Dwyer’s pitching sensation Tom Szapucki wasn’t going to let a blister hinder his latest start.

The sophomore left-hander battled through it and combined with freshman Colton Rendon to no-hit Seminole Ridge in a 3-0 victory in a non-district game Thursday night.

The pair allowed only one baserunner while registering 12 strikeouts. Only five balls were hit to the outfield.

Szapucki showed Dwyer Manager Frank Torre the blister at practice on Tuesday, and they decided to forge ahead.

“We knew if it got too bad, he was going to have to come out,” Torre said. “He fought through it. The big thing was he was nice and smooth, he wasn’t overthrowing. He reached back when he had to, but he was real smooth. He threw a lot of strikes and no walks. That’s the best stat. He was only going to go about 60 pitches tonight, so he was able to go five innings.”

Szapucki finished with 10 strikeouts, and Rendon had two strikeouts.

“It was his longest performance and as far as being able to pitch and throw strikes and moving in and out, I would say it was his best,” Torre said.

Tom Szapucki of Dwyer struck out 10 in five innings against Seminole Ridge.

“He showed the ability to keep his command and keep pretty good zip on the ball through five innings. That was real, real encouraging, and the no walks shows you just how far he’s come from last year.”

Seminole Ridge Manager Trent Pendergast also was impressed with Szapucki’s performance.

“He’s going to be high-round draft pick,” Pendergast said. “He’s a great pitcher. You have to give him all the credit in the world. We could’ve had some better at-bats, but he just did a great job. There’s no taking that away from him. He did phenomenal.”

Szapucki allowed one runner when he hit Alex Aristy with two outs in the first. But Aristy was picked off, and the Hawks (2-2) weren’t able to solve the Panthers pitchers.

The Panthers (2-1) scored in the first inning when senior third baseman Hunter Hope blasted a two-run homer to center on the first pitch he saw from starter Jake Paez. It was Hope’s second homer of the season.

Dwyer added another run in the fourth when Josh Messier walked, went to third on Brian Brooker’s double and scored on Shane Olive’s single to center.

Seminole Ridge Jake Paez allowed two runs in the first inning against Dwyer.

Torre talked to his team before the game about being ready to hit when they got into the box.

“Even though we only got three runs, we hit the ball pretty well and we were more aggressive,” said Torre. “If we got a good pitch, then we were ready to hit early in the count. And Hope was ready to hit. He got a good pitch and he was aggressive and that’s what we were looking for.”

Paez took the loss, going four innings while striking out four and walking two. He was replaced by freshman Kyle Farjad, who pitched three innings and gave up two hits while striking out two.

“He (Paez) hung one curveball and the guy hit it great,” said Pendergast. “When you play a great team, it’s just a matter of one play was going to decide the game and that was pretty much it.”

Austin Marrs was the only Dwyer player with two hits. Duke Stunkel and Adam Edelmann each had a single for the Panthers.

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