Dwyer Walks Off To District Opening Win Over Atlantic

Tom Szapucki threw five no hit innings on his way to a seven strike out performance.

Nail biter. That would be the best way to describe Dwyer’s first game ever in 7A-13.

While the Panthers beat the Atlantic Eagles 3-2 Tuesday night for both their first win of the season and district win, it was a nail biter all the way down to the final at bat. In fact, no team had a lead greater than one run at any point in the game.

Dwyer’s first run of the game didn’t come until the fourth inning as the first three and two thirds innings were largely dominated by the pitching and defensive performances.

Ace Tom Szapucki started the game for the Panthers and put up numbers that one would expect from the ace of their staff. Through the first five innings, Szapucki did surrender a single hit and only allowed one Atlantic player on base. After hitting Eagles third baseman Jarren Pinkney in the first inning he did not allow another batter on base for the next four innings while striking out seven Atlantic players in the process.

“{Tom} had command of the fastball and he threw some good breaking balls when he needed to,” Manager Frank Torre said. “He had been having some problems with the command on his breaking ball, but he threw some good one tonight. He was also working in and out very well with the fastball.”

After cruising through the first five innings, and holding onto a slim 1-0 lead, Szapucki got into a little bit of trouble in the sixth. Losing some of the control that got him through the first five innings, he gave up two quick hits that lead to two runs and surrendering the lead. As the Panthers went down quickly in the bottom half of the sixth, Torre continued to tell his team to stay positive and just keep doing what they had been doing at the plate all night.

Duke Stunkel goes 2-for-4 on the night including a walk off single.

“All I said to them was that we were going to continue to grind out every pitch,” Torre said. “I reiterated about competing every pitch and at bat and hitting the ball hard on the ground. We had been hitting too many fly balls so if you hit the ball hard on the ground good things happen.”

Grinding out at bats and keeping the ball on the ground is exactly what Dwyer did when their turn to bat came around in the seventh. After third baseman Chase Coppersmith reached first base on an error to lead off the inning, Josh Messier came in to pinch hit, laying down a well executed sacrifice bunt to advance Coppersmith to second. With a runner now in scoring position and only one out, Connor Webb singled to bring in Coppersmith and tie the game. A walk by Alex Neher brought up senior Duke Stunkel to try and win it. Stunkel connected on a pitch that went right up the middle, ricocheting off the pitchers mound and in to center field. The ball went deep enough to bring in Webb for the walk off single.

“The pitcher had been all over the place the last couple of at bats and I was just looking for a fastball to drive and it worked out,” Stunkel said.

Stefan Leclerc, pitching for the first time, threw five innings allowing only one run on three hits.

One of the biggest bright spots on the night for Atlantic was the pitching performance of their starter Stefan Leclerc. Hurt and unable to pitch for most of his first two years, Atlantic manager Steve Wilson wasn’t even sure if he was going to be able to go Tuesday night. What he got was a five inning performance from his pitcher that saw him allow only one run on three hits.

“He is coming off an injury and we haven’t actually seen him on a mound,” Wilson said. “He couldn’t play for us for a year and then he came back but couldn’t pitch in his sophomore year. We actually didn’t even pitch him at all in the fall and he said ‘I think I can go’ so we put him out on the mound the other day and he did a good job. He had good stuff tonight. He had good control and that’s all we can ask for.”

For Dwyer, this wasn’t just their first win of the season. It was their first district win in their first year in their new district.

“It feels great to get a win and play better baseball,” Torre said. “That’s the most important thing. You want to get the wins but you want to play better. {Atlantic} is a good solid team. We are going to have to continue to play better if we want to stay at the top of the district which is a place we want to be.”

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