Late Heroics Put #4 Dwyer Over #1 Benjamin

Kris Blanks (11) drives in the go-ahead run for Dwyer against Benjamin in the bottom of the sixth.

The Dwyer Panthers have put together a long list of wins and quality losses against ranked opponents in 2023, and Tuesday night’s 5-4 victory over the county No. 1 Benjamin Buccaneers was the defining moment of the season the club has been building up to since a three-game skid in the middle of March.

“This is a great win for us,” Panthers manager Alex Morales said. “We play a tough schedule to get ready for the playoffs. Yeah, we want to win all the games, but sometimes in the regular season, you lose a game here and there because it’s a tough schedule. But, as we get close to the end of the season, we’re in great shape right now and playing extremely well.”

If Morales was looking to simulate a playoff game, putting Benjamin on the schedule in the final two weeks of the season certainly proved to be a brilliant move. The Buccaneers aren’t just one of the top programs in the county, first-year head coach Chad Mills has the boys in orange playing at a top-10 level statewide. To add even more spice to the mixture, Benjamin and Dwyer sit on opposite sides of Central Boulevard, making this a local rivalry where most players have grown up playing against one another.

“We’re across-the-street rivals,” Mills said. “Obviously, they know all of these kids. So, when you’re playing your friends, it adds to the excitement of the game, which obviously you saw in those last two innings.”

Tension filled the air during the late stages of the game as Benjamin chipped away at Dwyer’s 4-1 lead, tying the game in the top of the sixth with a second bases-loaded walk. Kody Morgan came into relieve Nick Rovitti, who Morales bore no ill will toward after delivering some near-misses that would have been called strikes on any other day. Morgan found the umpire’s sweet spot, though, and delivered a four-pitch strikeout against sophomore Ole Miss commit Jackson Miller, who tried to hold up but was called out on an appeal to the umpire standing behind the pitcher’s mound.

“I know him as a matter of fact,” Morgan said of Miller. “I played with him in the summer, and I wanted to get the strikeout there. I got that done, but, yeah, the adrenaline was pumping and I was just throwing hard.”

The Benjamin Buccaneers look on as offense proves tough to come by early against Dwyer.

Morgan’s heroics weren’t over just yet, but someone had to get something done on offense with the score tied and 1 1/2 innings to play before heading to extras. Enter Matt Davis.

Davis, a 2023 Florida State commit, has been the guy for the Panthers since he was a sophomore, according to Morales. His future-Nole status might be something the team like to tease him with — the phrase “2023 FSU commit Matthew Davis” serving as a meme of sorts in the dugout — but Davis showed off exactly why he’s headed to one of the top collegiate programs in the country in the bottom of the sixth.

After drawing a leadoff walk on five pitches, Davis knew he had to do something to put his team in a position to win. Stealing second and third did the trick.

“Well, the one to second, that was on my own,” Davis said of his decision to take off. “I was looking at coach, and I was seeing that (the pitcher’s) delivery looked pretty slow. He gave me the green light, pointed at me, and I was like, ‘alright, I’m going.'”

Davis was hopeful that he could force another error from the Benjamin defense, which gave up the first two runs of the afternoon on a dribbler to the third that skimmed the top of the first baseman’s glove. The Buccaneers were sure-handed in the moment, but Davis’ speed and agility on the base paths allowed him to slide in ahead of the stage each time. Now on third, all Dwyer needed was a hard-hit ball to the outfield.

Panthers clean-up hitter Kris Blanks answered the call and laced a line drive into center field that Davis trotted into home easily on. Blanks is no stranger to the big moment and recently played a big role in the team’s win over Broward No. 4 American Heritage-Plantation.

“There’s always faith (in Blanks),” he said. “He always comes through in the clutch, so we really expect nothing less from him at this point.”

Kody Morgan (14) closed out the final four outs of the game for Dwyer and earned the win.

Morgan came back to close out the game and secure his win. After seeing his team get the lead, Morgan’s message to himself was to stay locked in and focused. He struck out two and got a fly out to end things, kicking off the celebration in Palm Beach Gardens.

“I feel like (the win) proved something,” Morgan said. “We’ve been slept on this whole year. We kind of started off a little slow with a couple of losses we shouldn’t have had, but we’re definitely turning it back around. We’ve got a ton of commits, so hopefully this helps bump us up.”

Ben Lubeck got the start for Dwyer and Freddy Beruvides started for Benjamin. Lubeck went a planned three innings as an opener before Morales turned to Rovitti, who he wanted in the later stages of the game as opposed to the early innings. Beruvides, a Virginia commit, was strong after two leadoff walks, but the errors ended up getting him into too much trouble.

“I told (the team) that we beat ourselves,” Mills said after the game. “The two errors in one inning, and they score four. Four of the five runs are unearned, and that’s what we tell them. We make a couple of plays here and get a couple of hits there and it’s a completely different game. But you move on. It’s baseball.”

Dwyer probably won’t be moving on from this win for a while, even if the focus does shift to the next game on the schedule. Morales says that practices these days aren’t too intense. The team knows what to do and is playing its best ball of the season, so the goal is to keep all the moving parts greased so that the machine can keep moving into the playoffs.

“It’s not easy,” Morales said when asked about the challenges of keeping the momentum going. “Heritage and now Benjamin, we have some teams on our schedule that are tough but we should be able to handle. I’ve got to keep my guys ready, and I like the direction we’re going. They’ll be ready for the playoffs. I have no doubt about.”

Rovitti’s health has been a major reason that Dwyer has found success, but Morales shouted practically his entire team. Blanks and Davis already got their due, but these big wins don’t happen with the contributions of catcher Corey Goldstick, shortstop/pitcher Dawson Thrush and third baseman Bryce Jackson among others.

Dwyer might have too many losses on the season to make a run at the county No. 1 spot, but the Panthers sure looked like the best team in Palm Beach Tuesday night.

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