Staked early lead, Dempsey cruises as Wolves beat Cougars
By Brett Goodrich, Correspondent
VALRICO – Newsome set the tone early and did not relent against district rival Durant. Fueled by senior arm Evan Dempsey, and timely hitting by Braden Moon and Ryan Spitzer, the Wolves handled the Wildcats in a 9-4 victory.
The Wolves opened the scoring with singles in five-straight at bats with one out in the bottom of the first inning. The third base hit of the inning, a low line drive into the left center field gap, by Moon, scored Luke Peterson from third, and set Ryan Spitzer 90-feet away from the plate. Dakoda Mavarez then guided a seeing-eye ground ball between the third baseman and shortstop to score Spitzer. With runners now at first and second, Andrew Mega squared to bunt and laid down a perfect bunt that settled on the third baseline where the clay meets the grass at home plate. The catcher waited for the ball to roll foul, but to no avail. This set up a bases loaded scenario where on the first pitch, Moon took off for home on a squeeze play that was perfectly executed by Nick Balasko.
This provided Dempsey a comfortable cushion to pitch with, and after a rocky first, he settled in. Through five innings of work, the Florida Gulf Coast University commit, held the Cougars to six scattered hits, issued one walk and struck out five. The lone run given up by Dempsey, in the fifth inning, was due to Durant’s leadoff hitter Nick April-Gath singling, stealing second and then scoring on a long double by catcher Dylan LaPointe.
Despite “struggling a little bit in the first inning” Dempsey said he, “felt good and had all four of my pitches working.”
After putting up one run in both the second and third inning, the Wolves entered the bottom of the fourth with a four-run lead. Newsome would end up sending nine to the plate in the bottom half of the inning, starting with walks by Spitzer and Moon. With one out, Mega came through with an RBI single, and on the throw home, both runners were able to move up an extra 90 feet.
Senior Evan Dempsey (left), and juniors Braden Moon (center) and Ryan Spitzer led the wolves to a 9-4 win against visiting Durant on Tuesday (photo by B. Goodrich).
With Moon at third base again, it was “Deja-vu all over again.” Another squeeze was put on by head coach Dick Rohrberg. With the infield in, Balasko laid down a perfect bunt that hugged the first base line, the pitcher made a play, but it was late to first, scoring Moon. With his eyes up, Balasko saw that second had been vacated and scooted an extra base uncontested. With the infield still in, Anthony Devito was able to flare a ball out towards shallow right-center, this allowed Mega to score.
After the game, Rohrberg, the Wolves ninth-year skipper, said, “we got them a couple of times with the squeeze when they weren’t expecting it, but we practice [bunting] every single day.”
With the lead at eight, with one out in the bottom of the fourth, the Cougars turned to University of Florida commit, Blaine Rowland in relief of starter Preston Rodgers. He was able to retire the top of the order on back-to-back strikeouts to keep hope alive for Durant. Rowland finished the night giving up only one unearned run, striking out seven, and giving up one hit through two and two-thirds innings.
With Newsome going to the pen, the Cougars were able to scratch together two runs in the sixth inning. Rowland started the inning with a single, followed by a Jeremy Ortiz double down the left field line. Gavin Florio, who doubled earlier in the contest, was able to put a ball into play, plating Rowland for the Cougars second run. A fielder’s choice on an attempted 6-4-3 double-play allowed the second run of the inning to score.
Entering the top of the seventh with a 9-3 lead, the Wolves sent Spitzer to the mound for the final three outs. The one hiccup Spitzer had was, with one out, LaPointe hit a no-doubter over the left field wall. Lapointe finished the game triple shy of a cycle, going three for four with two RBI’s and two stolen bases.
The Wolves three- and four-hole hitters, Spitzer and Moon, combined to go three for four with three walks, a hit-by-pitch, five runs and two runs batted in. When discussing their in-game success against the quality arms of Durant, Spitzer said “I was just hunting fastball early and as soon as I got one, I made sure to not let it go.”
Moon went in with the same mind set but had to adjust, “I got five change ups in a row, so by the fifth one, (I) just hit it right up the middle.”
With the win, Newsome moves to 7-5 (1-0 in district play), and will host Middleton on Thursday night; Durant drops to 10-3 (0-1 in district play) and will travel to Bloomingdale next Tuesday.
⚾⚾⚾⚾
Newsome 9, #3 Durant 4
D 000|012|1 – |4|9|4
N 311|310|x – |9|10|0
W – Dempsey; L – Rodgers
2B – Florio, LaPointe, Ortiz (D); HR – LaPointe (D). Records – D (10-3); N (7-5).
