Dominant Dwight: Senior tosses 3-hit gem to lead Pentucket past Newburyport
May 4—WEST NEWBURY — There was no secret routine for Chase Dwight coming into Tuesday's game, no change in the warmup or in the schedule during the day. In fact, the only thing he did different was eat an extra granola bar with breakfast.
Was that the key?
Eh, probably not. But what Dwight definitely did was get back to the basics on the mound, and that means throwing strikes. The senior tossed a complete-game, three-hit gem with five strikeouts, and the Pentucket defense behind him didn't make an error all day to earn a 3-0 win over what was a red-hot Newburyport team.
"It felt good," said Dwight. "We had high energy going into this one, so it was nice to take that high energy and positivity into the game. I would say my fastball was working, but really it was my teammates making plays behind me."
The Clippers (8-3) had come in winners of seven straight, and had ace Jack Fehlner on the mound.
But Dwight was more than up to the duel.
He wasn't exceedingly overpowering with his pitches, but made sure to pound the strike zone all game. He only had two walks to go along with his five punchouts, and cruised through four 1-2-3 innings — including the sixth and seventh — to lead Pentucket (5-4) to the victory.
"I mean, Chase pitched phenomenally," said Pentucket coach Kevin Murray. "Defensively, we did a good job with making the plays that were hit at us, I don't think we made an error all day. and then offensively we were working at-bats, working counts and did a really good job of grinding out the pitcher until later in the game."
Fehlner pitched a solid game as well for the Clippers. He went all six innings allowing six hits with seven strikeouts, and only two of his three runs were earned.
But Pentucket got the lead in the bottom of the third, and didn't let it go.
Trevor Kamuda reached on an error to start the inning, got to second on a fielder's choice hit by Will Roberts and then stole third with two outs. Dwight then came up to bat, and the senior helped out his cause by smashing a double to center field. Besides being in command on the mound, Dwight also went 2-for-3 at the plate.
The Clippers, however, responded with their best chance to score in the top of the fourth. Lucas Stallard started the inning with a walk, and after an Owen Tahnk double it was 2nd and 3rd with no outs. But Dwight got a weak groundout to first base, and after intentionally walking Fehlner to load the bases he got a strikeout and another groundout to escape the jam and keep momentum on Pentucket's side.
"Dwight pitched a great game, my hats off to him," said Newburyport coach Mark Rowe. "We hit some balls hard, right at people. But he went out there and threw strikes, and that's what this game is all about. They played very, very well defensively, and like I say when you don't walk batters, when you throw strikes, that's all you gotta do in this league."
And after that momentum-booster, Max Ligols gave Pentucket some insurance.
James Davis started the bottom of the fourth with a single, and two batters later Ligols took an 0-2 curveball and blasted it over the fence in left field for a two-run home run. and after Ligols' bomb, Dwight allowed only one baserunner over the final three innings.
"I was down 0-2 in the count and I got a curveball," said Ligols, who went 2-for-3 on the day. "The first at-bat he gave me a curveball for a couple strikes, so I just sat back on it and hit a home run.
"It feels very good because Newburyport is a rivalry game. We just came off a tough loss to Lynnfield, so it was nice to get this one. This will be a confidence-booster."
Pentucket 3, Newburyport 0
Newburyport (0): Jack Sullivan rf 3-0-0, Connor Stick 2b 3-0-1, Lucas Stallard ss 2-0-0, Owen Tahnk 3b 3-0-1, Max Puleo lf 3-0-0, Jack Fehlner p 2-0-1, Brady Ford 1b 2-0-0, Tyler Cowles c 2-0-0, Steve Lawton ph 1-0-0, Owen Roberts cf 2-0-0, Will Walsh ph 1-0-0. Totals 24-0-3
Pentucket (3): Trevor Kamuda cf 3-1-0, Will Roberts lf 3-0-0, Ethan Hunt ss 2-0-1, Chase Dwight p 3-0-2, Kyle Ventola c 3-0-0, James Davis dh 3-1-1, Alex Robertson 1b 2-0-0, Brian Inger ph 1-0-0, Max Ligols rf 3-1-2, Bryce Winter 3b 2-0-0, Justin Majka 2b 0-0-0. Totals 25-3-6
RBI: P — Ligols 2, Dwight
WP: Dwight; LP: Fehlner
Newburyport (8-3): 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 0
Pentucket (5-4): 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 — 3
