Taravella Comes Up Short Against Dwyer

Host Taravella and Dwyer matched up well Friday night as both teams searched for a spark to gain enough offense to win.

Taravella, playing its first game of the season, got off to fast start with a 1-0 lead in the first, but struggled for the rest of the night. Dwyer was the opposite, struggling early but then finding that spark in the form of a bomb as senior center fielder Jamal Martin blasted a two-out home run to left for the go-ahead run in the sixth as the Panthers ended up winning 3-1.

The Trojans and Panthers played to a 1-1 tie through five innings thanks to strong pitching from Taravella’s Devin Meyer and Dwyer’s Bradley Emery.

Emery gave up a leadoff single to Joseph Depalo, and Greg Feinberg brought him in with a sacrifice fly. Emery buckled down and struck out the next two batters to help Dwyer get out of the inning without further damage. The senior pitcher finished with nine strikeouts and gave up four hits while walking none. In addition to Depalo, Taravella got hits from Andrew Wallach, Meyer and Gavin Robinson.

His counterpart, Taravella’s Devin Meyer, also pitched a fine game, surrendering only two hits through five innings while striking out five.

Dwyer found success with small ball as Martin opened the top of the fourth by dropping down a bunt single. Two batters later, Patrick Pinak hit a sacrifice bunt to score him, making it a whole new game with the score tied.

Martin delivered again in the sixth, this time going with the long ball as he crushed a home run with two outs to put Dwyer ahead 2-1.

“I knew he had been giving us breaking balls, so I just sat breaking ball first and I got it,” Martin said.

Dwyer coach Frank Torre said Martin “showed what kind of a player he can be. It’s games like these where you need to go-to guys to come through. And he came up with a huge hit.”

Tim Lynch followed Martin’s homer with a single and came home when Pinak’s fly ball to center field was dropped as the outfielder hit the wall.

Martin said early season games against good competition like Friday’s game provides the team the learning experiences it needs to be successful later in the year.

“We get to get out a lot of the mistakes,” he said. “We get to get all the jitters out and come together as a team.”

Torre said his team needs to “work on the little things a little more.” Nevertheless, he said he was “encouraged that we kept a level head and didn’t panic and got better at-bats as the game went on.”

Taravella coach Jason Stein said he knows no one is expecting much from his young team this season, but he saw enough good things from it Friday to be optimistic.

“Games like these give you the opportunity to get a good evaluation of your team,” Stein said. “We were very competitive and stuck with them.”

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