Marco Martinez (l) and Dawson Netz (r) From STAFF REPORTS Maranatha couldn’t have possibly opened their Olympic League schedule with a bigger bang. The Minutemen traveled to Whittier Christian on a cold Friday afternoon, but their bats and pitcher were plenty hot. Dawson Netz threw a no-hitter and struck out 13 batters on 79 pitches, […]
Marco Martinez (l) and Dawson Netz (r)
From STAFF REPORTS
Maranatha couldn’t have possibly opened their Olympic League schedule with a bigger bang.
The Minutemen traveled to Whittier Christian on a cold Friday afternoon, but their bats and pitcher were plenty hot.
Dawson Netz threw a no-hitter and struck out 13 batters on 79 pitches, and Marco Martinez went deep three times as Maranatha earned an 8-0 victory.
Netz didn’t walk a batter and 62 of his 79 pitches were strikes.
Of his 13 strikeouts, Netz got 8 separate Whittier Christian batters at least once, and he fanned five Heralds’ twice.
Martinez went 3 for 5, all three hits were home runs and he drove in five runs.
Martinez hit two blasts off the starting pitcher and all three came with two strikes in the count.
Ben Guess collected two hits and scored once and Max Blessinger doubled, drove in a run and scored once for the Minutemen.
Netz went 2 for 3 at the plate including a double, and reached base a third time via a walk.
Alex Escobar was saddled with the loss, giving up six runs on six hits over 2 1/3 innings.
Escobar walked one and fanned four.
Dante Campione went 2 for 2 and scored a pair of runs.
Casey Popham singled and had an RBI, and Jacob Moreno had a base hit and drove in a run for the Minutemen.
To put icing on a very sweet Maranatha cake, eight of Maranatha’s nine starters collected at least one hit, five players scored a run, and four had at least one RBI.
The one player that didn’t get a hit, Charles Acker, had three great at-bats, according to MHS coach Matt Shupper.
Maranatha isn’t scheduled to play until next Friday when they host Heritage Christian (5-3) at Brookside Park.
Quotable:
Maranatha coach Matt Shupper: “It’s a great week to make a statement. Dawson threw fast balls the first time through their line up, and with his curve ball working, they really didn’t have a chance. Marco has an approach at the plate that most high school and many college players don’t have. He just knows how to hit. He’s also very strong guy. Our goal today was to have as much fun on the baseball field and stay loose. We wanted them to go out there and play their best.”
Maranatha senior Marco Martinez: “I was comfortable in the batters box. I knew they couldn’t overpower me. They were throwing me a lot of off-speed stuff. I got down early in the count. Every home run came with two strikes. I was in protect mode and barreled the ball well. With Dawson pitching, I knew what we were going to get out of him. He is a dog on the mound. He’s going to attack and throw a lot of strikes. He did what he had to do. We came into league prepared and knew what we had coming at us.”
Maranatha junior Dawson Netz: “When I picked up the ball, I felt really good. I thought I might make this happen today. I was throwing my fastball in and out a lot and hitting my spots. We were bummed out about the two earlier losses and league gave us a fresh start and turned the page. It’s nice having someone like Marco in the line up so you don’t have to worry about getting runs. I felt like in the seventh to keep doing what I was doing.”
Box Score:
Maranatha: 1-0-5-1-0-0-1-(8)
Whittier Christian: 0-0-0-0-0-0-0-(0)
Win: Dawson Netz
Loss: Alex Escobar
Home Run: Marco Martinez (M) 3
Doubles: Max Blessinger (M), Dawson Netz (M), Brock Vradenburg (M)
Records: Maranatha (4-2, 1-0); Whittier Christian (3-5-1, 0-1)
