From Staff Reports: Dawson Netz hasn’t been given a lot of opportunities to start games on the mound for Maranatha. The Minutemen have needed him to anchor the defense at shortstop. But Maranatha coach Matt Shupper had enough confidence in the sophomore to give him the ball in Friday’s CIF-SS Division 4 playoff opener. And […]
From Staff Reports:
Dawson Netz hasn’t been given a lot of opportunities to start games on the mound for Maranatha.
The Minutemen have needed him to anchor the defense at shortstop.
But Maranatha coach Matt Shupper had enough confidence in the sophomore to give him the ball in Friday’s CIF-SS Division 4 playoff opener.
And it paid off, big time.
Netz went all seven innings to lead Maranatha to an 8-1 victory over Temple City at Brookside Park.
Maranatha (21-7) will face Alhambra on Tuesday, with a location to be determined.
The Moors defeated Glenn, 5-3.
Netz allowed just an unearned run on four hits.
He didn’t walk a Rams’ batter and struck out three, and did it all on 75 pitches.
“I was trying to pitch to contact. I knew today I had to focus on limiting my pitch count,” Netz said. “We definitely got humbled last week, but everybody knows what we’re capable of. We know we have to earn whatever success we get. I definitely wanted to finish what I started.”
Max Blessinger and Charles Acker were a two-man wrecking crew.
Both sophomores had three hits apiece, and they drove in a combined seven runs.
Blessinger went 3 for 4 with two doubles and a single.
His second-inning double drove in two runs and a sixth-inning single plated another.
Acker went 3 for 4 with a triple and four RBI.
His bases-clearing triple put Temple City out of business.
“Dawson threw a gem. I’ve played with him for a while and that’s typical of him in big games,” Blessinger said. “We fed off our good energy in pregame and we executed.”
Marco Martinez went 1 for 3, he scored twice and had an RBI.
Ben Guess singled and scored for the Minutemen.
Dawson Netz and Sal Tabullo both had one hit, and Tabullo scored a run.
Quotable:
Maranatha coach Matt Shupper: “Dawson was exactly what we thought he would be. He competed in the zone with several pitches and he got better as the game went on.
Max set the table offensively again allowing, Marco, Eddie and Charles to take aggressive approaches.
The young guys today came up huge led on defense by Dante Campione in the outfield.
Charles Acker blew the game wide open with a bases clearing triple and was able to hit the ball hard to all parts of the field. As a team we didn’t really feel any pressure to do anything today but play the game as best we can.”
Maranatha DH Eddie Lopez: “Dawson did great today. He threw a ton of strikes and let his defense work for him. He did exactly what we wanted him to and got the job done efficiently.”
Box Score:
Temple City: 1-0-0-0-0-0-0-(1)
Maranatha: 2-2-0-0-0-4-X-(8)
Win: Dawson Netz
Loss: Nate Lee
