RallyNorth.net

Dillon carries Whittier past Amesbury

LOWELL — Dillon Ryan should have been tired. Battling the elements — the rain made for a tough grip and a sloppy surface on the mound — and the Amesbury Indians, Ryan took the mound in the seventh inning with a swagger and some necessary confidence.
What followed was nothing short of impressive.
Rearing back with nearly all he had, Ryan steamrolled through the bottom of the Amesbury order, striking out the side on 13 pitches to clinch a 6-0 victory and a Division 3 North championship for the Wildcats, their first in school history.
“I knew I had the bottom of the order coming up and I knew that I needed to power through them,” said Ryan, who was masterful in an 11-strikeout, four-hit shutout.
“Getting a big lead was really the key,” added Ryan, whose teammates spotted him six runs in the first two innings. “After that, I could just focus on getting outs. It’s a big relief; it really takes the pressure off.”
Ryan was economical with his pitches, not walking a single Indian. He used his powerful fastball, mixed with a changeup breaking pitch that he called his slurve, a mixture of a slider and curveball.
“(Amesbury) has some really good hitters,” he said. “You have to keep them off balance to make outs and that’s what I was trying to do. I use that slurve, it changes speeds and breaks so It can keep hitters off balance — that’s my strategy.”
Ryan has been immense all season. With yesterday’s win, he moved to 6-1 with a 1.72 ERA and 60 strikeouts in 53 innings including 18 punchouts in his last two starts.
“He was unbelievable,” said Whittier head coach Joe Boland. “Newburyport, after his last start, told me that they thought he was the best pitcher in the state. That’s something I think we’ve known for a while. We always knew he was a great pitcher and you know, throughout the season, I would go through our numbers and I really don’t think I pitched him enough.”
But not pitching him enough, Boland feels, might be the reason Ryan has been as brilliant as he has been this late into the season.
“Maybe it saved his arm,” he said. “He went out there in the seventh inning and was still throwing heat. His stuff still had plenty of life on it after pitching six innings, mostly in the rain.”
Whittier struck for two runs in the first inning before exploding for four more in the second. Andrew Wells and Colby Starner led off the inning with a pair of walks and Jordan Britton followed with an infield single to load the bases.
Nate Frongillo drove in the inning’s first run with a single to left and Billy Lafferty drove in two more with a single to right before Nate Allen closed the scoring with a sacrifice fly to left that scored Frongillo, who advanced to third on Lafferty’s single.
Whittier batters didn’t strike out the entire game.
“We just needed to get the bat on the ball,” Boland said. “We were concentrating on making contact and making good things happen. I’m sure getting out to that early lead made it a little easier for Dillon on the mound, too.”
The early lead, and Ryan’s infield — made up of Lafferty, Frongillo, Britton and Wells — made the last five innings relatively easy for Ryan.
“They’re the best infield in the state,” Ryan said. “Having them behind me gives me a lot of confidence throwing strikes. As a pitcher, you worry less about balls being hit when those guys are behind you.”
Whittier will travel south for the Division 3 semifinals against Norton. A date (most likely Tuesday), time and location have yet to be determined by the MIAA.
Whittier 6, Amesbury 0
Division 3 North Final
Amesbury (0): Joseph Mejia ss 3-0-0, Chester Conant cf 2-0-1, John Collette C 2-0-1, James Parady 1b 3-0-0, Tyler Lay 2b 3-0-0, Jeffrey Marston p 3-0-0, Tyler Smith lf 3-0-1, Sean Ward 3b 3-0-0, Jesse Burrell 3-0-1. Totals 25-0-4
Whittier (6): Steve Surrette cf 4-1-0, Nate Frongillo 2b 3-2-2, Billy Lafferty ss 3-1-1, Nate Allen rf 2-0-1, Dillon Ryan p 1-0-0, Brandon Martinez lf 3-0-0, Andrew Wells 3b 2-0-0, Colby Starner c 1-1-0, Jordan Britton 1b 2-1-1. Totals 21-6-5
RBI: W — Allen 3, Lafferty 2, Frongillo
WP: Dillon Ryan (7IP, 0ER, 11K); LP: Jeffrey Marston (6IP, 6ER, 0K)
Amesbury:    0 0 0 0 0 0 — 0
Whittier:    2 4 0 0 0 0 — 6