He threw a punch at the sky, when the buzzer finally sounded. Then he shouted. Then he leaped – no, bounded was more like it – into the arms of one his coaches, Paul Gunsett.FORT WAYNE – Bishop Dwenger didn’t settle for the traditional group photo with its sectional trophy.
Maureen Denihan made the call.
“Pyramid!” shouted first baseman Denihan soon after the Saints beat Angola 9-0 to win the Class 3A Angola Sectional on Saturday.
So players stacked three rows high to get pictures snapped, prompting assistant coach Beth Peters to call them “the best pyramid-building team in the state.”
That’s not the only thing this group is good at.
They’re 23-2, No. 8 in Class 3A and will play Mississinewa (15-6) at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Concordia for a regional championship. It’d be Dwenger’s first regional title. The sectional championship was the second in the last three seasons.
“This is huge. This gives us so much motivation into the regionals,” said junior Ashley Burkhardt, who had a solo home run to center field in the seventh among her three hits.
“Beating them 9-0 is pretty intense, love it. Hopefully, it keeps going.”
Though the Saints enjoyed passing around the sectional trophy and savored the victory, they aren’t satisfied.
Denihan, one of three seniors on the roster, said she has been expecting this team to go to state all season. That’s a shared sentiment.
“This is just the starting point,” Burkhardt said.
“We have so much more ahead of us. We can do so well in the future. I feel like we can go far with this team if we play like we did (Saturday).”
As long as Andrea Filler stays healthy, Dwenger would seem to have a chance for its big goals. She leads the state in batting average and responded when Angola opted to pitch to her by going 3 for 3 with two RBI, pushing her average to .704. Her double in first scored Burkhardt for Dwenger’s first run.
The only one it needed with Filler on the mound.
The junior gave up four hits, didn’t issue a walk and struck out eight batters.
The Hornets struggled to make solid contact, mostly trying to pull outside pitches that led to weak grounders back to Filler or to the right side of the field. Filler recorded six ground-ball outs and five more outs were from second and right field.
“The umpire was really generous with the outside corner, so I took advantage of that, but I also felt really good,” Filler said. “I felt loose. I was nervous a bit at the beginning of the game, but once we got that lead, it takes a lot of stress off. Just relax more and have some fun.”
Angola’s uncharacteristic poor fielding day – it was fielding at a .963 clip, coach Chris Schuler said – helped Dwenger pad its total. The Hornets had seven errors, and the Saints scored three times on passed balls or wild pitches.
That left Schuler a bit frustrated, but he didn’t complain much afterward.
His team just completed the best season in school history at 24-5 and will return all of its starters.
“They’re going to be back here next year. I fully believe it,” he said.
“We’re probably going to play that team again. It’s going to be awesome. It was a challenge for them. This year, we fell short.”
