Paul Laurence Dunbar baseball’s sweep of LCA signals the Bulldogs are for real
Paul Laurence Dunbar has taken on the look of a serious contender in the 43rd District and the 11th Region.
Coming off a 14-18 season that saw 10 seniors graduate in 2021 along with most of their offense and pitching, Coach Steve Deaton’s fresh batch of Bulldogs has gone 10-3, so far, and popped into the PrepBaseballReport.com rankings at No. 20 after victories over No. 8 Frederick Douglass and No. 21 Mercer County in recent weeks.
After a sweep this week of No. 22 Lexington Christian, one of its district rivals, Dunbar figures to climb even higher.
“The biggest thing I tell them is, ‘Guys, you play, you get recognized.’ And at the end of the day, the rankings are what the rankings are,” Deaton said. “We’ve got to continue to play and play at a high level and never be satisfied and always go one day at a time. Never look past the one game you’re getting ready to play. We’ve got to show up.”
Against LCA on Thursday, Dunbar followed up a 7-6 home win in extra innings against the Eagles the day before with a 9-5 road victory that included a seven-run outburst in the fifth inning and a solid performance on the mound from junior right-hander Mark Dattilio. Dattilio allowed four runs (three earned) on five hits in five innings and struck out six. He got four of his strikeouts in the first two innings.
“I felt really comfortable out there. I knew I had my guys behind me,” Dattilio said. “I’m always comfortable out there because I know they’re gonna make my plays. I’m just free to pitch. … We’re a good team. Hopefully, we’ll make it far this year.”
One of Dattilio’s five walks helped LCA take a 1-0 lead in the third inning on a passed ball. A pair of LCA singles and a sacrifice bunt helped the Eagles take a 2-1 lead in the fourth on Parker Chaney’s RBI single, but Dunbar avoided a big inning by cutting down Cole Ginter at the plate on a relay throw from left fielder Scott Kendrick to Dattilio to catcher Bennett Talwalkar.
Each time LCA scored, Dunbar answered. Michael Nicoulin tied the game 1-1 on an RBI single in the top of the fourth.
But the big blow came in the fifth as a pair of walks and an error helped set up the seven-run rally. Tyler Gadd’s RBI single tied the game again 2-2. Then, Talwalkar reached on an error that scored the go-ahead run. That ended the day for LCA starter Elijah Hammond. The Bulldogs led 3-2 with two runners still on base and no one out.
LCA reliever Will Orberson got the first out on an infield pop fly, but Dunbar’s bats wouldn’t quiet down. Batting eighth in the lineup, Carter Reed knocked in two more runs with a single to right center. Then, in the nine-hole, Harrison Simpson, a sophomore who’d had only six at bats before Thursday, launched a homer over the left-field fence to score two more and stake Dunbar to an 8-2 lead.
“Timely hitting is what we’ve struggled with a little bit this year. And now we’ve had a game where we had some timely hitting when we needed it,” Deaton said. “To see our eight- and nine-hole do what they did tonight, I’m very excited about it. The thing that we really focus on is it doesn’t matter where you hit in the lineup. It’s just a number. You have a job and you have to battle and go to work and put the ball and play.”
Dunbar’s leading hitters, Kendrick (.381 average) and Nick Griffith, (.313 average) were also among the six different players with runs batted in.
The win improved Dunbar’s record to 10-3 overall and 2-1 in the 43rd District — a good start, but a long way from securing one of the top three seeds in the district tournament next month. The loss dropped LCA to 6-7 overall and 0-2 in the district.
Dunbar has yet to face Lexington Catholic or Tates Creek and has one game left against defending district and region champion Lafayette.
In a 13-6 loss to the Generals on April 7, Dunbar jumped to a 4-0 lead before a series of mistakes that included three walks, three hit batsmen and four errors helped turn the game on its head.
“We came out good against Lafayette, but kind of kicked the ball around like we shouldn’t have,” Deaton said. “And we learned from that. To bounce back and play the way we did against LCA makes me very happy with this team because they are starting to mature.”
A rematch with the Generals has not yet been set due to weather. Dunbar will play in the Louisville Invitational Tournament this weekend.
“I like the grit in this team,” Deaton said. “We’ve been fighting hard, and we know that we’ve got to sit there and just play a full ball game. We can’t just sit there and play one inning and think it’s going to cash it out. We’re going to have to play the whole ball game.”
This story was originally published April 15, 2022 at 7:42 AM.
