Upper Perkiomen’s Dyer wins pitchers’ duel with Pottsgrove’s Eckman
LOWER POTTSGROVE >> It was one of those games where both pitchers did well enough to qualify for victory.
Head-to-head, though, Madalyn Dyer had the edge on Mikayla Eckman Wednesday afternoon. That went a long way toward Upper Perkiomen handling Pottsgrove, 3-0, in a pairing of teams in the upper quadrant of the Pioneer Athletic Conference’s Frontier Division.
Dyer worked a five-hit shutout while racking up 11 strikeouts over seven innings. The Indian junior responded in strong fashion to a pair of early jams, employing a five-pitch repertoire to help keep her club (7-1 Frontier, 8-4 PAC) solidly atop the Frontier ranks and among District One’s Class 5A leaders.
“That’s common for her,” UP head coach Dean Sullivan said of Dyer’s double-digit whiff numbers. “Of her five pitches (fastball, curve, drop curve, rise, screwball), the screwball is her finishing pitch.”
The early challenges saw Pottsgrove (4-4, 4-8) get its leadoff batters — Bailey Pysher in the first, Eckman (double) in the second — on base. Dyer’s response was to put the next three batters down in order, three by strikeout.
“It’s a huge mental thing on my part,” she said. “When they get on base, I focus on doing my job and throwing strikes.”
Dyer got backing, in the meantime, from error-free defense and a 12-hit offense that put runners across the plate in the second, fourth and sixth innings.
Dyer attributed the success to “my off-season work, and the defense, for sure. My catcher (Ashley Forrest) is a great (pitch) ‘framer’.”
UP’s hit total notwithstanding, Eckman did her part to keep the Tribe from building a bigger lead. A sophomore with six pitches, she had eight strikeouts against one walk and was aided by a defense that twice erased UP baserunners at home plate.
“She has six pitches,” Pottsgrove head coach Jessica Bedard noted, “and she does a good job with them. She goes in, out, up and down with them, and she makes them change speeds. She works very hard.”
Mackenzie Schaffer scored the Indians’ first two runs after hitting safely both times. She put the visitors on the scoreboard in the second after stealing second, moving up to third off Kaylyn Adair’s fielder’s choice and then home off Darby Gasda’s single to right. The fourth-inning insurance run came in with help from Riley Eden’s sacrifice bunt and Adair’s RBI single through shortstop.
Stolen bases were a key ingredient in Upper Perk’s winning performance. The Tribe collected seven steals, two apiece by Lynnsi Joyce, Dani Freer and Schaffer.
“We’re struggling for hits,” Sullivan said, “so we’re trying to get bunts down. We were no-hit a game ago (Phoenixville Monday).”
The Indians completed their scoring in the sixth, Kylene Gooch belting a two-out triple and Joyce following with her RBI single.
“There are definitely games where we’ve slumped hitting,” Dyer said. “We work to come back strong and do what we can do.”
Pysher (2-for-4) was Pottsgrove’s offensive star, its other hits coming from Lizzie McAllister, Eckman and Jasmine Bowman.
With the postseason on the horizon, the Falcons are striving to improve their standing in the district. At 7-9 for the season, they are in the 10th spot of a class that seeds 12 teams.
“The key for us is to be around district contention,” Bedard said. “We have to win our next couple games and hope to finish on a strong note. We’re cutting down on errors, but we need to finish games and produce more Ws.”
Upper Perk (11-5) is in a more comfortable position in the 5A rankings. It came into Wednesday’s game second behind West Chester Rustin, and Sullivan sees his team seeded somewhere in the 2-6 band.
“We’re a small team, with about 16 players,” he said in assessing the program’s success. “Because of that, we’re a tight-knit group that gets together and keeps it light.”
NOTES >> Dyer got hit in the leg by Pysher’s third-inning single. She walked it off, however, and continued her strong mound performance. … A majority of Dyer’s strikeouts (nine) came against the lower end of the Pottsgrove lineup.
