Alan Spencer’s 10 strikeouts, Gus Burr’s grand slam send St. Bede past Dwight

PERU – St. Bede got dominant pitching from starter Alan Spencer and big hits, including a grand slam from Gus Burr, as the Bruins topped Dwight 8-1 in Tri-County Conference action Tuesday afternoon.

With the victory, the Bruins moved to 5-0 in conference action and 12-1 on the season.

Right from the start, Spencer was ahead of hitters and posted two strikeouts in the top of the first inning. Spencer again shined in the second and struck out three more Trojans before the Bruins’ bats went to work.

In the bottom half of the inning, Spencer led things off with a rocket off Ayden Collom at third base. Pinch-runner Alex Tomsha then advanced on a wild pitch.

Gino Ferrari then walked, but the next two Bruins were retired, which brought up the No. 9 hitter in Stuart McGunnigal, who took the first pitch he saw and smoked a two-run single to right field that scored Tomsha and Ferarri for a 2-0 lead.

That brought up leadoff hitter Geno Dinges, who singled to left, followed by a big two-run double to right-center field that scored McGunnigal and Dinges to put the Bruins ahead 4-1 after two innings.

On the mound, Spencer continued to shine as he struck out two more Trojans hitters in the third to keep St. Bede firmly in the lead.

“Getting ahead of the hitters is a big key,” Spencer said. “Just attacking the zone and seeing what they could do, and then I’ve been getting big hits from the guys all season and [it] makes my job on the mound easier.”

In the top of the fourth, Dwight got a double to center from leadoff hitter Luke Gallet and then advanced on a Ayden Collom groundout.

Joey Starks then hit a rocket to third base that took a crazy bounce and scored Gallet to put the Trojans on the board and make it 4-1.

Both teams went pretty quietly in the fifth, and then in the sixth Dwight would threaten to make the score much tighter on the Bruins.

Collom reached on an error at third followed by a Owen Dunlap walk. Ryan Bumpous then was hit by a pitch to load the bases, but Dinges was able to slam the door shut on the Trojans with a pop out to end the inning with no runs crossing the plate.

“That’s been the story of our season to be honest,” Dwight coach Jerry McDowell said. “We get guys on and can’t get the big hits to get a rally going. But then you have to give St. Bede credit because they were getting ahead of our hitters all afternoon and making things tough as well.”

In the bottom half of the inning, the Bruins put the game away for good. AJ Hermes led off with a single to right but then was forced out at second as McGunnigal reached on a fielder’s choice.

Dinges then singled to right and then reached second as the throw to third was off-line. Carson Riva drew a walk to load the bases, which brought up Gus Burr.

Burr then took the 1-1 count and crushed a grand slam to center field that broke the game open and put the Bruins ahead 8-1.

“Absolutely great performance on the mound for Spencer,” St. Bede coach Bill Booker said. “Then to get big hits from Stuart McGunnigal, Carson Riva and then Gus Burr just helped big time against a very good Dwight team. Dinges hasn’t started yet for us, but has pitched some big relief innings and today was no different as they had bases loaded and got no runs. That was big, and I think we’ll be seeing some starts over the next couple weeks to get him some experience there as well.”

For the game, Dinges had two hits while Riva and McGunnigal had two RBIs and Burr with four. Spencer struck out 10. Gallet led the Trojans with two and took the loss on the mound.