Riverside senior racked up stats in section wins over New Brighton, Beaver Falls and Ellwood City
NORTH SEWICKLEY TWP. — Last week, Austin Dambach stopped into the batter’s box 12 times. In those 12 at-bats, he put together one of the most productive stat lines of his baseball life.
He got on base 11 times with eight hits and three walks.
He hit three home runs, two triples, a double and two singles.
He drove home 11 runs and scored seven runs.
“Well, it was definitely my best week I’ve ever had in baseball,” said Dambach, the Panthers’ senior center fielder.
Dambach racked up those prodigious numbers in three straight WPIAL Section 2-3A wins: 11-1 over New Brighton, 13-0 over Beaver Falls and 11-1 over Ellwood City.
Although those wins came against teams with a combined section record of 3-10, the Panthers did what they had to do to improve to 5-1 overall and 5-0 in section play.
Dambach, who bats third in the lineup, hit a home run in each of the three games.
“I think Coach (Dan) Oliastro was pleased with how I hit the ball,” Dambach said. “In our first few games, I wasn’t hitting the ball all that well. But he said, ‘Don’t worry. It will come.’ “
The home run against New Brighton was an inside-the-park job at Dan Oliastro Field.
“It was real muddy, and I hit a deep fly ball to right center and it got stuck in the mud a little,” Dambach said. “The center fielder was going to call time, but then he reached down for the ball. So it was still live. I just kept running and made it all the way to home.”
His second home run of the week was a grand slam at Beaver Falls. He blasted a shot to straight away center, well above the 360-foot sign.
It was the second grand slam of his career. Dambach’s first slam came in a win over Mohawk when he was a sophomore.
“That was the farthest ball I ever hit in my life,” he said.
His third and final homer of the week was a solo shot over the center-field fence in a home win over Ellwood City.
Beside Dambach’s three home runs, two other Panthers blasted HRs last week.
Danny Fox, a pitcher/infielder, smacked a two-run blast against New Brighton. Pitcher/utility man Gunnar Boehm hit a grand slam in the win over Ellwood City.
“We knew we could be real good hitting team,” said Dambach, who leads the Panthers with a .632 batting average and 12 RBIs. “But I don’t know if we expected us to hit the ball as well as we have so far.”