PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — An outstanding play brought the William T. Dwyer High School boys baseball team a 6A state championship.
"Being a sophomore up on varsity with a bunch of older guys, getting to learn from them and then eventually making it to state was one of a kind, because not very many people get to do that in their lifetime," player Sully Smith said.
The state title is the first for the Panthers in baseball in school history. The win came after a stellar regular season of 23-7-1.
The team's great play continued come playoff time. The Panthers beat the Bucholz Bobcats from Gainesville 10-3 for the state title.
Dwyer coach and former Miami Marlins pitcher Jordan Yamamoto said the team had clutch hitting and dominant pitching in the title game.
"The championship rolls around, the states, the regionals, and districts, that's when it matters to be hot and that's when the hot hand plays and the hot hand wins," Yamamoto said.
The consistency the team displayed all season helped bring home a title. Wednesday the School held the teams ring ceremony.
"Getting that ring, that's all we had in mind. We had the picture of just the ring on our finger," player Domenic Pecorarl said. "Yesterday, we had our ring ceremony and looking at the ring with our initials on it it's just like everything we worked for. It felt unreal."
