Bishop McNamara’s Dom Panozzo no-hits Hope Academy to give teams share of conference title

KANKAKEE – If a film screenwriter sent a script of the last week of Bishop McNamara’s baseball regular season to a motion picture studio, executives would immediately dismiss it for being too unrealistic.

But for Dom Panozzo and the Fightin’ Irish, Tuesday’s home game against Hope Academy continued a week that not even Hollywood would believe.

Panozzo threw a no-hitter in the final home game of his career, a 10-0, six-inning McNamara win that gave the Irish (22-6, 11-3) a share of the Chicagoland Christian Conference with the Eagles in the conference finale.

“Senior night got rained out, this got bumped back to the last game of the conference, and I think it was definitely meant to be this way,” Panozzo said. “Something was definitely working for us, especially for us seniors, to have this type of game to close out our careers on our own field. I think there was definitely something working there for us.

“It doesn’t happen by coincidence there.”

It’s also no coincidence that it was Panozzo who toed the rubber Tuesday. He was pulled after just three innings and 60 pitches of his start against Bradley-Bourbonnais last week, a comeback 6-3 win that precluded last Friday’s 13-0 win at Kankakee that gave the Irish their first All-City championship in a decade, so that he could pitch Tuesday’s de facto conference championship game.

And aside from a first-inning error, second-inning hit batter and third-inning walk, no Eagles reached base. It took the Illinois State commit just 84 pitches to carve through six no-hit innings with 14 strikeouts.

“Just reading hitters and whatnot,” Panozzo said. “They’re an aggressive hitting team, and breaking balls work great against aggressive hitting teams, and it makes the fastball effective when you need it.”

While Panozzo didn’t surrender any hits, he was one of seven Irish hitters to record one in an eight-run bottom of the first before Eagles starter Davian Villalobos settled in. But the Irish were able to push across two more in the bottom of the sixth, with Callaghan O’Connor legging out an RBI infield single with two outs to give the Irish a run-rule win.

“We’ve battled this last week, and I can see everyone getting better as time goes on,” senior first baseman Max Rohr said of a lineup that saw seven players have at least one hit, run and RBI. “At-bats are getting worked to full counts and stuff, but that’s also with Coach [Aaron] Fuerst putting us in the right spot to succeed.”

Rohr had a pair of doubles on the day, adding a run and RBI apiece. Jacob Lotz continued his tear at the plate by going 3 for 4 with a double, a triple, three RBIs and two runs. Taylor Fuerst was 2 for 3 with a double and two runs from the leadoff spot.

Tuesday’s memorable win was the 11th in a row for the Irish, who last lost at Hope on April 24. With trips to Marian Catholic, St. Joseph-Ogden and Pontiac left before next week’s postseason begins, Irish head coach Kurt Quick wants the Irish to keep seeing good competition – and the success they’re having against it – as they look to keep things rolling.

“It’s a good time to be red-hot,” Quick said. “We have some goals set again, and we want to prove not only to the city and the conference, but to the rest of the state. We want to prove who we are and where we’re at for a reason.”