‘Super Luke’ delivers one last time for Marple Newtown

STATE COLLEGE >> There wasn’t a Marple Newtown fan in the crowd at Penn State’s Medlar Field Thursday that didn’t believe Luke Zimmerman would be the one to end the Tigers’ magical season. Tenth inning. PIAA Class 5A championship. Bases loaded and two outs.

“He’s Super Luke,” senior pitcher Sean Standen said.

Zimmerman has been Mr. Clutch all season. Whether he’s pitching shutouts or hitting walk-offs, Zimmerman has excelled so often in big spots. But there wasn’t a moment that could compare to Thursday’s finale. If he got a hit, the Tigers would be state champions. If he got an out, well … we might still be playing baseball. Zimmerman didn’t waste any time. Hitting from the left side, he connected on a pitch from Lower Dauphin’s Will Manley … and he got every bit of it.

The ball traveled to deep right field and landed on the warning track and caromed off the wall. Sean Donnell raised his hands in the air and trotted home from third base with the winning run. It was over. Marple Newtown 2, Lower Dauphin 1. Marple Newtown had become the first baseball team in Delaware County history to capture a state championship in baseball. And all it took was 10 heart-thumping innings.

“I just wanted to make sure to put the bat on the ball, because nine times out of 10, if I put the ball on the ball it’s going to be a hard hit,” Zimmerman said. “Even if I hit it right to a kid and he bobbles it or something, I’m running hard no matter what to make sure I’m safe.

“It’s an incredible feeling.”

Zimmerman didn’t need to worry about legging out a hit. He had won the game the second he lifted the ball to the outfield. It was a loud shot that had no chance to be tracked down.

For Zimmerman, the state championship was the pretty orange-and-black bow on a perfect season. He started the state final with a 10-0 and a 0.72 ERA. While he admittedly didn’t have his best stuff, Zimmerman gave it everything he had and went 5.1 innings on the mound.

Standen replaced Zimmerman and pitched 4.1 excellent innings of relief. The first-year varsity hurler, and senior, made the victory a reality for the Tigers (25-2). He struck out five and got out of a few jams to keep the score tied.

“I knew every time Standen was on the mound,” Zimmerman said, “they weren’t going to score.”

Standen never thought he would throw 56 pitches in the state final. As the drama unfolded, Standen got better. He left a runners stranded on first and third in the eighth, then escaped a first-and-second situation in the ninth.

“I knew I was pitching tonight and I knew I had to bare down and throw strikes,” Standen said. “I went to go watch them in the (Archbishop) Carroll game (in the semifinal round) and I knew they could put the ball on the bat. I scouted them and I knew what I wanted to throw against them. It worked out pretty well.”

For most of the evening, the Tigers had wasted Zimmerman and Standen’s efforts on the hill. The Tigers simply couldn’t get the big hit, as Lower Dauphin fired the opening salvo, plating the game’s first run in the top of the fourth. Connor Buggy’s single drove in courtesy runner Nate Hoffman to give the Falcons a 1-0 advantage.

As the game dragged on, the Tigers leaned on their senior captains.

“As one of the leaders on the team, I try to tell these guys that we’re always in it,” senior catcher Luke Cantwell said. “It doesn’t matter what inning it is, I try to tell everyone ‘We’ve got this. The hits are going to come.’ If they hear that, especially from me and Luke and guys at the top of the lineup, they react and they know how to bounce back.”

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PETE BANNAN – DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA Marple Newtown’s Luke Zimmerman celebrates his RBI single in the 10th inning that gave the Tigers a 2-1 victory over Lower Dauphin in the PIAA Class 5A championsnhip game Thursday night at Penn State’s Medlar Field