For almost a full calendar year, Hunter Dame focused on one, single game.
The 2015 Class 3 sectional against Stockton.
The Bears fell in that game, 2-1, on a Tiger walk-off, but in 2016, victory would belong to the Bears.
Conway knocked off Stockton, 7-3, in the Class 3 sectional to advance to the round of eight, where they will host Mountain Grove on May 25.
“I’ve wanted all summer, I’ve wanted all fall, spring, waited for this game to pitch it,” Dame said. “I wanted all seven innings for sure, and I was able to go out there and pitch a pretty good game.”
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS FROM THE GAME.
He’s being humble.
Dame stymied the Tigers for seven innings, giving up five hits—none after the third inning—and striking out nine. After the first four men reached to start the bottom of the third, leading to two Tiger runs, Dame regrouped to strike out the side and end the threat.
“Hunter was phenomenal today,” said head coach Clay Bilyeu. “He’s our horse. We’re going to ride him. He’s gotten us this far, we’re going to see how far he can take us.”
Right now, that’s further, wins-wise, than any team in Conway history. The sectional victory was win no. 28 for the Bears, setting a program record set… a year ago.
“It’s a senior-led group,” Bilyeu said. “We’ve been led by our pitching staff. We’ve had four guys we could go to every day that’s
given us a chance.”
Dame was able to keep the Tigers off balance by using his secondary pitches to offset a Stockton team that liked to foul off a lot of pitches with two strikes.
“I used the curveball a lot tonight,” Dame said. “They were a pretty good fastball hitting team, so I mixed the curveball in counts that I wouldn’t really do it normally.”
Andrew Huckaby provided the offense early. With two on and two strikes in the top of the first, Huckaby turned on an offspeed pitch and deposited it beyond the left field fence for a three-run home run that sent a jolt through the visiting dugout.
“Big swing by Andrew,” Bilyeu said. “That was a big at-bat, too. He had a couple strikes on him, fought off a couple pitches and was able to put us on the board early and just changed the momentum of the game.”
Stockton answered with a run in the bottom of the inning after Alex Wheeler doubled with one out, then scored on a base hit from Colton Brown. After a scoreless second, Conway put up another three-spot in the third. RC Shockley got a hard-earned RBI after he was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, then Jared Smith drove in a pair with a single to left to make it 6-1.
“Last year, we struggled to score a run in this game,” Bilyeu said. “Today we were able to come out and put up seven.”
Stockton’s last gasp came in the bottom of the inning. Hits from Cameron Ramsey and Brown sandwiched around a pair of walks scored two, but that was all Dame would allow. Conway’s final run came in the fourth after Dame helped himself with a sacrifice fly to score Tayler Simpson.
“It feels great, definitely,” Dame said. “We knew coming into this game it was going to be a tough game, knew they were good, knew what they brought to the table. We just came out, executed, hit the ball well, made some plays. It went great.”
Next up is Mountain Grove, which will visit the Bears on Wednesday. Bilyeu said the long-ball hero, Huckaby, will likely get the ball to start that game.
“He’s ready for it,” he said. “He’s a big competitor, and he’s the kind of guy you want in a game like that.”
