Swing and a miss. Inning over.
Turner yelled triumphantly and met his teammates halfway to the dugout to deliver high-fives and chest bumps — a foreshadowing of the even more dramatic celebration that ensued an inning later when his team put the finishing touches on a 3-0 victory over Sidwell Friends (14-8-1) to clinch the tournament title at home in McLean.
Last year, the Panthers watched in dejection as Maret beat them, 10-9, in a thrilling conference championship bout. Turner, a senior who is committed to play football for Kenyon College (Ohio), started that game on a similarly wet afternoon and struggled. But that performance served as a catalyst for his three innings of relief pitching Saturday.
“After last year, it was hard to kind of flush it. It was definitely not my best start,” Turner said. “Every single day of grinding and practicing all led up to today. When I got on that mound, I knew the last thing I wanted to feel was what I felt last year.”
Turner was one of three Potomac School pitchers who combined for the shutout. Paul Witkop set the tone by dealing three hitless innings, and Turner followed with a trio of scoreless frames. Davide Bertuzzi set the Quakers down in order in the seventh to cue his teammates’ stampede out of the dugout.
The Quakers’ only hit of the day was a fourth-inning single by junior Will Pryce.
“The pitchers pitched to a plan. I think sometimes as coaches, you try to put things together and it doesn’t always work. I think today it worked, but the only way it works is if the pitchers execute, and they did that today,” Potomac School Coach Eric Crozier said.
The Panthers (20-4), who also won the league’s regular season crown, got the only run they would ultimately need in the first inning, when Owen Peterson slapped a hit to left field to score Marcus Burrell. In the fifth inning, a sacrifice fly by Tyler Judd and an RBI single by Patrick Wolff provided extra cushion.
Having proved itself as the class of the MAC in 2023, Potomac School now has just one box left to check for what has been a resoundingly successful year: a Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association championship. The Panthers begin that tournament this coming week, with the championship game scheduled for Saturday.