After transferring from West Aurora, Tyler Davis has been in Aurora Central Catholic’s baseball program for only two seasons, but one thing was clear right away.
There’s no love lost with Marmion.
He learned that last spring as he felt he let one get away at home to the Cadets. He wasn’t about to let it happen again, so he told ACC coach Rich Swann he wanted the ball Thursday.
“I had vengeance, I guess,” Davis said. “I wanted to get back at them for it. I came up to him and I asked him for the game. I was surprised he gave it to me, to be honest, but I got it.”
Swann trusted his gut and it paid off handsomely as Davis, a senior left-hander, pitched the Chargers to a 16-3 Catholic League White win over host Marmion in Aurora.
Davis struck out seven in 5 2/3 solid innings for ACC (10-15, 4-7). He allowed three runs, with two earned, on six hits and five walks. He also added two hits to help offensively.
Luke Torrance led the barrage for the Chargers, going 4-for-5 with three runs, a double, a homer and two RBIs. Nick Czerak added two hits and four RBIs. Joey Guerrero drove in three runs.
Marmion (8-16, 3-8) was paced by two hits from Alex Saling and an RBI double from Adam Vogt.
Swann, meanwhile, feels good when a pitcher comes in and displays elite leadership. It also made Swann feel good that going with Davis ended up being the right move.
“We were trying to decide between Thursday and Saturday, and he said, ‘I want to go Thursday to set a tone,’” Swann said. “And he did. He did a great job for us.
“It’s great. It makes you confident as a coach. The kid wants the ball right now and I’m going to give him the ball right now. He backed it up. That really makes you feel good when that happens.”
Davis may have been too jacked up early, giving up a run in the first inning, but he settled in after that. As he did, ACC’s offense staked him to a 4-1 lead going into the fourth.
“My legs didn’t really get under me to begin with,” Davis said. “I could have gotten more warmed up. Once the adrenaline kicked in, I was good from there.”
After Davis came back to the dugout in the first, the coaches met with him to get refocused.
“I think maybe he was a little too excited early, trying to do too much, but he settled in,” Swann said. “We told him, ‘Just be you. You don’t have to be special. Be you because you are special.’”
Marmion cut the deficit to 4-2 in the fourth before the Chargers erupted with a five-run fifth. Torrance then led off the sixth with a solo homer to put the exclamation point on a four-hit day.
“I was just looking to attack,” Torrance said. “Everything high, just go with it. I felt like when I came up there, I wanted to give us more of a spark.”
As a sophomore, Torrance was taking note of what Davis did this week. He confirmed that type of leadership example will come in handy as he progresses in his career.
“I love the kid,” Torrance said. “He just works so hard and I’m glad he did what he needed to do. He wanted us to get back at that them for last year. It was just an awesome outing by him.”
Davis, who recently recorded his 100th career strikeout, now has his sights set on 100 this spring.
He’s making the most of his time at ACC before moving on to the next level at Wabash Valley.
“I’m just happy to be part of a winning culture here and hopefully carry that on to college,” he said.
Paul Johnson is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
