Athlete Of The Week: Ryan Dutra

ORLEANS – Being the baserunner flying towards home plate on a suicide squeeze is one of the harder asks handed out on a baseball diamond (perhaps only second to being the guy responsible for laying down the bunt).

After all, there is a reason the play is called what it’s called. If the bunt fails, the runner is, at best, out easily, and at worst colliding with the batter or catcher or both. But Nauset sophomore Ryan Dutra trusted sophomore Mac Heinz as the latter squared around in the batter’s box, the No. 23 Warriors (6-11) calling for a squeeze Friday as they sought to claw out a run when down three against No. 42 Greater Lawrence Tech (10-10) in the preliminary round of the Division 3 state tournament.

“Either way, you're going, and I had all the faith in him — that we could do it — and he came through,” Dutra said. “It was really on him.”

Dutra safely made for home on the wild play, then continued to put together a crucial performance as Nauset completed the 7-4 come-from-behind win.

A left fielder, he drove in one run in the fourth on an infield single generated by his speed and came around to score the equalizer later in the inning. In the fifth, Dutra came up with the bases loaded. Head coach Brett Labonte looked at another coach and predicted Dutra would rip one. He did, shooting a go-ahead two-RBI single that gave the Warriors the lead for good.

For Labonte, that knowing started last year, when Dutra was a freshman on a one-win team playing at Dennis-Yarmouth, hitting a similarly go-ahead two-RBI single in the seventh inning that day. 

“It's a crazy amount of growth from him in just a year, so very proud of him,” Labonte said. “He basically won us the game in a few spots tonight by being locked in and listening and doing the things we ask of him.”