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Sports

Jackson Liberty Stuns Point Borough Baseball 13-12

Liberty scores 8 runs in the seventh inning to cap remarkable comeback.

The Point Borough baseball team squandered a seven-run, seventh inning lead and fell to Jackson Liberty by the score of 13 to 12 at the Jackson Liberty High School Complex on Thursday afternoon.

The disastrous seventh inning allowed Jackson Liberty to send twelve batters to the plate, and allowed them to turn what seemed to be an insurmountable seven-run deficit into a remarkable, one-run victory.

Even more remarkable was that all of the damage came against Point Borough’s ace hurler John Dunbar, who was brought in to pitch just to get an inning of work in a seven-run game.  

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“It was one of those games where I still cannot believe we were able to find a way to win,” said Jackson Liberty head coach Jim Rankin. “For six and a half innings, Point Borough out-played us in every phase of the game.

"But that’s what’s beautiful about the game of baseball," Rankin said. "We were able to scrap back, fight back and found a way to win a great ball game.”

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The inning started with consecutive walks to James Sofield and Angel Garced. Following the back-to-back free passes, Dunbar induced Justin Hernandez, in his first at-bat of the inning, to ground to shortstop Jimmy DiOrio.

But DiOrio’s toss to second base was dropped by second basemen Deven DelPriore, which allowed Garced to reach second base.

Following the error, Dunbar proceeded to plunk Brendan Benecke, that forced home Liberty’s first run of the inning.

After the hit batsmen, Dunbar surrendered a grand slam to Mike Gustafson that cut the deficit to two runs, with still nobody out.

Dealing with an ultra-tight strike zone throughout the inning, Dunbar almost managed to escape the inning, preserving what would have been a one-run lead for the Panthers.

With the bases loaded and two outs, Dunbar allowed a bloop single to Hernandez in his second at bat of the inning that was just out of the reach of DelPriore. The stunning turn of events capped what was a remarkable eight-run inning for the Lions.

“Everything and I mean everything that could’ve gone bad, went bad in that last inning,” said Point Borough head coach David Drew. “Jackson Liberty’s a good team. They were patient at the box and then you throw in the fact that we couldn’t throw strikes.

"They hit the big home run and we couldn’t make a play," Drew said. "That’s why we’re six and eight.”

The incredible comeback by the now 10-4 Lions spoiled what was a coming-out party for the slumping offensive attack of Point Borough.

The Panthers, who were held to only four runs in their last fourteen innings of play against Wall and Monsignor Donovan, exploded to the tune of twelve runs and fourteen hits.

Ryan Prout, DiOrio and DelPriore led the Point Borough offense. The trio combined to go 9-12 and drove in eight of the Panthers twelve runs.

Sam Nelson, Dane Gahr and Prout smashed homeruns against Jackson Liberty pitchers Tyler Palante and James Sofield.

“There was no question the wind was blowing out today, it was one of those rare days where everything was going out of the park,” said Rankin. “But I give those guys a ton of credit, they were able to take advantage of some mistakes our pitchers made and they hit them a long way.”

With the defeat, Point Borough falls to 6-8 and on the season and now has its sights set on the Ocean County Tournament where they will take on Manchester Township High School tomorrow afternoon.

“The beautiful thing about baseball is that there a lot of games, and sometimes you win and sometimes you lose,” said Drew. “But the opportunity to play tomorrow is a very good thing for this team.”  

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