Wall High School Defeats Point Borough 4 to 3 in Walk-off Fashion

Wall High School scratched home a run on a wild pitch in the bottom half of the seventh inning and defeated Point Pleasant Borough 4 to 3, in a back-and-forth thriller at Wall 18th  Avenue Complex on Monday afternoon.

For the third time this season, Point Pleasant Borough hurler John Dunbar did all he could to propel his team to victory.

Much like the low-scoring affairs in Dunbar’s first two starts, the Panthers once again found themselves on the wrong side of the score.

“All three games we’ve run John out there, he’s done a great job for us,” said Point Borough head coach David Drew. “It’s disappointing that we weren’t able to pull this one out for him.” 

After rallying from a one-run deficit in the top of the seventh inning, thanks to a Deven DelPriore sacrifice fly, Drew decided to stick with Dunbar for the bottom half of the inning, despite a high pitch count. The hurler proceeded to allow a leadoff triple to Wall’s Jim Guliano.

“I thought about taking him (Dunbar) out, but he’s my guy,” said Drew. “That’s his game to win or lose.”  

Following the triple, Dunbar was removed for reliever John Spinapont. Spinapont then let loose a wild pitch which allowed Guliano to score the game's winning run for Wall.

Dunbar was the hard-luck loser, despite striking out ten batters over six plus innings of work. Although he surrendered a 1-0 fifth inning lead, the hurler was able to work his way out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam to keep the game tied.

“I’ll tell you what, that number 5 (Dunbar) kept us at bay all game,” said Wall Head Coach Todd Schmidt. “We know we’re going to see every team’s number one guy and we got a bull's eye on our back, but we keep finding ways to get it done.”

Point Borough was able to regain the lead in the top half of the sixth inning, behind a Rob Pawlak sacrifice fly. But much like the previous inning, Wall battled right back against Dunbar.

After striking out the first batter of the frame, Dunbar allowed consecutive singles to pinch hitter Scott Duncan and Tyler Salvo, which set up the top of the order for the Crimson Knights.

Dunbar was almost able to work his way out of yet another jam by fanning Tyler Block but then proceeded to walk Luke Pasick and allowed a two-run single to catcher Connor White, which gave Wall a 3-2 advantage.

“We were hoping it was only a matter of time before we got a few timely hits,” said Schmidt. “Their guy was making great pitches, but we stayed the course and we were finally able to get results late in the game.”

With the loss, Point Borough fell to 2-3 on the season. But Drew believes his young, improving team will only continue to learn from these gut-wrenching defeats.

“This team has shown me that it can play with the top teams,” said Drew. “It’s one play, it's one pitch, it's one at bat. It's the difference between winning and losing these games. We just have to keep working and sooner or later we’ll be on the right side of these.”