Marshall’s 3-run walk-off homer lifts Bordentown
BORDENTOWN » For 6.2 innings West Windsor-Plainsboro appeared ready to spring the upset of the summer.
And then Jarrod Marshall adjusted.
Marshall launched a three-run homer to give Bordentown a 4-3, walk-off victory over West WindsorPlainsboro in Mercer County American Legion League baseball Tuesday night.
WW-P (2-11) had led since the fourth inning and was one out away from sending Bordentown (10-4) to its second straight loss. But with Alex Popovich on first, Cody Schroeder kept the game alive with a single. Marshall, a left-hander, sent the first pitch he saw over Gilder Park’s right-centerfield fence.
“Seeing him the last two times I’d been falling out in front, so I made the adjustment the last at-bat, moved up in the box and got a pitch I liked,” Marshall said. “He seemed to be starting a lot of people with first-pitch fastball so that’s kind of what I was sitting on.”
Marshall was unsure if it was going out and busted down the line; but he quickly broke into his celebration trot.
“I started running, then started watching,” he said. “Just before I touched first base I saw it go over. It’s excitement, it’s fun to watch a ball like that. It’s fun to know that just won the game right there.”
It was bitter heart-break for Bob DeLuca’s squad, which has scuffled after not having a team last year and would have been bolstered by a quality win..
WW-P got a bad break early. Starter Dylan Welch was nearly flawless, retiring seven of the first eight batters he faced as Bordentown’s lone runner was on an error. But after getting one out in the third, Welch moved to second base, apparently bothered by his back as he left feeling it after the pitch.
Scott Doherty took over and did outstanding for the next 3-2/3 innings. Doherty allowed scattered four hits and three walks while allowing one run during that time.
West Windsor gave Doherty a 2-0 lead in the fourth when Jacob Mitchell doubled and scored on Ryan Strype’s single. Strype eventually scored on an error. Post 26 got one back in the fifth when Luke Mabin doubled and scored on Cody Schroeder’s single, but WWP got the run back in the sixth when Welch was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
Kyle Kato looked like he would be the hard-luck loser after allowing six hits and no walks while yielding just one earned run. He got outstanding defensive plays from shortstop Chris Wade and John Schroeder, but Bordentown also made two key errors.
“Kyle Kato kept us in the game,” Post 26 manager Tom Dolan said. “Thank God he threw his heart out.”
Dolan actually has some work to do on celebrating a walk-off win, as the skipper wore a scowl afterward.
“Nope,” said Dolan, when asked if he was happy. “We’re just going through the motions. We’re a better team than this. We just don’t’ seem like we get focused in the beginning. We had lot of bad at-bats. Our two 19-year-olds, Popovich and Cody Schroeder got us going. Jarrod just sat on something. He has the capability of doing that all the time, that’s why he’s in the three hole.”
So, no solace from salvaging the win?
“Not really because we haven’t been playing well,” Dolan said. “I know we’re a lot better than what our record is. I just gotta get these guys re-focused.”
Marshall is hoping that, despite the lackluster effort, the outcome will provide a spark.
“It seems to be a little bit of a fire starter,” he said. “This definitely wasn’t the best we can play but it can get us going, getting us rolling to win more games.”
WW-P (2-11) Bordentown(10-4) 2B:
Mitchell (WWP), Mabin (B); Marshall (B); Strype, Welch (WWP), CSchroeder, Marshall 3 (B).
Kato; Doherty.
WP— RBIs: LP— 000201 000 010 0—360 3 — 4 7 2 HR:
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