Walk-off winners

In a back-and-forth contest, West Caldwell took advantage of its last at-bat and defeated Bunker Hill 6-5 Wednesday night on the Warriors' home field in Gamewell.

Ray Bowles punched the first pitch he saw from Bunker Hill pitcher Jeremy Abernathy just off the glove of sprinting shortstop Cameron Beard to score Mike McElea, who was running for pitcher Jeffrey Rousselle after Rousselle had drawn a leadoff walk. McElea was moved to second on a picture-perfect sacrifice bunt by Caleb Gragg. An intentional walk to Jake Benfield set the stage for the Bowles' heroics.

Rousselle pitched a gem and earned his first victory on the season. He scattered seven hits, with 54 of his 83 pitches going for strikes. West improved to 5-9 overall for the season and 2-7 in the Catawba Valley Athletic Conference. Bunker Hill dropped to 4-5 in the league and 7-7 overall.

“That was a fun game to be a part of.” West coach Kevin Abee said. “It was well-played all the way around by both teams, and I am just proud of our guys for finding a way to win a close game.”

The Warriors struck first with a run in the bottom of the first inning. With two away, A.J. Jenkins singled to right field and moved to second on a wild pitch. Rousselle then hit a slow-rolling infield single that scored Jenkins, who had been sprinting the entire way.

The lead was short-lived as the Bears scored a pair in the top of the second. Derek Hedrick singled to left field and moved to third on a single down the left field line by Chase Ervin. Ryan Keller scored Hedrick on a single to right to tie the game. After a Dustin Harrill walk, Zack Sheppard grounded into a double play that plated Ervin to give the Bears a 2-1 lead.

West evened the game with two outs in the second when Bowles scored from second on a misplayed line drive off the bat of Gordy Hendrix.

Bunker Hill retook the lead in the third inning as Beard notched a solo homer to left-center to put the Bears on top 3-2.

The Warriors notched another two-out hit in the bottom of the third when Benfield golfed a pitch to deep left-center to score Rousselle and tie the score.

Bunker Hill retook the lead in the fifth inning as Abernathy and Beard notched back-to-back singles before Hedrick collected a pair of RBIs on a single to right field to give the Bears the 5-3 edge.

In the bottom of the fifth, West squared up the game yet again. Rousselle reached on a fielder's choice and moved to second on a Gragg single to left. After the runners moved up to second and third on a groundout by Benfield, Scott Brown came up big for the Warriors when he lined a double to center to score both runners.

“We discussed before the game that we didn't have a lot of tomorrows left.” explained Abee. “We responded with the whole team coming up big with two-outs hits, great pitching and sound defense.”

The Warriorswill travel Friday to Maiden to take on the Blue Devils in a 7 p.m. start.