| Wow! What a great pitchers duel. Ben Lim, Summit’s leading pitcher, went head-to-head with the best Hopewell Valley had to offer. Both pitcher were at their best. Going into the 7th inning Lim had thrown only 72 pitches and Hopewell’s best had thrown 75 pitches. Very low numbers. Summit’s only threat in regulation came in the 6th when Summit loaded the bases with two out, but a strikeout ended the inning.
In the top of the 7th Hopewell Valley repeated the process of loading the bases with two out. But Lim delivered his 7th strikeout of the game to put things to rest. Starting the 8th inning Lim had 97 pitches and was approaching the absolute limit of 110 pitches. As a result Kunal Sengupta came on in relief. He put the visitors down 1-2-3 to move to the bottom of the 8th. Hopewell Valley’s starter had pitch count of 82 so he answered the bell to start the 8th.
The lead off hitter was Grant Douglas. He got things started when he slammed a double, Summit’s only extra base hit of the game. Will Schaffer was intentionally walked to set up a force play at any base. But Andrew Miller would have none of that and cracked a clean single on the first pitch, driving in Douglas. The dugout went nuts.
This was the 5th game of season that ended with a walk-off single. Three of those 5 games involved Sengupta in relief. He was credited with the W in each of the 3 games.
While Lim didn’t get credit for the W, he was the guy who got us there. Clearly, these 7 innings were the absolute best pitched 7 innings of the entire season.
Chatham won their game 11-1 over 16th seed Orange. So Summit will travel to Chatham on Thursday.
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