FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — The Dunkirk Marauders baseball team finished strong to pick up the first victory of the season on Monday in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Thomas Shaffer pitched three scoreless innings of relief and the Marauders plated a run in the sixth and two in the seventh to rally past Jack Britt High School 6-4.

Trailing 4-3 in the sixth inning, Steven Zentz walked and was moved to scoring position by a Paul Trippy hit before advancing home on consecutive passed balls. Then an inning later, Shaffer reached via hit by pitch and Davi Alvalle pinch ran to eventually score the winning run.

Alvalle stole second, Anthony Cosme walked and followed suit stealing second and Zentz walked. Alvalle scored on another passed ball while Cosme reached home on Donnie Jackson’s second hit of the day.

“It was a solid back and forth contest,” Dunkirk head coach Frank Jagoda stated. “We really held things together when we needed to, Thomas Shaffer’s last three innings of scoreless ball gave us the opportunity to win in the end.”

Dunkirk started the game just as strong as it finished, scoring two runs in the top of the first innings. Trippy led the game off with a single, Jackson walked and after a double steal Jon Ganey hit a sacrifice fly to score Trippy. Jackson reached home on a passed ball.

Cooper Edwards was the biggest problem for Dunkirk in Monday’s contest, hitting two homers for Jack Britt. Edwards began his day knocking the first pitch he saw from Zentz over the left field fence as Dunkirk led 2-1 after an inning. Then Edwards plated three more runs hitting a homer off Schaffer in the fourth inning to take a 4-3 lead.

Shaffer kept Jack Britt off the scoreboard after the final Edwards home run, but he needed some help in the field to do so. In the fifth inning, Zentz made a diving catch at third base that prevented two runs from being scored.

Trippy and Jackson both finished with two hits for the Marauders, while Zentz threw four strikeouts and Shaffer struck out five.