Dunwoody Bunts Home Lopsided Victory Over Marietta, 15-5

In baseball, there is nothing more glamorous than hitting a home run.

But on a chilly cloudy evening at Dunwoody High School, the hometown Wildcats discovered a new way to excite the crowd and put runs on the scoreboard - the bunt.

The Wildcats laid down four bunts in the bottom of the second inning, which lead to a nine-run outburst that propelled them to a 15-5 victory over the visiting Marietta Blue Devils Monday evening. This game was a make-up match from Saturday’s weather-related postponement.  

 “Going into this year, we realized that we don’t have a bunch of power hitters, so bunting was going to be our bread and butter,” said Dunwoody head coach Chan English. “Actually, every day [at practice] they have a station where they bunt probably 15 to 20 times a day, so given the opportunity, we’re going to bunt.”

Although the Wildcats bunted their way to an offensive explosion, the field play by both teams was sloppy as Dunwoody and Marietta committed four and five errors respectively.

“We bunted really well and we hit really well and we were patient at the plate,” said Dunwoody starting pitcher, James Cunningham. “We had a lot of throwing errors, so that’s one thing that we need to work on.”

After Cunningham held the Blue Devils scoreless through the first two frames, outfielder Mason Wood reached first on an error by Marietta second baseman Konner Graham to lead-off the Dunwoody second inning.

Dunwoody’s next batter, outfielder Ryan Gaines, bunted a slow dribbler down the first base line that allowed both Gaines and Wood to reach their bases safely.

Wildcat second baseman Stelen Stulberger followed Gaines’ bunt with one of his own, scoring one run before shortstop Zach Tonner slapped a two-run double to left-center field to put the home squad in front 3-0.

Next, catcher Charlie Madden and Cunningham also laid-down well-placed bunts and reached safely behind two Blue Devil errors, which gave Dunwoody the 4-0 advantage.

A slew of defensive miscues including two walks, a passed ball and the aforementioned errors by the visitors gave the Wildcats extra outs, which resulted in Dunwoody going ahead 9-0 at the end of the second inning.

With the score 10-3 entering the bottom of the fourth, Dunwoody added four more runs on an RBI double by pitcher Logan Elliott and a three-run double by first baseman Will Hudgins to go up 15-3.

Marietta managed to push two more runs across in the fifth, but the Georgia High School Association “mercy rule” went into effect, calling the at 15-5. The mercy rule states all games must end when one team leads by 10 runs or more after five innings.