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Wray did not surrender a hit until there were two outs in the fifth inning. He only gave up two hits for the game. Wray’s stuff was extraordinary as he mixed fastballs and curveballs to keep Pennridge off-balance.
"His fastball was unbelievable," Schuler said. "His curveball had nice bite. And the times we needed it he reared back and gave us more than we expected."
Wray, however, did not think it was just him. His defense stepped up its play behind him and did not commit an error during the game. Once Wray knew he had solid play behind him he was able to relax and was not scared of giving up a big hit.
In the fourth inning Pennridge had men on second and third with two outs. Ryan Shoultes, who was coming off of a grand slam in the previous game against Garnet Valley, stepped to the plate. He got a good pitch to hit and ripped a shot into center field.
For a moment it seemed like Shoultes might have come up big again, but Kevin McCann tracked down the fly ball and ended the inning.
"Having great defense makes all the difference because you can give up a long ball and you know its gonna be caught like how McCann and (Jon) Kerstetter did," Wray said."I know that I don’t have do it all by myself."
Wray was not the only one who felt at ease with the great defense. Head coach Ted Otten felt better about letting Wray do his thing with solid play supporting him.
"It gives the whole team a lift and it gives us confidence to let Dave pitch as hard as he can for as long as he can," Otten said.
It was during the fourth inning that Wray allowed two walks. In thefifth he showed he was human by allowing two hits. Wray’s control momentarily deserted him, but he remembered what his dad had told him.
"My dad told me that walks will kill you," Wray said. "I tried to stay away from them and throw strikes and make them hit groundballs."
While Wray was shutting down Pennridge, the offense was trying to muster at least one run for its star pitcher and it finally did in the third inning.
The run came when No. 9 hitter Jeremy Micun stepped to the plate with Chris VanDeBoe standing on second.
Micun came up big and drove an outside pitch to the opposite field, scoring VanDeBoe.
"I don’t try to do much with pitches that are outside," Micun said. "I just try to take it the other way."
Although Micun was batting last in the lineup, Otten was not surprised when he drove the pitch into the outfield.
"Jeremy’s been smoking the ball and you can’t say enough about how we all come through in the clutch," Otten said.
