PERRY—Perry’s path to the Chagrin Valley Conference Chagrin Division title is much clearer after Tuesday’s 15-2 five-inning win over visiting Beachwood.
With the win, the Pirates improved to 14-3 overall and 6-2 in league play. Perry is tied for first place with Hawken, a team the Pirates split with earlier this season. At 5-3, Orange is in second place with two games against the Pirates next week.
“We try to always have an approach of a 1-0 mentality,” said Perry coach Matt Platt. “Even before this game happened, we talked about how yesterday happened and how it matters in the long term, but right now, there’s nothing we can do about it. Today is what matters, going 1-0 today. I try to isolate events and break everything down into one pitch, one at-bat, one inning, and one game and just take it that way.”
The much-needed win got off to a tenuous start as the Bison scored two runs in the top of the first inning on back-to-back singles from Cole Schreibman and Jacob Thomas, a walk to Jaycob Zabell, and Josh Rosenblitt’s two-out, two-run single.
The Pirates answered with three runs in the bottom half of the inning and went on to score 15 unanswered to initiate the run rule.
“We just had good at-bats; we’ve done that for most of the year,” Platt said. “Putting the ball in play at the high school level can lead to good things, and we have some decent team speed, too.”
The Pirates added two runs in the second and exploded for 10 in the fourth.
Luke Sivon and Cade Henderson both finished the game 2-for-3. Sivon scored three runs and knocked in another and Henderson crossed the plate twice and knocked in a team-best six runs.
Kyle Rhineberger, Owen McKoon, Jason Pentek, and Connor D’Astolfo also had hits for the Pirates.
“It goes back to having those good at-bats, and we found the pitches we wanted,” Platt said. “(Ethan) Malek does a nice job producing groundballs, but we were able to get some through the infield and take extra bases on a throwaway. It’s good to see a bounce back; yesterday’s (5-4 loss) was a giant letdown. The team did a great job answering.”
Logan Buehner picked up the win on the mound after allowing two earned runs on five hits with six strikeouts in 4 2/3 innings. Rhineberger struck out the only batter he faced.
“(Beachwood’s) first two batters of the game reached and scored,” Platt said. “After that, Logan just produced some ground balls and missed some barrels, and he got a few strikeouts to help himself out. The defense was making the routine plays; that was the big thing we didn’t do yesterday.”
Schreibman, Thomas, Malek, Rosenblitt, and Robert Friedman each had hits for Beachwood. Malek took the loss. He allowed two earned runs on five hits and fanned five in 3 1/3 innings. Tristan Brown gave up four runs on three hits in 2/3 innings.
With a split against Beachwood, Perry repositioned itself in first place with two games left to go.
The Pirates travel to Orange on Monday and then host the Lions on Tuesday. Perry’s fate will be determined not only by beating Orange but also by the results of Hawken’s two-game series with West Geauga.
If both teams win out, they’d share the conference title after splitting their season series. Orange needs to win both against Perry and hope Hawken drops at least one of its remaining two games to earn a share of the conference title.
“It’s fun to be a part of a race,” Platt said. “Every one of these games has a playoff feel to it because it’s for a league title. Hopefully, that same experience will carry into the playoffs when we’re ready to go there, but we’re still fighting for the CVC, and these guys know it. They’re all for it; they enjoy it. It’s a fun time to compete in games like this.”
