Perkins bats deliver in 12-7 state semifinal win

AKRON — Winning ugly is better than losing pretty. Perkins will attest to that after rallying twice in an error-filled game Saturday morning, overtaking Youngstown Cardinal Mooney 12-7 in a Division IV state semifinal at 7 17 Credit Union Park. Perkins and Cardinal Mooney combined for 11 errors and 20 hits in a game that lasted more than 2 1/2 hours. Pirates senior Talon Walton was named D-IV player of the year by the state coaches association earlier this week and played like it. Walton relieved Perkins starter Kash Koch and threw four scoreless innings to help the Pirates (24-6-1) reach the state championship game for the second straight year. Perkins will play in the final event of the spring sports season Sunday morning. "They kept adding on, but once Talon came in, it was lights out," Perkins coach TJ Blanton said. "Obviously, we didn't want to use him, but there's no Sunday without Saturday. "His velo was up, he had good control of all his pitches. He kept them off balance. They're a great hitting team; they hit the ball all over the place, but when it mattered most we made the plays. We'll take it." Walton faced only 15 batters in four innings and struck out four. He got the dangerous Taco Verraco on strikes twice. "Arm was definitely refreshed after all these days off (since last week's regional)," Walton said. "Didn't think I would pitch today, but I came in and did my job and we won. That's all that matters." The plan was to save Walton for Sunday's championship game, but Koch labored through three innings, giving up seven runs (four earned). "After the first inning I knew it would be one of those games," Koch said. "Every pitch I threw I was getting a little unlucky with bounces and hits. That's baseball. That's why this team is so great. We bounce back and put up, what, 12 runs?" Twelve runs, yes. That's the most Perkins has scored in five tournament games. Cardinal Mooney, ranked No. 2 in the final coaches poll, scored three runs in the top of the first. The Cardinals' rally started when Perkins third baseman Braxden Martin couldn't handle a bad-hop ground ball off the bat of leadoff hitter Kaden Reese. Ben Oddis and Verraco — who wore sparkling yellow spikes — added run-scoring hits and the Cardinals (24-4) were off and running. No. 3 Perkins, though, answered with four runs in the bottom of the first. The rally was aided by three Mooney errors. Sam Schweinfurth's RBI infield single was the Pirates' only hit of the inning. "You could tell (Mooney) had some butterflies in the first inning," Blanton said. "We hit some balls, they made some errors and got us right back in the game. "The momentum of a state semifinal, our guys were pretty down when we were down 3-0. We scored four and it was calming. The guys in the dugout were different; we knew we could score runs." Mooney scored three runs in the second and one in the third. After Walton got a 1-2-3 top of the fourth, the Pirates scored six in a crazy bottom half. Quentin Binette started the rally with a walk. Dante Shipp Jr. beat out an infield hit and Grant Parker pushed a bunt past pitcher Oddis to load the bases. Bryce Davie reached on an error to score a run. With the bases loaded, Walton lined a two-run single off the glove of shortstop Andrew Bushey. A throwing error allowed Davie to score from first and Walton ended up on third. "I was just trying to put the ball in play," Walton said. "You have to make them throw it around. When they throw it around you get 'free 90s.' Once they throw it around they got a little scared and made those oopsies and we ended up capitalizing on those and scored a lot of runs." Carter Koch made it 9-7 with a perfect suicide squeeze to score Walton. "I bunted a couple times in the playoffs," the sophomore catcher said. "I know I can get it down. When Blanton calls it, I'm confident I can place it where we need it. No one covered first." After Kash Koch singled and Schweinfurth walked, Martin smashed a RBI double to right field. All three Perkins outs were made on the base paths — a failed suicide squeeze, out trying to take an extra base and a caught stealing. Still, the damage had been done. "Those were close plays," said Blanton of two outs on the base paths. "Even the guys in the dugout with cameras came over and said they were safe. We could've put up eight or nine runs and then we're maybe looking at run-ruling them. That's baseball. We won by more than one run and we're moving on to Sunday." The last three innings were much calmer. Perkins scored twice in the fifth on Davie's RBI triple and Carter Koch's RBI single, which ended up in left field when Mooney's shortstop moved to second base when Walton ran on the pitch. The top of the fifth ended when Mooney's Oddis was called for interference when he ran into Walton, who was zeroing in on a popup near the first base line. Mooney coach Eddie Reese argued the call for several minutes. "It was clear. He's gotta give him room," Blanton said. "Div. IV player of the year getting trucked is not good on our end, but he was OK. It was a huge play. Talon would've caught the ball. That's the good thing about having your shortstop at pitcher. He's an athlete." Martin bounced back from a tough day in the field by adding a bunt single in the sixth and making two strong defensive plays in the fifth and seventh innings to keep Walton on schedule. "All the credit goes to my teammates for never giving up on me, speaking positively to me even when I had a rough start," Martin said. "They put all their trust in me and I'm super grateful for it. "Coaches believe in every single one of us. It's such a blessing to have those kind of people around you, bringing you up when you're down. It just goes to show that it doesn't matter how you start; it's how you finish." Walton worked around a Bushey two-out single in the seventh and got the final out on a fly ball to reliable center fielder Davie. "The kids are all bought in and we're selfless," Blanton said. "One through nine we'll bunt, hit, run. We're gonna do a little bit of everything. Pressure bursts pipes, so we're gonna put pressure on guys. That's what we did today." The Pirates now look ahead to another state championship game. They lost 3-2 to Mentor Lake Catholic in last year's finale. Now they'll play Franklin Bishop Fenwick (20-7) on Sunday in the final event of the OHSAA spring sports season. The game might start early because rain is in the Sunday forecast. Martin will start on the mound for the Pirates after Kash Koch and Walton exceeded pitch counts that prevent them from throwing Sunday. "I think a lot of people will think we won't do good because Talon and I threw today, but I have full belief in Braxden, and the way we're hitting nobody can beat us right now," Kash Koch said. Cardinal Mooney 331 000 0 — 7 9 7 Perkins 400 620 x — 12 11 4 WP: Walton. LP: Oddis. 2B: (P) Martin. 3B: (CM) Bushey; (P) Davie