For Perkins seniors, title caps a career of winning

AKRON — This group of Perkins Pirates had been so close to a state championship. Many of the baseball players who were mainstays of the Pirates' baseball team that won a Division IV state title Sunday had come close in other sports. The Pirates' football team lost 37-36 in the 2024 state championship game. The baseball team lost 3-2 in the 2025 state final. The basketball team lost in the state semifinals this season. An impressive résumé, to be sure, but one thing was missing. Perkins checked that final box by defeating Fenwick 5-1 to take home the big trophy in Division IV. "This team was electric all year," said senior Kash Koch, who also played on Perkins' final four basketball team. "It's amazing being a senior and finally being able to get a ring. I'm thrilling about that, especially coming close last year and basketball this year." Sam Schweinfurth got the assist on the final out of the game at 7 17 Credit Union Stadium. Schweinfurth was the quarterback on the Pirates team that lost to Indian Valley in the final football game of the 2024 season. "It feels amazing," he said Sunday. "We've lost two state championships that I've been a part of by one point and that really hurt. Now we're state champs and that's all that matters." Perkins' other baseball seniors are Talon Walton, Braxden Martin, Quentin Binette, Cameron Zoellner and Blake Parker, who has been injured and did not play in the tournament. "That drove them," said Perkins coach TJ Blanton of all the close calls. "We're talking about one play being the difference between three championships and one. "I think they talked about it; a lot of these guys were on the football team. They wanted the Class of 2026 to be remembered." The Pirates went 6-0 in the postseason, winning their games by a combined score of 40-13. Strong defense Perkins had its problems in the field in Saturday's wild 12-7 state semifinal win against Youngstown Cardinal Mooney. The Pirates locked down their defense a day later, committing only one error in a clean game that lasted two hours. "We didn't play as clean (Saturday) and I think the guy pride themselves on defense," Blanton said. "They took it upon themselves and changed that. The results were a lot better (Sunday)." Dante Shipp Jr., a sophomore left fielder, had putouts on three of Fenwick's first four outs. Second baseman Mason Souter had five putouts, including the final out of the game after Schweinfurth fielded a ground ball and flipped to him for a force out. Souter had to go to his right and dive to make a stop before flipping to Schweinfurth for the first out of the seventh. Souter also made a nice running catch for the first out of fourth inning. Right fielder Grant Parker sprinted to catch a line drive for the next out. "It felt great," Souter said. "We got redemption from last year."First for area Perkins' baseball title was a first for Erie County as well as the Sandusky Bay Conference. The only other area school to win a state baseball championship was Bellevue in 1985. The Redmen were members of the Northern Ohio League at the time. Bellevue rallied to defeat Wellston 3-2 in the Class AA finale at Ohio State University. Mike Strayer — currently a Bellevue girls basketball assistant and Clyde baseball assistant — drove in two runs in the bottom of the sixth to give Bellevue the lead for good. The go-ahead run was scored by Steve Falter — Sam Schweinfurth's uncle. Schweinfurth's mom, Carla, is Steve Falter's sister. Psychic coach The night before the championship game, Blanton was talking in the hotel lobby with assistant coaches Christian Walton and Jason Green. He told them about a dream he had and they listened because another Blanton dream about a player earlier in the season came true. "About a week ago I dreamed that Dante Shipp was gonna have a huge hit to right field and it was gonna get past the outfielder. It was gonna be a moment in the game that either breaks it open or is that 'we won' moment. "I said if that comes true and I have a dream about the lottery, we're gonna build a dome for baseball and have the nicest facility ever because I'll play those numbers. "So Dante comes up and gets that double in the fifth inning (driving in Schweinfurth) and we got that extra run we were chasing to get us up four. Coach Green yelled at me from the dugout: 'Your dream came true.' "I came in the dugout and Christian Walton said, 'Man, I hope you have a dream about the lottery soon.' "I went to tell Dante after the game and he said, 'Yeah, yeah, the coaches already told me.' " Bad weather The Perkins-Fenwick championship game started at 10 a.m. The temperature was 74 degrees at 7 17 Credit Union Stadium — home to the Akron RubberDucks, the Guardians' Double A affiliate — and skies were cloudy. By the end of the game, the sun was out. It was the final of seven state championship games and the OHSAA had considered moving it up to 8 a.m. because of bad weather moving into the area. The bad weather hit — many fans driving back to Sandusky after the game experienced that nastiness — and the Guardians-Tigers game in downtown Cleveland was postponed. The Pirates had a celebration in the high school gym, but an escort into town by local police was canceled because of the inclement weather. "We had to drive through it," Blanton said. "The bus driver did a great job keeping us alive. The bus was being blown around. Stuff was on fire, trees were down. There was chaos. It really did rain on our parade." Fast starts Perkins scored four runs in the bottom of the first inning in its semifinal game and grabbed a 3-0 lead in the first inning of the championship game. Walton, Carter Koch (triple), Kash Koch and Martin all had hits in the first inning of the title game. "It was a great start for us," Kash Koch said. "We jumped on (Fenwick ace Carter Shouse), got the runs in and (winning pitcher) Braxden (Martin) did a phenomenal job throwing strikes." Perkins outscored its six tournament opponents 10-0 in the first inning. Odds & ends -- Blanton said he had about 300 text messages on his phone before he left the dugout after Sunday's win. "I had numbers on there I didn't know," he said. "We knew it was big, but after seeing how many people were following it, it's bigger than we thought it was." -- Perkins won it all in its fourth trip to the final four. The Pirates lost in the semifinals in 2007 and 2014 before winning a semifinal game last year. The Pirates fell 3-2 to Mentor Lake Catholic in the 2025 title game. -- Fenwick made its fifth appearance in the final four and first since 1982. The Falcons have two championship trophies — from 1974 and 1981... Fenwick plays in the Greater Catholic League. Two GCL teams — Cincinnati St. Xavier (Division I) and Hamilton Badin (Div. III) won state baseball championships over the weekend. -- Joining Perkins as state champions were St. Xavier (Division I), New Albany (Div. II), Badin (Div. III), Waynedale (Div. V), Hartville Lake Center Christian (Div. VI) and Delphos St. John's (Div. VII). Perkins, Waynedale and Lake Center Christian played in championship games for the second straight year. Waynedale has won four titles in five years.