Perkins rides Kim's arm, key hits to comeback win at Norwalk

NORWALK — Perkins sophomore pitcher Landon Kim found out on the bus ride to Norwalk that he would be starting Friday's sectional final game. His nerves lasted exactly one inning. Granted, that one inning almost sunk the Pirates, but Kim responded to a rocky start by retiring 14 straight batters while Perkins' bats came alive in a 6-4 comeback victory over Norwalk. With Perkins ace Luke Walton starting in center field while nursing a hip flexor injury, Kim, a sophomore left-hander who had a 1.53 ERA entering the game, endured a rough introduction to Division II tournament baseball. The first five Norwalk batters reached base — three on errors — and the Truckers led 4-1 after one inning. Two of the early errors came from Kim, who calmly regrouped. "My first start this year I gave up eight or nine runs against Huron so I was having a flashback to that," said Kim. "I'm not one to come in and throw my glove. I looked at the situation and threw strikes and hit my spots." Kim sat down the Truckers (17-11) in order in the second, third, fourth and fifth innings, striking out five. Meanwhile, the Pirates (16-10) chipped way. Nathan Majoy led off the second with a double and Kim reached on an error. An RBI groundout by Drake Venerucci and RBI single by Kaden Troike cut Norwalk's lead to 4-3. "We couldn't have started any worse on defense but we came back. Landon obviously settled down," Perkins coach Chris Walton said. "All three of his pitches were working vey well. (Senior catcher) Tyler Walton calls the whole game; none of that comes from the coaches. He's a smart kid and can see what is going on." Perkins tied the game in the fifth. Luke Walton led off with a double and went to third on Tyler Walton's single to left. Kaiden Weyer's ground-ball single to left brought home Luke Walton to make it 4-4. Weyer had two of Perkins' nine hits. Norwalk's Ian Minor delivered his second single of the game with one out in the bottom of the sixth. He had an RBI single in the Truckers' big first inning. Minor moved to second on Kim's third error, but the determined southpaw got out of the inning. "We can put him in any time now," Luke Walton said of Kim. "He's been great all year." So has Luke Walton. He led off the top of the seventh with a shot that hit the right-field fence for his second straight double. The hit came off Truckers reliever Minor, who dominated the Pirates in a Norwalk road win earlier this month. After Tyler Walton walked, Weyer popped out. That's when designated hitter Ben Keller, who had been warming up in the bullpen in the first inning, delivered a base hit to center. Luke Walton scored to give Perkins the lead. The ball was bobbled and the relay throw sailed beyond third base and Tyler Walton tried to score but was cut down at home by third baseman Gfell. Freshman Nolan Thomas then delivered an insurance run with a shot down the third-base line, scoring Keller to give Perkins a 6-4 lead. "When we beat (Norwalk) earlier we had kids step up," Chris Walton said. "Nolan, Kaden and Ben all had big hits." The Perkins coach said he considered adding another game this week but decided that more practice would help his team, which got base hits from seven players. "Ben had a really good week of practice and has been talking really good swings," Chris Walton said. "He stayed inside the ball and put a nice shot up the middle." Norwalk threatened in the seventh. Sam Tokarsky, one of five seniors on the team, pinch-hit and singled with one out. The Pirates got the second out when Luke Walton caught a pinch-runner off first base. After Kim walked leadoff hitter Sam Battles (who doubled and scored in the first inning), Chris Walton gave the baseball to Luke Walton, sore hip and all. He took the mound with a 2-0 count on Caleb Sommers and threw two balls to put two runners on. Luke Walton ended the game by striking out Eli Obringer on a hard fastball that brought a delayed call from the plate umpire. "They kept hitting; we didn't," said Norwalk coach Wes Douglas. "(Kim) got stronger, was ahead in the count and found his breaking ball. They did what they had to defensively after the first inning." The reliable Gfell started on the mound for Norwalk and allowed three earned runs in five innings. "We have five seniors and I'm really proud they call me coach," Douglas said. "This is a really solid group. They showed up every day and we got better every day." Perkins third baseman Weyer and shortstop Troike made strong defensive plays during Kim's four-inning no-hit stretch. The Pirates advance to play SBC Lake champion Vermilion in a district semifinal next Thursday in Fremont. Perkins split a pair of games this season with the Sailors. "The boys want to keep playing and the bench guys were phenomenal," Chris Walton said after the Pirates posed for a team photo. "There was a lot of energy and we fed off that." Perkins 120 010 2 -- 6 9 4Norwalk 400 000 0 -- 4 3 3 WP: Landon Kim. LP: Ian Minor 2B: (P) Nathan Majoy, Luke Walton 2; (N) Sam Battles