Perkins tops Edison in clash of SBC champions

MILAN — Perkins needed the big hit. After being hitless into the fifth inning, any sort of positive offense for the Pirates would have been big. Once Perkins worked Bryson Wittmer out of the game, Quentin Binette blasted a three-run double to fence, helping lift the Pirates to an 8-3 SBC crossover win over Division V No. 2 Edison on Thursday. "We knew Abe Hermes threw the other day and they couldn't bring him," said Perkins coach T.J. Blanton of Edison's other top pitcher. "Obviously, Abe and Wittmer are two really good pitchers. Our strategy was to make him work. Sometimes his control isn't there, but he figured it out. He tuned in there and was humming the ball." Each team won a division of the SBC with Perkins taking home the Lake Division crown and Edison the Bay Division. It was the second time the teams tangled this season. The Chargers came out on top the first time in nine innings, 4-2. "We've played them a lot the last three or four years before tournament time," Edison coach Sean Hoover said. "We schedule them at the end of the season for a reason. A couple years, we picked up the extra game between sectional and district or between district and regional and played them again. They're a solid, fundamental team." The Pirates (16-7) were patient, drawing five walks and four hit batters off of Wittmer before he was removed. In the fifth inning, he walked Dylan Crabtree and Braxden Martin before hitting Talon Walton to load the bases. A wild pitch scored Crabtree before Blake Parker walked to re-load the bases. Davin Wendt came on in relief for Edison (20-2). Binette took advantage and drove a 1-1 pitch to the wall, scoring all three runners. That gave Perkins a 6-1 lead and the cushion it needed. "We were seeing 90-plus miles per hour and we had to change our approach," said Blanton of the difference between facing Wittmer and Wendt. "Quentin has been hitting the ball all year long and he's been finding gaps like that. It was the perfect moment to come in with the bases loaded and find a gap like that. It was huge." Kash Koch threw four strong innings for the Pirates before giving way to Martin. He retired Edison in order in the fifth before a little bit of damage in the sixth inning. Chaz Smith reached on an error before consecutive walks to Hermes and Gabe Dymond loaded the bases. Edison cashed in as Owen Price roped a two-run single to left. Perkins was able to thwart the inning though as Dymond was caught in a rundown and tagged out on the single. Martin then got a groundout to end the inning. He worked around a two-out single by Cole Leimeister in the seventh inning to slam the door shut. Wittmer was wildly effective early on. He struggled with his command as Perkins put up a pair of runs early. Bryce Davie and Martin were each hit by a pitch before a double steal moved the two into scoring position. A wild pitch on ball four to Parker brought in Davie. The throw back to Wittmer at home was errant and that allowed Martin to scamper in. Perkins added single runs in the sixth and seventh inning to keep Edison at bay. "In the first or second inning, we made Wittmer work and made him get into counts," Blanton said. "We even said that if we strike out and it's an eight- or nine-pitch at-bat, that's a good at-bat. If you get three or four guys to do that, you're running into 35 or 40 pitches. Now you're eliminating innings he can be on the mound." Wittmer struck out 11 and didn't allow a hit. Wendt tallied two strikeouts over the final 2 1/3 innings. "It's a hot day and Bryson looked a little tired," Hoover said. "He had pitched really three good innings in a row. He kind of lost it, so we decided to switch pitchers. Davin went in and threw a strike and they got one up in the wind in a gap where nobody was at. Somedays that's a ball that stays up there and we can get to it." Koch surrendered just two hits in his four innings. Martin allowed two runs on two hits. "We felt like it was going to be a bullpen kind of day," Blanton said. "Our goal was to get either Kash and Talon or Kash and Braxden out there and let them sit for a week or so. They'll probably throw another couple innings next week. We're trying to give them a little bit of rest because they've thrown some innings this year." Edison has non-league contests with Galion on Friday and Keystone on Monday before opening tournament play May 24. "We had bases loaded in the first inning and hit a rocket and hit into a double play," Hoover said. "There's nothing you can do when the ball is behind the guy at second. That's a double play 100 percent of the time. We had a baserunning snafu later that maybe cost us a run. I'm happy with the way we hit the ball. We got guys on base." With cancellations earlier this season, Perkins has beefed up its end of the season schedule. The Pirates travel to Clay on Saturday night before facing Toledo Whitmer, Toledo St. Francis and Sylvania Northview next week. "We scheduled some big games for a reason," Blanton said. "That's what playoff baseball is going to be like. We're going to see good teams. The better arms we see now, the more prepared we'll be come tournament time." Perkins 200 041 1 — 8 6 1Edison 000 102 0 — 3 4 1 WP: Koch. LP: Wittmer 2B: (P) Binette, Parker, Schweinfurth