Perkins defeats Elmwood on Senior Day

PERKINS TWP. — Perkins was able to honor its seven seniors Saturday. The Pirates celebrated Blake Parker, Talon Walton, Sam Schweinfurth, Kash Koch, Braxden Martin, Quentin Binette and Cameron Zoellner for Senior Day. Division IV No. 12 Perkins got a solid start from Martin, a couple of big hits from Zoellner and took advantage of six Elmwood errors, topping the Royals 9-3 in non-league action. Elmwood was a Division VI state semifinalist last year. "Being Senior Day, we got all the seniors in there to play," Pirates coach TJ Blanton said. "Cam Zoellner is a great kid on the bench. He doesn't complain and does everything right. He gets in there today and goes 2 for 3 and has two RBI and makes a couple plays in the field. That was awesome to see. He works really hard. That's what I'm most happy about today." Perkins (12-4-1) was the beneficiary of two Elmwood (8-10-1) errors in the first inning. Walton reached on the first error before stealing second and third base. Koch was hit by a pitch before a sacrifice fly from Carter Koch scored Walton. Grant Kuhnle hit a grounder to short, but the throw was wild, allowing Kash Koch to score for a 2-0 lead. Perkins blew the game open with five runs in the third inning. Schweinfurth walked before Kash Koch and Carter Koch each reached on errors. Kuhnle followed with a two-run single to make it 4-0. After Martin reached on an error, Zoellner's sacrifice fly and a RBI single from Dante Shipp ballooned the lead to 7-0. "If you're striking out and not putting the ball in play, they don't have to make many plays," Blanton said. "Even if you're getting on by error, you're still getting on base. We tell the kids we need them on base any way they can get on." Martin was stout on the mound for the Pirates. He retired the final eight batters he faced, needing just 37 pitches to grind through four scoreless innings. "Braxden is sick," Blanton said. "We call it 'The Flu Game.' He didn't feel well and didn't feel well (Friday). You could tell he was laboring out there, but he did a great job. He worked ahead and got strikes. That was the complete opposite of yesterday where we couldn't get a first-pitch strike." Elmwood scored twice in the fifth inning, but Carter Koch got the final two outs on the mound. He buzzed through a five-pitch sixth for the Pirates, as well. Shipp added a second RBI single in the fifth inning before Zoellner roped a run-scoring single in the sixth for Perkins. It was a quick turnaround for the Pirates, who dropped a tough league game to Clyde on Friday. "It was good to get a bad taste out of our mouths," Blanton said. "We got back to playing baseball. We have a lot of baseball coming up here in a short amount of time. Some of these guys are going to have to pitch and play defense to give some guys some breaks here and there." Perkins is off Monday before hosting Tiffin Columbian on Tuesday with a chance to win the Sandusky Bay Conference Lake Division title outright. After that, the Pirates will challenge themselves with non-league games against Edison, Lakewood St. Edward, Sylvania Northview and Oregon Clay. "We scheduled three tough teams at the end of the year and did it last year as well," Blanton said. "Last year, we were 1-2 in those three games. People look at it and see the losses, but when you're playing Division I and Division II schools at that point, that's what you're going to see in the tournament. "We like to challenge ourself, go compete and play well. You're going to see high-level pitching and high-level defense" Elmwood 000 020 1 — 3 7 6 Perkins 205 011 x — 9 6 0 WP: Martin. LP: Goetz.