Perry’s Brady Shivley fields a ground ball against Temple Christian during Thursday’s game.
Richard Parrish | The Lima News
LIMA — Perry scored 20 runs, had 19 hits and beat Temple Christian 20-9 in high school baseball on Thursday in a game that started out looking like it would be over quickly but eventually took more than three hours to finish.
The Commodores led 8-1 in the middle of the second inning and 15-5 after 6 1/2 innings but the Pioneers avoided an early run rule exit and forced the game to be a regulation seven-inning contest.
After scoring a run in the top of the first inning, Perry sent 11 hitters to the plate in the second inning and took an 8-1 lead.
At that point, Perry starting pitcher Brady Shively moved from the mound to shortstop, the first of four pitching changes the Commodores made.
“I threw a couple of freshmen in there. I was trying to save Brady’s arm because we’re going to Dayton tomorrow, we’ve got a game to finish on Saturday. When he got up to 26 pitches (in the first inning) I said we’d save him. I threw some freshmen in and it kind of fell in on me,” Perry coach Mark Hoersten said.
Freshman Wyatt Taviano replaced Shively to begin the bottom of the second inning. Five batters later, he was relieved by Preston Evans, who pitched to seven batters before freshman Cari Doughty came in to get the final out in the third inning.
Perry’s lead grew to 14-4 in the middle of the fifth inning. But things got uncomfortable enough in the sixth inning when the Commodores’ lead dropped to six runs, 15-9, that Shively returned to the mound to get the last six outs.
“He wanted the ball. He did a good job, especially that last inning, being focused and taking care of it,” Hoersten said about Shively.
With the win, Perry is 7-5 this season. Temple Christian dropped to 0-6.
“That’s been our problem all year. We get up on a team and we just don’t stay focused. We’re a little up and down. We’re young. I’ve got a couple of seniors but really only one who gets a lot of time,” Hoersten said.
Hunter Scott was 3 for 4 and scored three runs for Perry. Brody Douce was 3 for 5 and scored three times. Cari Doughty was 2 for 5 and scored two runs and Shively went 2 for 6 and scored two runs.
Dawson Clay and Isaiah Kiser each had two hits for Temple Christian.
Perry 20, Temple Christian 9
Score by innings:
Perry 172 221 5 — 20 19 3
T. Christian 121 014 0 — 9 8 9
WP — Brady Shively; LP — Levi Williams
2B — Brady Shively (P), Hunter Scott (P), Wyatt Taviano (P), Connor Patrick (P), Jace Woods (P)
Records: Perry 7-5, Temple Christian 0-6.
