Perryville baseball team squeezes past Dexter at district tourney

Perryville baseball coach Jeff Steffens wanted to force the Dexter defense to make a split-second decision with the winning run standing at third base and the game tied at 4-all with one out in the bottom of the seventh inning.

"We had a safety squeeze on," Steffens said. "Our hitter, Derek Kirn, is one of our fastest kids on the team. If he got the ball down, we were going to let Dexter make the decision to throw to first or keep the runner from scoring. If he decided to throw to first, we were going to send our runner home."

Things worked out as planned for the Pirates on the safety squeeze.

Kirn laid down a bunt that stopped a few feet in front of the pitcher's mound. When Dexter pitcher Trevor McDonald fielded the ball and fired it to first base for the second out of the frame, Garrett Dix broke home. The Dexter first baseman caught McDonald's throw and fired back to catcher Jason Jarrell at home, but Dix slid across the plate for the game-winning run about a second before the ball arrived.

The safety squeeze sealed a 5-4, come-from-behind win for the fourth-seeded Pirates against the fifth-seeded Bearcats in the opening round of the Class 4 District 1 tournament at Notre Dame Regional High School.

Dexter catcher Jason Jarrell attempts to tag out Perryville's Garrett Dix in the bottom of the seventh inning. Dix was safe on the play.

The Bearcats built a 4-0 lead by plating a pair of runs in the top of the second and fifth before Perryville (12-11-1) erased the deficit with two runs in the bottom of the fifth and three more in the bottom of the seventh.

"It was kind of reminiscent of the first time we played these guys when we had a 2-0 lead on them and they scored three in the seventh inning to beat us," Dexter coach Brian Becker said. "We had several opportunities to get more runs across the plate today but just didn't take advantage of those opportunities."

Dexter starting pitcher Hunter Parrott pitched into the final inning. Becker elected to lift Parrott and bring in McDonald after he hit No. 9 hitter Aaron Mueller to start the bottom of the seventh. McDonald also hit the first hitter he faced, Trent Steffens, to put runners on first and second with nobody out and his team clinging to a 4-2 lead.

The next hitter, Dix, laid down a bunt that was fielded and thrown wide of first base. The errant throw allowed both runners on base to score without a play to tie things up at 4-4 while Dix advanced to third.

McDonald followed by getting Kameron Fears to fly out to shallow right field for the first out of the frame before Kirn, the cleanup hitter, laid down the game-winning bunt.

Parrott earned a no-decision, allowing four runs on four hits. He struck out one, walked four and hit two in six-plus innings of work.

"Very good outing by Hunter," Becker said. "His pitch count got up there a little bit, and we were fixing to have to go through their lineup a fourth time. So I decided we needed to give them a different pitcher to look at. Trevor came in and hit the first guy, and then we didn't execute well on the first bunt attempt, which allowed them to tie the score up. Then we had a chance to get out of it, and Perryville made a great play to win the game."

Dexter (9-17) recorded three of its four runs on bases-loaded walks. Chandler Young drew a bases-loaded walk in both the second and fifth, and Kris Rinehart also drew a bases-loaded walk in the fifth.

The Bearcats tallied their other run in the bottom of the second when Riley Mason was hit by a pitch, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Parrott, moved to third when Jordan Wood grounded out for the second out and scored when Rinehart hit a ground ball to short stop that was fielded and thrown wide of first.

The Bearcats stranded two in the first and left the bases loaded in the second, third and fifth innings.

"Our hitting has been so inconsistent this year that we need to try to push runs across anywhere we can," Becker said. "We got them in the best position we possibly could, and sometimes we capitalized on our chances. And sometimes we didn't, but I'd like to have seen us put a few more runs on the board before the bottom of the seventh inning."

Perryville loaded the bases with nobody out in the top of the fifth when Mueller hit a leadoff double, Trent Steffens was hit by a pitch and Dix walked. The Pirates scored their first two runs when the next batter hit a grounder to short that was thrown to second base. Two runs scored on the play after the second baseman, Jacob Pedigo, fell to the ground at second on a hard slide.

Perryville used three pitchers -- Wyatt Johnson pitched the first 2 2/3 innings and allowed two runs, Trent Richardet went the next 2 1/3 innings and allowed two runs and Trent Unterreiner pitched the final two innings without allowing a run and was credited with the victory.

"Unfortunately, today wasn't the best day for our pitchers," Jeff Steffens said. "It was very uncharacteristic how many we walked. We are a group of guys that don't throw hard, so we have to make the opponent put the ball in play and rely on our defense to make plays. Today, I think all four runs they scored were unearned on three bases-loaded walks and an error. Today wasn't our best day, but hopefully we can come back Monday with our best effort."

Young finished 2-for-2 with two singles, two walks and two RBIs for Dexter.

"He did a good job for us today," Becker said. "He didn't blister the hits he got but did a great job at the plate being patient, and I thought he had a good day."

Mueller, the Pirates' No. 9 hitter, finished 2-for-2.

"Aaron Mueller is kind of our second leadoff hitter," Jeff Steffens said. "He's one of those kids that struggled earlier in the year, but he can do a lot of good things in the nine-hole. And when he gets on, we have a good feeling about scoring with our top three guys in the batting order coming up."

Perryville returns to action against top-seeded Notre Dame in a district semifinal at 4 p.m. Monday.

"We used our top three pitchers today to just get through the game," Jeff Steffens said. "They didn't throw a whole lot of pitches, so hopefully with a day of rest in between, they can come out and throw one or two innings for us Monday against Notre Dame.

Dexter 020 020 0 -- 4 6 1

Perryville 000 020 3 -- 5 4 1

WP -- Trent Unterreiner. LP -- Trevor McDonald. 2B -- Aaron Mueller (P). Multiples hits -- Dexter: Chandler Young 2-2; Perryville: Mueller 2-2.