Perryville BB adopts predator approach

“Saltwater croc mentality!”

Those three words echoed from the home dugout throughout the Perryville baseball team’s 8-2 win over Windsor on Wednesday, April 17 in Perryville, Mo.

Grant Smith became the first Pirate to hit a home run this season and it was so nice that he did it twice. It was fitting that Smith, who leads the Pirates with 15 RBIs, was the one to come up with the team’s newest motto.

“Yesterday [Perryville head coach Don O’Keefe] asked us what is the greatest apex predator of all time,” Smith said, “and instantly, saltwater croc. There’s nothing fiercer, nothing bigger, nothing meaner, just vicious.”

O'Keefe is in his second stint as Pirates skipper after previously spending seven years and leading the team to the district championship game in 2010. His goal going into his first season was to change the culture from a team that was getting used to losing game after game into a team that expects to win those games and sometimes by a high margin.

In short, from prey to predator.

“As he names ‘saltwater crocodile’ everybody’s laughing and I said the real apex predator is time,” O'Keefe said. “It’s the only thing we can never get away from. We’ll have tons of memories, we won’t have a ton of time to make those memories. So when you choose not to run out that ball to second base, when you choose not to hustle for a ball, time is catching us.”

With a team filled with underclassmen, the Pirates went 8-18 last year, O’Keefe’s first year as head coach. That record, while nothing to celebrate in a vacuum, was more wins than the 2022 (4-16) and 2021 (3-15) seasons combined.

At 7-5, O’Keefe is seeing the fruits of his labor.

“I know that when we go into each game, we know we’re going to fight, we’re going to play hard,” O'Keefe said.

One major cause of the turnaround has been battery mates sophomore catcher Barrett Wheeler and junior pitcher Troy O’Keefe. The coach’s son has pitched a team-high 30.1 innings with 53 strikeouts and a 1.15 ERA. He also has the second most plate appearances, second to Wheeler, slashing .500/.500/1.151 with eight RBIs. Wheeler leads the Pirates in plate appearances (53) and is batting .341 with an .839 OPS.

“Through last season and the start of this season we’ve gotten so much better,” Wheeler said. “We’ve built a connection on and off the field.”

The Pirates will have the opportunity to match their win total when they play ROWVA-Williamsfield of Oneida, Illinois at Busch Stadium on Saturday, April 20.

“For them, it’s exciting because it’s an experience that we’ve never had at the school before,” O’Keefe said. “So for them to even step on that field is something that a Perry County school has never done. So for us, that is a source of pride.”

O’Keefe will stand on the dugout steps looking on like Cardinals managers past and present, while his son will be pitching off the same mound as the big leaguers.

“I honestly think that I would enjoy just pretty much everything about it,” Troy said. “Not very often do you get to play on a big league field in high school. I think it’s all our dreams to eventually make it to the big leagues and play at Busch Stadium since we’ve grown up here.”