Perryville upsets top-seeded Notre Dame in district baseball tournament

~ Perryville will play Kennett for the Class 3 District 1 championship

Perryville coach Don O'Keefe wanted to squeeze three innings out of junior Jake Dobbelare in Monday's Class 3 District 1 baseball semifinal.

Dobbelare exceeded those expectations.

The lanky right-hander delivered 5 1/3 innings to earn his second win on the mound in the district tournament, this one a 4-2 victory over the top-seeded Bulldogs to end Notre Dame's three-year reign as district champions.

"It's one of the strongest he's looked all year," O'Keefe said.

Dobbelare, who moved to first base, fittingly fielded the throw from shortstop for the final out in the seventh inning, which set off a Perryville celebration usually reserved for a district championship. The Pirates streamed out of the dugout and numerous gloves flew into the air in celebration after the final out.

"It's a great feeling," Perryville junior Tyler Blessing said about the upset win.

Dobbelare threw 68 pitches over three innings in Saturday's win against Ste. Genevieve, so O'Keefe didn't want to overwork his pitcher Monday.

"It's one of those things as a coach you get very nervous about," O'Keefe said. "Where's the fine line between winning and taking care of a kid's arm?"

O'Keefe said he wanted to limit Dobbelare to about 80 pitches, which he did.

"As he kept going, as we were watching him, he kept getting stronger," O'Keefe said.

It helped that Dobbelare pitched with a lead for most of the game.

The Pirates (16-7) jumped on the Bulldogs from the start. Blessing started the game with a single but was erased trying to steal second. The next three Perryville batters reached safely to load the bases with one out against Notre Dame starter Eric Hayes.

But Hayes got a foul out for the second out and Dustin Thompson lined softly to shortstop to end the inning without a run scoring.

"I was probably kicking myself because I had that hit and run and my guy got thrown out," O'Keefe said about Blessing. "Then I watched another guy walk and then that base hit. I was like, 'Oh my God.'"

Notre Dame confounded Perryville's frustration by pushing across a run in the bottom of the first inning.

The frustration didn't last long. The Pirates loaded the bases with no outs to start the second, and Blessing singled to left-center field to even the score and chase Hayes in favor of Jonathan Lynch.

"To get out of that situation and not give up any runs, I felt like maybe they'd turn the tables and give Eric a little bit of confidence coming out the second inning," Notre Dame coach Jeff Graviett said about the first inning. "That was huge. Then that second inning could have been even more disastrous than it was, getting out of it with a three-spot."

Graviett said he never considered bringing in ace Cody Heisserer to replace Hayes.

"The game plan coming in was he was a one-inning save guy," Graviett said about Heisserer. "We wanted something in the tank if we were going to go in and battle Kennett on Wednesday night. Every coach is different and that's just the way I've done it for a long time."

Perryville took the lead for good when Ross Moldenhauer grounded into a double play, and it added another run on Dobbelare's two-out double.

"Everybody was thinking we were the underdog coming in here," Blessing said. "We started hitting the crap out of [Hayes] and it kind of helped. It gets your confidence up and motivated the whole team and gets you going."

Dobbelare worked to maintain his team's lead. A key moment came in the fifth inning when the Bulldogs (17-5) used a two-out walk and error to put on two runners with cleanup hitter Heisserer stepping to the plate.

"I just wanted to stick to my fastball," Dobbelare said.

The fastball worked. Dobbelare struck out Heisserer, who screamed in frustration as he raced back to the dugout.

The Pirates added an insurance run in the sixth inning on a wacky play. Thompson roped a one-out double to right-center field and went to third on Jared Hotop's bunt single. Alex Green then tried to lay down a squeeze bunt, which allowed Thompson to score. Green reached safely for a hit, but the Bulldogs threw out Hotop trying to score from second. Green took off for second as Hotop raced for the plate. The Bulldogs threw out Green at second after nabbing Hotop at the plate for an unusual double play.

Notre Dame tried to rally in the sixth. Dobbelare retired the leadoff man before getting a visit from O'Keefe.

"He just asked me how my arm felt," Dobbelare said.

O'Keefe told his starting pitcher that he'd let him pitch to one more batter. Dobbelare walked that batter, Notre Dame's Cody DeBrock.

Kyle Fahnestock relieved Dobbelare and coaxed a ground ball for the second out. It looked like he'd escaped the inning when he got Nathan Beussink to hit a fly ball a mile high to left field. But the ball hit Blessing's glove and fell to the ground for a two-base error.

Jesse Schott made the error hurt with an infield single to plate a run and cut Perryville's lead to 4-2.

That's when Thompson bailed out his team.

Kyle Campbell ran for Schott and tried to steal second, and Beussink took off for home after Thompson, the catcher, fired a throw to second. Beussink certainly would have scored, but Thompson's throw nabbed Campbell to end the inning.

"It was planned just to throw all the way through," Thompson said. "I just found out the guy was 22 for 22 on steals and I just threw him out, so that was kind of good. We work on that every day in practice."

The drama still wasn't over in the seventh. Hayes reached on an infield single with two outs to bring Heisserer to the plate as the tying run.

But he grounded out to shortstop to end the game.

"Their kid made some tremendous pitches and got him out," Graviett said.

The Pirates will try to continue their run in Wednesday's district title game against Kennett, an 8-0 winner over Dexter on Wednesday. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Notre Dame.

Perryville 030 001 0 -- 4 9 3

Notre Dame 100 001 0 -- 2 6 0

WP -- Jake Dobbelare. LP -- Eric Hayes. 2B -- Dobbelare 2 (P), Dustin Thompson (P). Multiple hits -- Perryville: Tyler Blessing 2-4, Dobbelare 2-3, Alex Green 2-3. Records -- Perryville 17-5. Perryville 16-7.