Perryville answers Dexter rally to stay alive in district baseball tournament

~ Perryvlille won 7-5º to reach the Class 4 District 1 semifinals

Monday afternoon's Class 4 District 1 baseball quarterfinal between Dexter and Perryville was relatively low key through the first five innings.

The fourth-seeded Pirates (17-8) led the fifth-seeded Bearcats (8-11) 4-1 heading into the sixth.

The game's tone then took a change.

Dexter pounded out three runs to tie in the top half of the inning before Perryville answered with three in the bottom. The Pirates ultimately held off a Dexter rally in the seventh to win 7-5 and advance to play top-seeded Notre Dame at 4 p.m. today.

It was a wild sixth inning that saw the Pirates experience the lowest of lows and the highest of highs.

"Can it be demoralizing?" Perryville coach Donald O'Keefe said about the sixth inning Dexter rally that tied the game. "Yeah, but the simple fact was during the bottom of the sixth it was [like] 0-0 and they had one at-bat left and we had two. So percentages say we should have a better chance to score than they do."

The inning started with the Pirates seemingly in control and six outs away from the semifinals.

But Jimmy Dowdy and Jason Mattison led off the inning with back-to-back singles that put runners at first and third.

Colton Averett followed with a RBI single that scored Dowdy and advanced Mattison to third. Averett then stole second to put runners at second and third with nobody out.

Nick Noble hit a sacrifice fly to center field to plate Mattison and make it a 4-3.

Perryville pitcher Trenton Green coaxed a flyout to make it a runner on second with two outs, but Green hit the following batter and No. 9 hitter Austin Alridge lined a game-tying RBI single.

"My velocity dropped and so did my control," Perryville pitcher Trenton Green said. "When they know a fastball is coming they can hit it. I just got behind on my velocity and it just went downhill."

Instead of crumbling, the Pirates rallied.

Trevor Martin led off the bottom half of the inning with a walk and Aaron Mueller attempted a sacrifice bunt to move Martin to second. Mattison, the Dexter pitcher, fielded the bunt and threw to second but the ball got away from the shortstop and both runners were safe.

After a failed bunt attempt, Grant Dix delivered the knockout blow a batter later.

Dix lined a single to the left fielder and Martin and Mueller scored when the ball squirted under his glove to make it 6-4.

A throwing error a batter scored Dix to restore the three-run lead.

"We just settled down," Perryville player Sean Merk said. "Just try and hit pitches that were right there. We didn't panic, we just hit the ball."

Dexter did all it could to make it interesting in the seventh.

Dowdy was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning and Mattison walked. Both runners moved up on a wild pitch.

Pirate's reliever Trevor Green got three straight groundouts to get out of the inning with only one run and seal the victory.

"The thing about Dexter, if anybody's had a chance to watch them, they just fight," O'Keefe said. "Every year I've played them they just fight. They don't care what they look like, they don't care how sexy they look, they just fight. They were hitting the ball hard. We were fortunate."

Perryville jumped on Dexter early thanks to two big-time two-out hits.

Merk lined a two-run single to right-center field on a 3-1 pitch with two outs in the first to make it 2-0.

It was the first of two hits that plated runs for Merk. He added an RBI double in the third.

"That felt great," Merk said. "I haven't been hitting the past couple of games, and I came through."

Devin Hoehn added a two-out RBI in the second on a base hit to right field that plated Dix.

"It was very nice," O'Keefe said about the timely hitting. "I was more thrilled if you watched where most of those balls went -- right field, right-center. You had a kid who was throwing breaking balls and our kids stayed back and took it that way. To me, that's more impressive than anything."

That was all the runs Pirates ace Trenton Green needed until the sixth.

Green was solid through the opening five, allowing one run -- a home run to Mattison -- on three hits.

"My control was on in the first five innings and my defense was behind me," Green said. "I could rely on them so I didn't have to try and be perfect. I really relied on my defense pretty hard."

Dexter 010 003 1 -- 5 5 3

Perryville 211 003 X -- 7 8 2

WP -- Trenton Green. LP -- Jason Mattison. HR -- Mattison (D). 2B – Sean Merk (P). Multiple Hits: Dexter -- Mattison 2-3. Perryville -- Grant Dix 3-4, Tyler Holligan 2-4, Merk 2-3. Records: Dexter 8-11. Perryville 17-8.