Up, down and all around: Perry finding the right combination

This season has been a rollercoaster of good and not so good for the Perry Panthers. Now 12-8 in the season, the Panthers are fighting for the No.3 seed with Spalding for the region tournament and state playoffs.

Perry’s currently No.4 in Region 4-4A with a 6-6 region record behind Spalding’s 6-4 record. The Panthers won their series 2-1 between Spalding with an 8-7 win on Wednesday night. Both Spalding and Perry have three region games remaining to determine who will play the No.1 team in for the opening round of the region tourney.

On Thursday, Perry lost to the current Region 4 No.1 seed, West Laurens, 7-1. The past two games have seen more adjustments made by Perry head coach, Kyle Davis, to make up for the team’s lack of depth; something they’ve had to combat all season. Normally at shortstop, junior Ali Rae Dykes, has had to play third base and most recently, catcher, and while she excels in each position, the team is still finding their best lineup combination.

“We had to make those changes, Ali Rae is probably the best catcher in the region. She can just control the base runners a lot more, so we had to move her back there,” said Davis about the recent adjustments. “We actually brought in outfielder (Abby Ussery) to play shortstop and she’s doing her best, she’s basically helping the team out by going there because we’re not very deep as far as infielders ready to play at the varsity level. She’s going to put in some work to get a little better because she hasn’t played the infield probably since middle school and she’s a senior… But she’s doing the best she can and that’s all we can ask from her.”

Ussery is one of the four seniors on the team and was the best option to fill in for Dykes at shortstop, even though she’s played outfield for the entirety of her high school career. Her impact was felt at shortstop as she made some plays against Spalding, including an overhead catch while turned around to grab an out.

While short handed on the infield, pitching isn’t deep either, and junior Raegan Hughes has carried the load all season. After playing behind a senior last year, Hughes had to step in without much relief. She’s just shy of 100 innings pitched and threw for just a fourth of that total throughout last season. With all the experience from her first year starting, Hughes is growing into her own now on the back end of the season.

“She’s really pitched well the past few games,” said Davis after the Spalding game. “She’s not a strikeout pitcher, but she’s doing well keeping us in games to where we have a chance (to win) if we’re playing pretty well on offense. If we clean up the mistakes, she limits a lot of runs, so we’ve just got to clean it up on defense.”

The same struggles of depth on defense carry over offensively as the upperclassmen carry the load in at the plate. The team is top-heavy, relying on Dykes, Hughes and seniors Ussery, Raegan Stella and Carsen Garner to get on base and bring runners in. Just about the rest of the lineup is made up of underclassmen. But freshman Ava Garrett and sophomores Trinity Odum and Carson Chance have contributed well, and will be a part of the program’s future in the coming years.

With the postseason right around the corner, Perry has a few more games to build some momentum for the region tournament and a playoff run.

Up next for them is a region game on the road against Howard (2-12) on Monday, Oct. 5 at 5:00 p.m.

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