Errors haunt Perry against Veterans

Three runs in the sixth inning by Veterans Warhawks ended up sealing their victory over the Perry Panthers on Monday night.

Just days after getting run-ruled by Warner Robins, errors came back again to haunt Perry for another loss. Instead of early errors like they saw against Warner Robins, the Panthers just got unlucky in the sixth and committed four errors that led to three runs for the Warhawks.

“We just didn’t make some plays that we needed to,” said Perry Head Coach Tim Hutchens about the loss. “(Balls were) just out of the reach of our outfielders, our right fielder ran into our second baseman, there was a time where they safety squeezed, and we had the opportunity to get them out at home — we dropped the ball at home. So just plays here and there that added up to that big inning in the sixth.”

Veterans trailed 3-2 after Perry took the lead in the top of the sixth following two big hits from Ethan Bearden and Tyler Newhouse that brought runners home.

Perry had the lead and the momentum when the teams switched sides, then the errors happened.

Veterans seized that moment and took advantage of every single one.

The first error put Veterans on first, the next one brought a runner home to tie the game to 3-3. Then it all started crumble when one of the Warhawks slid for home and the tag from Perry’s catcher popped the ball out of his glove to give Veterans the lead.

Just when it couldn’t get any worse, another error brought in a runner from third and Veterans were quickly up 5-3.

With the top of the seventh to go, Veterans locked in on defense and ended the game.

“I’m very happy to beat Perry,” said Veterans Head Coach Mark Tallant. “Because of me being a first-year coach here at Veterans and we’ve been kind of struggling getting things going, and to beat that rival right near us is really big for us, we’re excited about it… I was just very happy to see our guys respond to the adversity. Because we haven’t done that up to my estimations and it was a big growing process… Over the course of the game you can see the guys start to pull together and play like a team, so it makes me really happy.”

For Veterans, this gives them their third win on the season and a timely confidence boost heading into their region games that are up next on the schedule.

This win also snapped the Warhawks’ five game losing streak and was a little pay back to Perry after the Panthers beat them 4-1 in their first game earlier in February.

“I feel like they’re going to build on it,” said Tallant about his team after the game. “We were talking about it in our huddle, about how (this) was one of the first and few times we’ve actually played seven innings together like a team. Because we always wind up having some kind of a meltdown and wind up having a bad inning, but we held it together just long enough to pull out a victory. Our guys were scrapping really hard to get it so we’re extremely proud of those guys, coaches too.”

This game is Perry’s second straight loss and both losses stem from errors. It’s easy to tell that costly errors demoralized the team and threw off their rhythm. They had gained the lead and momentum but lost it just as fast with errors.

When mistakes stack up like that it’s not only hard to come back on the scoreboard, but it’s harder to gain your psyche back, and the Panthers just couldn’t get it back in the seventh.

Even after the back-to-back losses, Hutchens feels that his team is finding their groove through the adversity.

“Some of those balls that they hit in the holes were unlucky, which (we’ll) just continue to work,” said Hutchens. “We were just telling our guys to keep their head up and keep fighting… (When) we’re winning a ball game in the sixth we just got to find a way to finish… but I think, even with these losses, I keep thinking we’re a good team and we’re going to eventually hit our stride. Hopefully sooner than later.”

Perry will look to find their stride before they start region play on March 16th.

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