Perry baseball continues region onslaught with mercy rule win over Griffin

PERRY — It was a quick one on Thursday night as the Perry Panthers (17-2, 8-1 Region 2-4A) took care of the Griffin Bears (8-10, 1-5 Region) at home in three innings.

The 16-1 final was aided by nine walks the Panthers’ way, five of which came in the second inning as they scored 10 runs.

All three pitchers the Bears put up struggled to find the zone, but when they did the Panthers made sure to send the ball out and their runners in.

Senior catcher Colter Ginn had the best hit of the evening with a three-RBI double that cleared the bases, landing just inside the left foul line.

Perry coach Denny Bryant and his staff were looking for hits just like that in a game with few opportunities.

PHOTOS: See more photos of the Panthers in action.

“We’ve talked a lot about just having quality at-bats. It’s very easy when you’ve got a pitcher that doesn’t have much command to chase pitches out of the zone because they want to get hits,” Bryant said. “We actually talked a lot about that this week…a walk is a quality at-bat. We did a good job of being patient at the plate today and making their guys throw across the plate and taking what they gave us.”

The Bears’ lone score of the day came in the first inning.

After the first pitch of the game went into right field for a base hit, Griffin got a hit behind left field for a RBI double to make it 1-0.

Sophomore pitcher Zack Herman struck out two of the next three batters to end the side.

In the top of the second, Herman got a mound visit after walking the first batter, but after a fly out to a sliding Brayden Bearden in center field and a tag out at second base, Herman struck out the final batter to send Perry to the plate.

The Panthers poured on 10 runs in the second, and freshman Brooks Stella hit a walk-off two-RBI double in the bottom of the third to end the game via mercy rule.

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After finishing the series against Griffin on Friday, Perry takes a break from region play until mid-April when they take on the one seed in the region: West Laurens.

With spring break this week, and three non-region games in between, Bryant wants his team to focus on rest. He’s hoping Connor Langdon, sophomore Mississippi State commit who’s been out four weeks, will be close to return after the break. 

He also hopes Kam Vandersee, starting center fielder and who Bryant called their number-two arm, will be back since he’s out of his boot.

“One thing is we got spring break coming up and it’s coming at the right time because we’re kind of beat up right now,” Bryant said. “Our number one and number two pitchers have been out for a couple of weeks, so hopefully getting those guys back [and] coming out again after spring break [is really going to help us].”

Perry’s next game is Monday, April 8 at home against Upson-Lee at 6 p.m.