Riverside routs Perry under the lights

Riverside jumped to an early lead on Perry in a nonconference matchup under the lights on May 10. The Beavers added to it in the later innings to make it insurmountable for the Pirates, and the Beavers walked away with a 14-4 win.

Riverside is 12-10 on the season, and the Pirates fell to 10-14.

It started from the mound for the Beavers. Starter Noel Sanchez struck out seven batters on his way to the win, only being kept from the complete game due to reaching the pitch limit of 125 pitches.

Coach John Wakim had faith in his starting pitcher, including when he went through a particularly tough inning.

“He was able to battle through an inning where he gave up three walks and a hit batter,” said Wakim. “He started the game well, and I told him to pound the zone with strikes and let your defense help you. He did a great job of that and threw a lot of strikes.”

While Sanchez got it done from the mound, Riverside added the run support needed to get him to the win. It started in the first inning, when Dylan May and Christian Knight brought runs home. Knight stole home on a passed ball later in the inning.

Perry cut the lead to two runs after the fourth, but May and Knight struck again, both bringing another run home. Wakim said his team had a lot of energy.

“The energy from the dugout and the team is what really feeds the hitters,” said Wakim. “They did a good job. There were some at-bats that saw us get caught by some curveballs, but the majority of at-bats saw us as the winner.”

While a lot of players had impressive showings from the plate, nobody did more damage than May. He drove in four runs while going 4-for-5.

“We had a great approach to the game today,” said May. “Coming off of our last game, we all were feeling like this was a big game. The energy was great, and that showed in our at bats tonight.”

The balls fell often for the Beavers, but the same could not be said for the Pirates. After he allowed two hits in the first, Nathan Smith did not give up another hit while he struck out six before being pulled after the third.

The Pirates had an opportunity for a comeback as the seventh inning began. But some errors cost Coach Matt Platt’s squad.

“In that last inning, I described it to the guys that we lost our focus,” said Platt. “We made four errors in that inning alone and they were able to get a lot of runs off of that. Our team played a lot better than the scoreboard suggests, and Riverside was just able to put the ball in play more than us tonight.”

Both teams have a few more warm-ups before the postseason begins with returns to conference play. Perry returns to CVC action when it takes on Cardinal on May 13, while Riverside has a quick turnaround to take on Western Reserve Conference foe South on May 11.