DAYTON – Perry pitcher Joey Hoersten stifled a potential Spencerville comeback on Wednesday evening to secure a 4-3 Commodore victory at the home of the Dayton Dragons.
Hoersten, a senior who started the contest and tossed a pair of scoreless innings returned in the top of the seventh for the Commodores in relief of teammate Ryan Yingst who had allowed the Bearcats to claw within two runs and finished his time on the mound with the bases loaded.
Despite allowing Emerson Layman to walk home when Jack Cox was plunked to bring in a run, Hoersten finished off the contest with a double play and a strikeout of Sy Morris to give Perry the final out of the evening.
Spencerville appeared on track to strike first in the opening frame when Jack Cox tripled to the Day Air Credit Union Ballpark outfield but was left on the bases when the inning came to an end with a ground out.
Perry’s opening at bat produced a similar hope for a run thanks to Joey Hoersten procuring a walk from Spencerville starter Carter Ringwald and moving to third with a pair of stolen bases. Unfortunately for the home team their first chance to take the lead ended when Hoersten was thrown out attempting to swipe his third base of the inning when he was tagged out by catcher Sy Morris.
Three walks and a hit by pitch from the left hand of Ringwald pushed the Commodores to a 1-0 lead in the second inning and was a score quickly added to by Perry in the third.
Hunter Klett produced both the second out of the third at bat for Perry and the second run when he brought Yingst home for a 2-0 advantage that again nearly saw an accompanying run moments later thwarted by the Bearcats defense on a play that produced two defensive errors and a 7-3 put out at home plate by outfielder Carter Layman to cut down Jehu Muniz and save a run.
Walks and errors continued to be big stories for both squads in the middle innings as the Bearcats turned a pair of walks and an error into their first marker on an RBI single by Eli Harter before the Commodores themselves used the same set to push their lead to 4-1 on a Hoersten RBI single in the bottom of the inning.
Perry starter Joey Hoersten who started and finished the contest allowed two hits but no runs over three innings of work with five strikeouts and no walks to up his record to 5-0 on the year.
Spencerville starter Carter Ringwald worked through five innings on the mound and allowed one hit and four runs while walking and striking out eight Perry hitters on 107 pitches.
Next up for the Commodores (12-1) is a Thursday Northwest Central Conference clash against Ridgemont while Spencerville (1-12) will return home on the same evening for an NWC matchup against rival Bluffton before heading to Ottoville for a non-league matchup with Ottoville on Friday.