Perry made the most of Saturday’s nice weather with a tripleheader sweep of Northwestern, Black River, and New London.
The Pirates opened the day with a 5-0 win over Northwestern.
“Northwestern was a very good team,” said Perry coach Joe Medlen. “I watched them warming up and their hitting, their pitching, and everything else was solid. They were a very good program. It just turned into a defensive game and the only reason we beat them is that they made three errors and we didn’t make any and we capitalized on theirs, so that was the big difference.”
Perry scored one run in the fourth and added four in the bottom of the sixth.
Gigi Vicini started the fourth-inning rally with a single and Lily Agostine doubled her home for a 1-0 lead.
Vicini led the charge in the sixth as well as she reached on an error and scored on Calli Thompson’s triple. Agostine followed with a groundout that allowed Thompson to score. Rosalyn Tharp and Faith Hartman both singled and Rileigh Liddy drew a walk. Madeline Infalvi then doubled home two more runs to close out the scoring.
Infalvi finished the game 3-for-4 with two runs batted in. Vicini, Thompson, Agostine, Tharp, and Hartman each had one hit and Agostine knocked in two runs.
Mia Ward went the distance in the circle. She allowed just four hits in seven shutout innings.
The Pirates jumped out to a 6-0 lead over Black River but then had to rally back from a 7-6 deficit to beat the Pirates, 10-9.
“We were up pretty big and the girls kind of settled in,” Medlen said. “They had one girl that hit a mammoth shot. The fence was like 350 feet and she hit the base of the fence.”
Infalvi started Perry’s first-inning rally with a single and Vicini singled her home to give the Pirates an early 1-0 lead. Hartman drew a one-out walk in the second and scored on Hailey Hodge’s sacrifice bunt to push the lead to 2-0.
Perry exploded for four runs in the third.
Elise Strahan and Vicini hit back-to-back singles to start the rally. Agostine then drew a one-out walk to load the bases and Tharp hit an RBI single. Hartman reached on a fielder’s choice and Hodge reached on an error that pushed the lead to 4-0. Liddy drew a bases-loaded walk and Infalvi added an RBI single.
Black River scored four runs on three hits, an error, and a walk in the bottom of the third and added three more runs in the fourth on a pair of doubles, a single, and two walks.
“They have a different batting style,” Medlen said of Black River. “Every one of their kids choke up on the bat and then pull back and hit. As long as we could hit that outside corner, they weren’t going to get to the ball. That wasn’t working for them at first and then all of a sudden it started working.”
Ward relieved Hartman in the fourth and the Perry bats did the rest.
Perry scored three runs in the sixth and one in the seventh to take a 10-7 lead into the bottom of the seventh inning.
Black River scored two runs in the bottom half of the inning but Perry held on for the win.
Infalvi and Vicini both finished the game 4-for-5 with an RBI. Strahan had three hits and Thompson, Agostine, and Tharp each finished with two.
Ward added her second victory of the day after allowing three runs on seven hits with three strikeouts.
Perry closed out the day with a 17-5 five-inning win over New London.
Infalvi and Thompson both were 3-for-4. Vicini, Agostine, and Sydney Collins each had two hits. Collins hit a home run, Agostine triples, and Thompson and Hodge both had doubles in the game.
Hartman picked up her first pitching victory of the day after allowing four unearned runs on four hits with five strikeouts in three innings. Ward threw two innings and allowed one run on three hits with two strikeouts.
