Semoball

Perryville endures heartbreaking postseason loss - again

Perryville baserunner Brooke Huber runs for first base against Notre Dame during the 2019 MSHSAA Class 3, District 1 championship game in Perryville. Huber helped the Pirates win the 2020 District title and had two hits and three RBIs in the Pirates 8-7 quarterfinal loss at Bowling Green Thursday.
Southeast Missourian file

One year ago, the Perryville softball team was one inning away from winning the MSHSAA Class 3, District 1 championship before allowing Notre Dame to score four runs in its final at-bat to get past the Pirates 4-3.

On Thursday, Perryville suffered an even more gut-wrenching episode. The Pirates were one OUT away from beating host Bowling Green in the Class 3 Quarterfinal and advancing to a Final Four, but a home run, a tough play to make, and a defensive miscue from a player that never makes such a mistake, resulted in the Bobcats prevailing 8-7.

“It was a sad way to end (the season),” third-year Perryville coach Dustin Wengert said. “But we’ll take the season that we had.”

The Pirates (18-6) held leads of 4-1 (in the fourth inning), 6-5 (in the fifth), and 7-6 (in the seventh), as sophomore pitcher Alyson Stortz only allowed two earned runs in 6 2/3 innings of work.

Junior Katie Roberts had put Perryville on the cusp of victory with an RBI single that scored classmate Katie Burns to put the Pirates ahead 7-6 in the sixth inning.

Stortz got the first two Bowling Green batters out in the seventh inning on a flyout and her ninth strikeout of the game, before Bobcat lead-off hitter Kennedy Grimsley belted a first-pitch home run to tie the game.

Meredyth Betts then reached base on a tough ball to rein in off the glove of Pirate shortstop Brittanie Stewart, before a ball was hit by Bobcat hitter Jade Meier exactly where Wengert wanted it to soar.

Earlier this week, Wengert said senior centerfielder Ann-Marie Simpson was “the (defensive) centerpiece that we base everything off of.”

Meier’s hit sailed to Simpson, for what should have been the third out, but the sure-handed player dropped the catch and Betts sprinted around the bases to score the winning run.

“I wouldn’t want a ball hit to anybody else,” Wengert said of Simpson.

Wengert said the defeat wouldn’t diminish what this group has done.

The Pirates have won 37 games over the past two years and graduated a ton of talent a year ago, which enabled the current team to “surprise” Wengert with its success.

“I’m going to remember the big games that we played in,” Wengert said. “The Notre Dame game, the Jackson game, the Hillsboro game, the ability to stay close in those games.”

Notre Dame only lost three times this season in 28 games, but one of those was a recent 1-0 defeat at Perryville.

The Pirates’ six defeats came to teams that had a combined 118-47 record.

Brooke Huber and Stewart each paced the Pirate offense Thursday with a pair of hits, while Huber added a run and three RBIs.

Stewart cranked out a home run for a run scored and a pair of RBIs, while Simpson (a triple, one run scored), Roberts (one hit, two runs scored, one RBI), Stortz (one hit), Anna Korando (one hit), Burns (one run scored), Kylee Stortz (one hit), and McKayla Pecaut (one double, one run scored) all contributed for the Pirates.

Alyson Stortz threw the entire game and allowed nine hits and zero walks.

The Pirates committed five errors in the game.

“We have been able to handle our business,” Wengert said of this season, “and take a very business approach to our everyday routine. That is what I’ll always remember this team by.”

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