Coach Dave Ruark says the Perryville softball team was a good team in disguise as a bad team. It finally seems as though the Panthers are back to being themselves. Perryville upped its winning streak to four with a 7-3 triumph over host Rising Sun Wednesday afternoon. The Panthers tallied twice in the first inning and added four more in the third to take a 6-0 lead. That was plenty of offensive support for winning pitcher Emily Phillips, who finished with eight strikeouts.
"I think we came [into the season] thinking we were going to be a really good team and then we realized we needed to start fixing little things to make us better," said Phillips. Rising Sun scored a pair of runs in the home half of the third. Starting pitcher Reagan Connell singled and eventually scored on a wild pitch. Maddie Foard added an RBi single. Perryville got a run in the fourth when Carly White drilled a low line drive over the left field fence. "I thought it hit the fence so I stopped a little bit. And then I saw it over and running. It was the first time I got to run around all the bases in a while," said White, who frequently catches and is replaced by a courtesy runner after she gets on base. "It's just nice to play as a team and come out here and beat them on their Senior Night," said White, who also added two doubles. "I've got a lot of friends playing for them and I'm just glad we came out here and got the win. That's all that matters." She says the Panthers are getting hot at the right time. "We struggled in the middle (of the season) but we finally found something that works," White said. "I think we're going to be a tough team to beat." Perryville set the tone in the first inning, more specifically the first pitch which was belted to deep left for a double by Amber Keene. She advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Lydia Hill and scored on a Katelyn Griffin single. White clubbed a double to left to plate Griffin. "It's tough," Rising Sun coach Rusty Moore said. "We've been struggling all year to score runs. [Against Bo Manor the day before] we scored quite a few (10). We hit the ball the best we've hit all year. And it's tough because, they did want to come out here, wanted to show something. To start right way with a 2-0 hole, it puts you behind the eight ball and you've really got to press and you've really got to struggle. It's something we've been working on not doing. And then to have to do it right at the beginning, it's tough. It's real tough." The Tigers had a chance in the home half of the first, loading the bases with one out. But the Panthers turned a 6-4-3 double play – shortstop Ellen Little to second baseman Krystle Schweers to the first baseman Hill – to end the threat. The solid pitching and defense have been what Perryville needed to be able to embark on a win streak. "Really, offensively we've been kind of steady," Ruark said. "[Against Rising Sun] was more or less about getting on top and putting the pressure on them. And then when Em kind of settles in and makes the other team beat us, making them hit the ball, that's really been the world of change. If we can go in there and keep it under three or four walks and making them hit us, that's really it. That's been our M.O. this year. There are some games we don't show up to hit. There's some games where we'll have four or five errors. That's some games where we'll walk six or seven batters. Right now, we're kind of reducing a little bit of everything. We're still relying on timely hitting, but we're throwing strikes and we're just not having the huge blowup innings. So teams are going to have to get a couple runs here, a run here. We're doing enough of the right things right now. Sacrifice bunting. We're starting to do a lot of the little things now, which is starting to pay off. That's six sacrifice bunts in the last three games and we had four in the first 11 games. So we really struggled with a lot of things. We just had a lot of issues. And I told the girls when we were in a funk that we were a good team in disguise as a bad team. I really felt that way. And we're getting out of our own way. That's what it comes down to … Hopefully we can keep doing these things." Before the game, the Tigers honored their three seniors – Brooke Bower, Aly Jackson, and Julianna Eckman. Eckman suffered an injury during a game last year and was not able to play this season. She was at first base in Rising Sun's warmup prior to the top of the first and remained on the field for a ceremonial first pitch before leaving the field. It was also an emotional game for Moore and Ruark. Moore coached the Panthers for three seasons, including two trips to the state semifinals, before being transferred to Rising Sun High and subsequently taking the Tigers' softball coaching job. Moore and Ruark are close and the two often discussed softball and baseball during their time together at Perryville. "It was weird in a sense," Moore said of facing Perryville. "But there's a lot of new faces there weren't there last year. It's never easy. You kind of have an idea of what they can do but they progress over the course of the year. It was fun to see, but at the same time, if we were on the other end [of the score], it would've been a lot better." He said the matchup placed a little bit more pressure on his players. "I think the girls were a little stressed because I was a little stressed," Moore said. "You always feel like you have something to prove, but there's nothing really to prove. I'm just the coach. I'm not a player. They wanted to make me happy and do well for me. I think it was a little tense at the beginning. We started off a little not at ease, I guess you would say. I appreciate it. I know we had a game [the day before] and it was a tough one so they were a little let down from that. [It was] pretty good. Not too bad." The Perryville players kept their focus. "I didn't worry about it," Phillips said. "It's just different because last year I played for him. Things are a lot different this year." As you would surmise from looking at the final score, Ruark enjoyed the meeting a lot more than his friend did. "It was good," said Ruark. "I was actually pretty relaxed before the game. Once the game started and for the first three innings or so I was pretty jittery, actually. I could feel my heart rate going. It was exciting … It was a little nerve-racking. It was good to see him on the other side and for the most part once we got into the groove of the game, to be honest with you, I kind of forgot about it and just tried to coach and make the best substitutions to try to keep putting pressure on them." Comments are closed.
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