FAIRVIEW PARK, Ohio (May 8, 2023) -- Built of lumber and wheels, the River offensive machine was in high gear Monday at Fairview. The Pirates collected 12 hits and as many walks, alongside nine stolen bases, as they produced a season-high 14 runs in a shutout of the Warriors.
The machine erected a picket fence first, filing solo runs on the board in the first, second, and fourth innings. Starting pitcher Michael Perry induced a nice mix of swings and misses, harmless fly balls, fieldable bouncers over that stretch, and the visiting Sons of Blackbeard built a 3-0 lead through four.
The fifth was an exchange of pressures but no runs.
The Pirates (6-13, 2-5 Great Lakes Conference West) then batted around in the sixth, turning that picket fence into a stone wall. Five walks fueled a six-run stanza; big RBI singles by Hudson Wissman and Perry kept the production line going, and when Perry took the mound in the bottom of the sixth, he did so with a 9-0 lead.
Perry toted a resolve to the rubber: a resolve to keep the Warrior bats silent, not let them grab even one bit of momentum as an answer in the home half of the sixth. Two fly-outs and a punch-out were Perry's emphatic denial in that half-inning, the strikeout being his fifth of the afternoon.
Joe Brant relieved Perry in the seventh, and by that time Rocky River had a 14-0 lead after more Warrior wildness -- combined with hits by Perry, Griffin Hill, and Rees Heigle -- led to five more River runs that inning. Brant allowed a walk and a hit but bracketed those with a pair of strikeouts and then a fly to left as the final out of the Buccaneers' third shutout triumph of the season.
Sophomore shortstop Josh Mommers went 3-for-3 with a walk in extending what is now a five-game hit streak. Hill and Wissman each collected two hits. Anthony Ferchill drew three walks. Mommers and Wissman had two stolen bases each.
The Pirates outhit the Warriors 12-3.
River's win snapped a three-game losing streak. The Pirates and Warriors are slated to close out their two-day home-and-home series with a Tuesday game at Rocky River Field (5 p.m.).
by Skip Snow
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