As is the case in the recent past, the Perryville softball team has a flair for the dramatic when it comes to postseason play. The Lady Pirates fell in the Class 3 quarterfinals last season when an error caused the winning run to score.
The year before, Notre Dame scored four runs in the final inning to beat Perryville in 2019.
It’s only fitting that this year’s Class 3, District 1 title game would have some drama as well.
Top seed Doniphan scored six runs in the seventh inning to tie the game and send it into extras.
However, Perryville bounced back as Caroline Gremaud scored on a wild pitch in the eighth inning and the Pirates hung on for a 7-6 victory over Doniphan to claim the district title Saturday at Bayless High School.
The championship is the second consecutive district title for the Lady Pirates and the third in the last four seasons.
“The title means that this team has the drive and the determination that it takes to win,” Perryville softball coach Lilly Pecaut said. “We started hot and then the game started to get away from us, but we stayed together and were able to pull out a win.”
However, the finish was never easy. With Perryville ahead 6-0, Doniphan sent nine batters to the plate and scored six runs as the rather sure-gloved Perryville defense faltered with two errors in the outfield. Pecaut also felt like the strike zone got a tad smaller for her ace Alyson Stortz, which led to the offensive outburst.
“We were pretty much busting them inside all game, and they were way behind,” Pecaut said. “I felt the strike zone started to shrink and we had to start throwing outside and they were hitting fly balls to the outfield. Everything that could have gone wrong that inning, did go wrong.”
The Pirates didn’t hang their heads in the eighth when Gremaud led the eighth inning off with a single and came all the way around to score.
“We didn’t fold after that tough inning,” Pecaut said. “That was a huge momentum shift in the game and the girls didn’t give up at all. They came out that next inning ready to hit and the energy stayed up in the dugout.”
Stortz, who pitched all eight innings in the victory, pitched around a mistake to the leadoff batter of the bottom of the eighth when she hit the ninth-place hitter.
That inning put a bow on the day for Stortz who pitched a complete game, while giving up eight hits, two walks with 12 strikeouts. Up until the seventh inning, Stortz had allowed one run in the district tournament. She ended the tournament with 29 strikeouts in three games.
“Alyson was really dominant this weekend and it’s a joy to watch her in the circle,” Pecaut said. “In the seventh inning, she really had to rely on some of her other pitches. She worked through it and when she did miss it was not by much.”
The Pirates started fast with a run in the second inning on an RBI single by McKayla Pecaut, who went 2 for 4 in the game. The Pirates came up in the third inning with three more runs to go up 4-0. Breanna White added a homerun in the seventh to add what turned into some much needed insurance runs. White went 3 for 4 in the game to lead Perryville and Stortz added another two hits.
This year’s district title may have come as a surprise to many as Perryville (15-13) had to replace six seniors for last year’s squad and added Pecaut as a first-year head coach. She credits the turnaround which saw Perryville win 10 of their last 13 games to an improvement in defense.
“Our defense on the infield was rough,” Pecaut said. “It made it hard to win games because any time the ball was hit something bad would happen it seemed. Everything was on our pitchers at the beginning of the season. Now I feel like we have a defense that can play behind our pitchers.”
Perryville played St. Charles West (9-15) on Wednesday in the Class 3 quarterfinals.
