Perryville baseball coach Drew Korando knew the 2026 season would bring challenges.
After graduating 7 seniors from last year ’s squad, including several key contributors, the Pirates entered the spring relying heavily on younger players and inexperienced starters. While the season ended with a first-round district loss to Park Hills Central, Korando believes the program took meaningful steps forward and laid a strong foundation for the future.
Perryville finished the season 8-15 and went 3-7 in the Jefferson County Athletic Association, highlighted by conference victories over De Soto, Festus and Hillsboro. The Pirates also earned wins against Woodland, Arcadia Valley, North County, Farmington and Kingston before falling 10-6 to fourth-seeded Park Hills Central in the opening round of the Class 4, District 2 Tournament on May 16 in Ste. Genevieve.
Despite the record, Korando viewed the season as a success considering the team’s youth and inexperience.
“As a season as a whole, I’m happy with the guys,” Korando said. “We’re really young. We graduated a lot last year. Having 7 seniors last year and having to say goodbye to those guys, our 3 seniors this year stepped up and a lot of our young guys, our sophomores and a couple of juniors were able to step up. We weren’t too far off from last year, so that’s really positive, especially considering how much young talent that we have."
The Pirates showed improvement offensively throughout the spring while competing against a difficult conference schedule.
Sophomore Bryce Weber and senior Gideon Stueve led the Pirates at the plate. Weber finished with a team-high 23 hits while batting .377, scoring 29 runs and adding 10 doubles. Stueve batted a team-best .426 with 18 hits, 29 runs scored, 10 doubles and a team-leading 1.105 OPS.
Senior Waylon Huber added another strong season offensively, hitting .371 with 20 hits and 23 runs scored, while senior Barrett Wheeler batted .339 with 16 hits and posted a team-best .506 onbase percentage.
Bryce Schmidt collected 21 hits and scored 21 runs, while Brendyn Lutz added 10 hits and 10 runs scored. Nolan Berhle contributed 9 hits and 9 runs, and Gavin Mayor finished with 7 hits and 8 runs scored.
Parker Shelton added 4 hits and 5 runs scored, while Eli Deckerd recorded 5 hits and scored 5 runs. Younger players including Aiden Stueve, Brayden Amberger, Eli Bohnert, Colton Jordan, Landon Detien, Jack Daugherty, Ike Landwee, Jordan Pinkard and Justyce Kennedy also gained varsity experience that Korando believes will help the program moving forward.
Korando said winning 3 conference games represented an important step for a roster many underestimated entering the season.
“I would say we’re pretty close to what I expected at the beginning of the year,” Korando said. “We were actually able to compete with the conference teams that are in our conference. I never had a doubt that we would be able to, but I know a lot of the outside didn’t give us much of a chance. We ended up winning 3 conference games this year, which is always big for the program.”
Korando credited Perryville’s 3 seniors — Weber, Huber and Wheeler —for helping guide a young roster through an often challenging season.
“The 3 biggest positions on the diamond, those are our 3 seniors,” Korando said. “This year, they stepped into that role. They were the leaders of the team. They handled their position right and everything. When things went right, that’s because they were there leading those positions.”
Though replacing those seniors will not be easy, Korando believes the Pirates have the younger talent in place to continue progressing.
“There are some big shoes to fill,” Korando said. “We’re going to have to have people step up and take over that leadership role. But I think I have the right guys in the younger classes that are going to be able to kind of make that jump. It sucks to lose them, but I think we’re in a pretty good spot after this season to keep rolling into next year.”
While the district loss ended the season earlier than hoped, Korando said the overall trajectory of the program remains positive.
“Overall, I’m happy with how the season went,” Korando said. “Obviously not the last game. You always want to compete and keep playing. But season as a whole, I’m pretty happy with it.”
