Prep Baseball : Notre Dame Puts Perrson Pain on Bosco

Eric Perrson was feeling some pain Tuesday, but it was not quite as much as the amount he was administering.

Perrson, despite a sore Achilles tendon in his right foot, still had enough on the mound to keep Notre Dame High a leg up on St. John Bosco in a 6-3 Del Rey League victory.

“It was fun,” Perrson said. “But my foot still hurts. I wasn’t pushing off the mound as hard as I usually do. That’s what happened in the seventh. I started getting behind the hitters because I wasn’t pushing off that hard.”

Perrson was touched for nine hits, but he stayed out of enough trouble to go the distance as the Knights (2-2) moved within a half-game of the Braves (2-1).

“This definitely brings the whole league back together,” said Notre Dame Coach John Barrett. “We had a couple of lapses during the game today. That’s been our big problem all year.”

What lapses the Knights suffered Tuesday didn’t affect Perrson or the outcome. The senior, who evened his league record at 1-1 after losing a 1-0 decision to Crespi last week, struck out two of the first three batters he faced. Except for the sixth inning, in which he had to work out of a bases-loaded situation, Perrson was in control.

“Obviously they were the better team today,” said St. John Bosco Coach Ed Riley. “We weren’t ready to play. But we’ll be back.”

Notre Dame led, 2-0, in the first inning on two walks and a triple off all-league pitcher Kirk Stewart. Nate Milone led off with a walk and scored on Scott Hayward’s three-base hit into the right-field corner. Hayward came home on a douple play.

The Braves came back in the second with a run. Mark Rael doubled to right, then scored when Kirk Avila drove a Perrson pitch into left-center for a double.

The Knights, however, chased Stewart (1-1) after two innings. Perrson led off the second with a single and scored on a single by Hayward, who was 2 for 4 with two RBI’s.

Reliever Ricard Archuleta began the third inning for St. John Bosco and went the rest of the way, allowing three runs and three hits, all in the fifth.

It was in that inning the Knights did most of the damage. Rex McMakin hit a one-out double and was replaced by pinch-runner Tim Kessler. James Stowits followed with a shallow fly ball, and Avila gambled on a shoestring catch. The ball rolled past him, and Stowits slid into third with an RBI triple. Stowits came in on a squeeze play by Todd Nilsen.

Roger Nix capped the inning with a solo home run, his second this season.

“The first couple of times up I wasn’t very comfortable at the plate,” Nix said. “But that time I felt better and had two strikes on me, which was the key. I just wanted to hit the ball to the outfield to advance the runner.”