Perkins scores five in first, downs Tornadoes

TIFFIN-Columbian battled as hard as it could. But a five-run eruption in the first inning by Perkins in the and three more in the second inning were too much to overcome for the Tornadoes. Perkins went on to defeat Columbian 8-2 on Wednesday at Tornado Field in Sandusky Bay Conference Lake Division play. "We came out and they put five up in the first inning against us," TC coach Nick Weber said. "They hit the balls in the holes and gave themselves opportunities. We settled in, from there on to get us to where we needed to be. It looked like it was getting out of hand early, and it gave us opportunities too." The bats cooled off after Columbian (1-4, 0-1) brought in Kason Daily to pitch for the remainder of the game. Daily pitched for five innings and rendered Perkins (1-2, 1-0) scoreless. "They brought the second kid in," Pirates coach TJ Blanton said. "He threw strikes and he completely shut us down so he had a great pitching performance for Columbian and that got them through. We had a hot start and I just told the kids that they got complacent with their at bats and they were not taking Tiffin Columbian seriously because they saw the score on the scoreboard." Columbian left 12 batters on bases in the entire game, and had opportunities to dig out but couldn't. The two runs they did get in came in the fourth and fifth innings, when Perkins switched out pitchers to Grant Kuhnle. The first run for TC came with two outs already. Jaxson Little nailed a single to left field and brought Kael Lawrence across home plate. The other run came from Jayce Arias who scored on a Lawrence ground ball single to first base. "Kason is a kid that works extremely hard," said Weber of his pitcher. "He does everything, even the small things you ask him to. He is the first one to go pick up the foul balls, he the first one to pick up the score book, he does everything. To go to him and see him have the success that he did, and to see him as the bulldog, it was good to see." Perkins went through three pitchers in Kash Koch, Kuhnle, and Mason Souter. "Perkins is a really good baseball team," Weber said. "They kept putting the bat on the balls. It's early and we have a lot left to learn." Aggressiveness is going to be key for the Tornadoes, especially if they want to put more wins in the win column. "We have to be more aggressive at the plate early on," Weber said. "We have to get the nerves out of the way. Hopefully we do that and then we settle in." With conference schools like Perkins, Bellevue, Sandusky, Norwalk, and Clyde, the SBC is a tough league to be a part of. The next game for the Tornados is Thursday at Bellevue. "Every league game is a battle," Weber said. "There are a lot of good arms. It's why we like playing in this league. It gives us a fight, so one loss isn't going to lose you and one win isn't going to win it for you. We know we have a long journey ahead of us and we can't control everything."Perkins 530 000 0 — 8 12 1Columbian 000 110 0 — 2 6 2