BOWLING GREEN — After placing fourth in the Northern Lakes League's five-team Buckeye Division, Perrysburg has put that disappointment in the rear-view mirror, and is playing its best baseball of the season at the right time.
The Yellow Jackets rode the pitching of senior right-hander Matt Hubbard — and some timely hitting in the third inning — to a 4-1 victory over St. Francis de Sales in a Division I regional semifinal on Thursday night at Bowling Green State University's Steller Field.
Perrysburg (24-7, 8-6 NLL) will play Lakewood St. Edward (19-11) in Friday's regional final at Gates Mills Gilmour Academy at 5 p.m. St. Ed’s advanced with a 6-3 win over Avon in a regional semifinal on Thursday at Gilmour.
Hubbard, who will pitch at the University of Toledo next year, yielded one run on six hits and struck out three in raising his record to 6-3 on the season. He was backed by solid, error-free defense.
“We got an early lead in the third inning and I had the same [pitching] approach,” Hubbard said. “Just pitch with the lead, throw strikes, and have my defense play some good defense like they did today.”
Hubbard (.436 batting average) also mixed in run-scoring singles in the third and fifth innings to support his efforts on the hill.
“I was just trying to barrel up the ball and not try to do too much,” Hubbard said. “I got in some bad counts, and just put the barrel to the ball and they got through.”
After going out 1-2-3 in the first two innings against Knights junior pitcher Colin Hennessey, Perrysburg scored three runs on three hits in the top of the third.
Abram Hire drew a lead-off walk, stole second, and scored on Trent Bezek's single to center. Bezek took second on the throw home, and moved to third when Quinn Weber reached on a infield single off the glove of Hennessey.
Connor Kessinger brought Weber home on a sacrifice fly to left and, after Brady Zilles bunted Weber to second, Hubbard scored him on a single to center for a 3-0 Yellow Jackets lead.
St. Francis (19-12) threatened to score early, but stranded runners at second and third in the bottom of the second, and a runner at third in the third. The Knights stranded a runner at third in the fifth.
“If we could have pushed in even one run early on in those situations, I think the game could have gone differently,” Knights coach Bobby Edgell said. “Our pitcher maybe would've had a little more confidence, and maybe we scrap together some stuff in the small-ball game.
“[Perrysburg] definitely made the plays. They were sound defensively, and Hubbard pitched really well. We had our opportunities. They came through and we didn't. That's what it came down to.”
In the Perrysburg half of the fifth, Hennessey hit Kessinger with a pitch to start the inning. Kessinger stole second and continued to third when catcher Brady Mitchey's throw skipped into center field.
Hennessey struck out Zilles, but Hubbard followed with a sharp RBI single to center for a 4-0 Perrysburg lead. That hit chased Hennessey (6-2).
The Knights broke through on Hubbard with two outs in the sixth when Drew Tucker, who had led off with a single to right, scored from third on a single to right by Cooper Lajiness to make it 4-1.
Hubbard halted further damage that inning, then closed the win with a 1-2-3 seventh.
“We knew we'd get hot at some point,” Hubbard said. “We've got a lot of talent out here, and we were able to start getting hot during the tournament. It's been going well.
“We had won a few games going into the tournament after those Anthony Wayne losses. We got fired up and have been getting after it ever since.”
Perrysburg coach Dave Hall traces the Jackets' turnaround to May 8, after his team dropped both of its NLL games against rival Anthony Wayne, falling at AW 5-2 on May 6, and 11-2 at home two days later.
At that point, Perrysburg was 16-7 overall, and had completed its eight league games against Buckeye Division foes with a 2-6 record. But they went 6-0 versus NLL Cardinal Division foes, including a big 12-2 bounce-back win at Cardinal champion Clay on May 10.
That win began what is now an eight-game winning streak heading into the regional final. The Jackets have outscored their opposition 72-8 during the run.
“After Anthony Wayne, where we sort of imploded on ourselves, they got challenged by me,” Hall said. “I told them [after the May 8 game] that I had nothing to say, and then I went berserk.”
Hall has a 737-376 record at Perrysburg. His win total ranks 11th all-time among Ohio prep baseball coaches.
“I think they've got a great amount of pride, and they've worked extremely hard,” Hall said. “They've always been on the same page as me as far as our goals, but I think it just took a little bit of a heart-to-heart, and they've been playing really good since then.
“We've had some hitters that had been struggling who have readjusted their approach, and I think they've dug down. I told them they were too good not to be doing better.”
Perrysburg is playing in its first regional since 2017, and the Knights made their first regional appearance since 2015.
The Yellow Jackets look to extend the string of Toledo area D-I teams reaching the state final four in Akron to four different teams in four years.
St. John's Jesuit reached the state semifinals in 2021, NLL member Northview was the 2022 D-I state champion, and Anthony Wayne advanced to the state semis last year.
First Published May 31, 2024, 12:03 a.m.
