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Reinartz homers at plate, fans 8 on mound in loss
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
PERU — Last year, Rochester got a walk-off win over Peru on their way to a Three Rivers Conference title. This year, Peru got a dramatic walk-off win over Rochester to maintain their outright TRC lead.
Jackson Rogers’ walk-off RBI bunt single in the bottom of the seventh inning capped a rally from a 4-0 deficit and gave the Peru baseball team a 5-4 win over visiting Rochester Monday.
Peru improved to 14-3 overall and 6-0 in the Three Rivers Conference. Rochester fell to 11-7, 3-3.
Manchester defeated Whitko 14-0 in five innings Monday to stay within a game of the conference lead. Manchester is 5-1 in the TRC with their lone loss coming to Peru.
Tanner Reinartz went 3 for 3 with a solo homer, two singles and a walk. Gavin Young got on base four times on three walks and a hit by pitch, and he hustled home on a passed ball.
Colton Ferverda had a two-run single in the third prior to Young scoring on the passed ball.
But the Zebras also committed five errors as compared to none for Peru.
“That’s been our Achilles heel most of the year,” Rochester coach Cory Good said of the defense. “We commit five errors, and you’re not going to win a 5-4 ballgame like that. Defensively, we’ve got to make the routine plays. Anything that’s routine, we’ve got to make, and if we don’t, we’ve got to expect them to score on it, and that’s what they did.”
Rochester got the leadoff hitter on base in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings but did not score in any of those innings. They left 11 on base for the game.
Peru pitchers walked eight, but only one of the eight came around to score.
Reis Bellar led off the bottom of the seventh by sending a medium fly ball towards the left field line. The ball was dropped for an error, and the speedy Bellar reached second.
Jaxson Manriquez popped to second. Matthew Roettger reached on a bunt single to move Bellar to third.
Rogers also bunted on the next pitch. Rochester pitcher Carson Paulik pounced off the mound and fired home to catcher Jake Seuferer, who tried to catch and swipe a tag on Bellar in one motion.
On a close play, Bellar was ruled safe, and an elated Bellar flung his helmet into the air. Peru had never led until the final play of the game.
It was the opposite of last tear when Seuferer got a walk-off RBI double at Bob Copeland Field in a 3-2 Rochester win over Peru.
After Reinartz pitched the first five innings, Paulik took over to start the sixth. He inherited a 4-3 lead but walked leadoff hitter Bryce Hill. Paulik then struck out Lucas Musser and Isaac Braley.
Hill then stole second and third on consecutive pitches. On his steal of third, he beat Seuferer’s throw by an eyelash.
Gavin Eldridge then lined a single to right to tie the game. Paulik then retired Ian Potts on a fly to left to retire the side.
Potts, who defeated Rochester 4-1 in the Howard County Invitational at Eastern (Greentown) on April 6, took over for starter Matthew Roettger on the mound to start the seventh.
He walked Reinartz, struck out Seuferer but walked Young to put runners on first and second. But Colton Ferverda fouled to first, and Brady Beck flew out to left to retire the side.
Roettger retired the first two batters to start the game before Reinartz massacred a homer to straightaway center to give the Zebras a 1-0 lead in the first.
“You look at his numbers, and they look pretty good, but for Tanner’s bat, they’re down from past years, but today it looked like he was letting the ball get to him,” Good said. “He wasn’t jumping at it. He really saw it well. Glad to see it coming back.”
Rochester loaded the bases with nobody out in the third on a line single to left from Reinartz, a walk to Seuferer and a Young hit by pitch. Peru coach Josh Ulery decided to move the infield in, and Ferverda chopped a grounder over the infield for a two-run single to make it 3-0.
Young stopped at second on the play.
Brady Beck grounded into a 5-4-3 double play to move Young to third. He then scored when an outside pitch from Roettger ticked off the catcher’s glove to the backstop.
Reinartz gave up a lead-off double to Eldridge in the first and then retired seven in a row. He then hit No. 9 batter Braley with a pitch. Braley advanced to second on Eldridge’s groundout to third with Young making a nice play moving to his left and firing to first to get Eldridge.
Potts roped a double to left-center to make it 4-1. Bellar then hit a grounder to short, and the throw to first was ruled to have pulled Brady Beck off the bag at first. While Rochester argued the call, Potts scored all the way from second to make it 4-2.
Peru made it 4-3 in the fourth. Roettger’s chopper to the right side was bobbled for an error. He went to second on Rogers’ sacrifice bunt to the pitcher and then scored on Hill’s line double to left-center.
Hill would reach third on an error, but Reinartz struck out Musser and Braley to retire the side.
In the fifth, Peru loaded the bases with two outs. On a 3-2 pitch, Rogers asked for time but did not receive it, and he stepped out of the batters box while Reinartz fired a fastball down the middle for an inning-ending strikeout.
“I was proud of both our pitchers today,” Good said. “I thought they threw a lot of strikes. Tanner was efficient. I think we had two walks and a hit batter. I thought pitchers did really well today. … Went to Paulik to try to close this thing down and give these guys their first loss, and unfortunately, we just couldn’t do that today.”
Peru 5, Rochester 4
Rochester 103 000 0 – 4 6 5
Peru 002 101 1 – 5 7 0
WP – Ian Potts (1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 1 K)
LP – Carson Paulik (1 ⅓ IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K)
2B – Gavin Eldridge (PERU), Ian Potts (PERU), Bryce Hill (PERU)
HR – Tanner Reinartz (RHS)
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