BIG WIN: Owls defeat No. 7-ranked Bull Dogs

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The Seymour High School baseball team scored three runs in the bottom of the first inning — and those scores ended up being all they would need — as they defeated Columbus North 3-1 at American Legion Field Thursday.

The Owls (8-3) handed the Class 4A No. 7 Bull Dogs their fourth loss of 2018.

“We talked about getting early leads the last couple of days,” Owls coach Jeremy Richey said. “We play better with a lead, and we just need to generate something for us to get going, and we did a good job of that.”

The Owls (8-3) were also helped by a strong outing from pitcher Alan Perry, who gave up one run on four hits and walked one through seven innings of work. Perry also struck out eight Bull Dogs throughout the night.

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“He should walk out of here feeling very confident,” Richey said of Perry’s performance.

The game started when North’s second batter hit a one-out triple but failed to touch first base and was called out.

Perry then hit Austin Bode but struck out Casper Clark.

In the bottom half of the first is when the Owls scored all of the runs they needed.

A.J. Boshears doubled to left field, scoring Perry from first to put the Owls on the board. Perry reached on a walk.

Michael Knecht then hit a sacrifice fly to shortstop Tyler Finke in shallow center field, scoring Boshears to bring the score to 2-0.

Richey credited aggressive base-running by Boshears on the play.

“It took a base runner like A.J. (Boshears) to get that,” Richey said. “He’s very quick, and if they’re going back, we’re going to give it a shot.”

Tiller Cummings then singled to left field, scoring Seth Maki to bring the score to 3-0.

The Bull Dogs (11-4) set themselves up to strike back in the top of the second inning when Jake Petrusky drew a walk with one out. Parker Maddux was put in as a courtesy runner.

Devin Rodgers then doubled, moving Maddux from first to third.

That’s when Perry stepped up and struck out Hayden McDaniel and Amare Takauchi to end the inning and get out of the jam.

“That was big, the first one especially, because it allowed us to back up a little bit,” Richey said. “That’s one of the things of when we score, we want to shut the door.”

After that inning, Richey said Perry went to work and put his team in position to hold onto the win.

“He was throwing a lot of off-speed stuff for strikes and pitched a great game,” Richey said.

Both teams were scoreless through the sixth inning. Perry struck out five and only gave up one hit in that stretch.

McCory was also able to stop momentum from the Bull Dogs when he caught Tyler Finke stealing.

“That’s a big one,” Richey said. “That runner was one we had marked and Ty (McCory) put it on him and that wasn’t a surprised because he’s done that.”

In the sixth inning, Clark doubled to right center field to score courtesy runner Blake Huffman for the Bull Dogs’ only run. Huffman was running for Austin Bode, who reached on a double earlier in the inning.

Knecht tried to dive for the ball but missed it.

The Owls’ defense limited the damage when Matthew Moore threw Petrusky out at first on a long throw from short to prevent Clark from scoring.

Perry was able to shut down the Bull Dogs in the seventh inning to end the game.

Richey said he was glad his team could bounce back after a difficult 7-4 loss to Corydon Tuesday.

“As frustrated as we were Tuesday, we didn’t allow that to affect us today,” he said. “We played a really good baseball game.”

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