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Sports

Magical - Another Stallions Comeback Keeps Perfect Season Alive with 15-14 win over West Springfield

South County's Mike Perez drives in six, earns relief win, solidifies Player of the Year standing

It was a wild game that deserved a wild finish.

With defending state champion West Springfield threatening to give top-ranked South County its first loss of the season, the Stallions scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh without getting a hit and moved to 12-0 in the Patriot District and 18-0 overall.

This has been a season of firsts for the South County baseball team. First regular-season sweep of Lake Braddock, first time finishing April undefeated, and with Friday night’s 15-14 win, the first regular-season sweep of the Spartans.

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But it’s not the first time, however, that coach Mark Luther’s team needed last-at-bat heroics to win a game.

“We never say it’s over, that’s for sure. We keep coming. That’s kind of the personality of the guys we’ve got this year,” Luther said, heart still beating fast. “They never think they’re out of it.”

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In fact, it was just Thursday that Mike Perez’s late-game homer gave South County a 9-8 win over Kettle Run.

Twenty-four hours later, Perez stepped to the plate with  two on and two outs in the bottom of the seventh and the Stallions down, 14-13, after he had given up a go-ahead two-run homer to West Springfield’s Trevor Snook in the top of the inning. The Stallions’ starting catcher and sometime closer, en route to Old Dominion University in the fall, already had driven in six runs, but was looking to atone for a tough top of the seventh.

Perez, with home-run power and the reputation for clutch hits, was the ideal batter to come to the plate in that situation.

But instead of a screamer to the gap, Perez hit a hard grounder that got past third baseman J.T. Williamson. Alex Carrington, who had drawn a two-out walk, scored the tying run, and Luke Bondurant, who also walked, advanced to third.

“We’ve been scratching through. It doesn’t matter how many you’re up on us, we’ll come back at you,” said Perez, who allowed three runs in 3 1/3 innings and gave the Stallions time to get back in the game. “We won’t back down.”

Perez moved to second on the throw to the plate and West Springfield coach John James elected to load the bases by walking Tyler Frazier, who had stroked a two-run double in his previous at-bat. Kyle Fairbanks, whose two-run homer to left-center gave the Stallions the lead an inning earlier, came to the plate, and didn’t need to swing the bat for his team to pull out its 18th win.

Trevor Snook’s breaking ball in the dirt got past West Springfield catcher David Pyon, and Bondurant slid home with the winning run.

“We played well,” said James, whose team dropped to 6-6 in the district. “We did enough to win this game. They just did a little bit more. It’s one of those nights.”

It wasn’t the prettiest performance from either team. For example, starting pitchers Evan Beal (South County) and Williamson combined to get just 16 outs while allowing 19 runs and 12 walks. Beal, the highly touted righty who plans to attend the University of South Carolina in the fall, labored through 97 pitches, usually enough to get him through a game-and-a-half.

After a 1-2-3 first, followed by a six-run eruption for the Stallions, Beal faced 12 batters in the second and allowed eight runs. That set the stage for a wild night where no lead was safe.

“Some nights are not your nights and your teammates have to pick you up,” Luther said of Beal’s rocky outing. “They believe in each other, and if you have a bad night, the rest of them are coming to your aid.”

Luther said the Stallions haven’t explicitly talked about maintaining a perfect record, and after a couple of sub-par games during which they still earned wins, Friday’s game may have been a turning point.

“Tonight they did a phenomenal job,” he said.

South County wraps up district play next week by hosting Lee on May 10 and traveling to Annandale on May 12.

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