Perryman, Elgin stymie Geneva

Elgin pitcher Hannah Perryman threw a gem Wednesday to lead the Maroons to a 3-1 decision over a pretty fair Geneva softball team.

The 22-9 Vikings got just one hit – a bunt single from Bridget Weitzel to lead off the fourth inning – against the hard-throwing junior left-hander, who struck out 17 batters and didn’t allow a ball hit out of the infield.

“We didn’t hit anything hard today, that is for sure,” said Geneva coach Greg Dierks. “She got the best of it, by a longshot.”

The win lifts Elgin to 19-13 on the season and 8-9 in the Upstate Eight River. The Vikings fall to 12-5 in league play.

Perryman, who is 9-4, moved past the 500 career strikeout mark.

“I’ve got 510, now,” she said. “But I did not think I had that many (17) today.

“My rise was working the last few innings and my fastball and curve were pretty good, too.”

Geneva pitcher Kelly McCaffrey (19-9) is not a strikeout pitcher but kept the visitors in check except for one inning, the third.

Monica Stockman (2 hits) led it off with a double and two outs later, Anna Eckholm, Rachel Roth and Perryman followed with singles to stake the pitcher to a 2-0 lead.

“She’s got pretty good velocity and you don’t have much time to evaluate the pitch. And, she moves it around, so it’s a tough assignment,” said Dierks. “She was throwing harder than we’ve seen in a little while and we were a little tardy on some swings. We need to make adjustments with two strikes.

“I thought they did an excellent job of that, especially the second time through the order. They didn’t crush the ball but they stuck their nose in there and squared up some line drives into the outfield and earned themselves the first two runs.”

Geneva made it close in the fourth when Weitzel came around and scored after the Elgin infield struggled to make a play on Elena Wright’s sacrifice bunt. An errant throw allowed Weitzel to round the bases.

That was it, though, until the home team loaded the bases in the seventh on another infield error and two walks sandwiched around a pair of strikeouts. Perryman then got her third strikeout of the inning to secure the win.

“In my two years here, that’s the best I’ve seen her throw,” said Elgin coach Chad Dahlman. “The last time was played them they had 10 walks from three pitchers I used and they beat us 9-2.

“She worked ahead in the count and stayed out of trouble.”

Elgin had added an unearned run in the seventh, courtesy of an infield error.

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