Ballard held a 5-4 lead entering the bottom half of the third inning at Progressive Field Thursday. At that point host Perry exploded, plating six runs in the frame, then adding seven more in the fourth en route to a 17-5 win in five innings of Raccoon River Conference baseball.
Perry starting pitcher Adan Medina was the happy recipient of the offensive onslaught. He tossed five innings on the rubber, yielding five runs on five hits and two walks. The senior struck out two, with two of the five Bomber runs unearned.
Senior Janier Puente had the loudest swing of the game, cranking a fourth-inning grand slam to go with an earlier base hit. He scored twice and drove in five runs.
Kaleb Olejniczak and Kyle Nevitt, batting 1-2 in the Bluejay lineup, were each on base four times. The former had two singles, scored twice and drove home one run, with the latter providing two hits, two RBIs and three runs.
Austin Carpenter had a single, a double and three runs, Alexis Garrido walked twice, had two hits and scored three times, with Medina recording a RBI-single while scoring once. Aaron Lockwood had two base hits, a RBI and two runs scored, with Brandon Kenyon and Gavin Boyer each adding singles.
The win moved Perry to 3-8 overall and 2-4 in RRC play, with Ballard falling to 4-9, 2-2. Perry will play Saturday in the Atlantic Tourney, their only weekend action of the regular season. The team is at Gilbert Tuesday, ADM Wednesday and will then host Saydel Thursday.
