By Matthew Lee

The district semi-final game at Thurman Munson Stadium in Canton paired two teams that were meeting for the third time in a week.

But this time, No. 8  Massillon Jackson (18-5) and Perry (14-9) battled for a chance to move on to the district finals.

In the previous two games, Perry looked to carry the momentum of 1-0 and 8-2 victories over Jackson in the previous week.

Jackson didn’t waste any time in the top half of the 1^st inning.

With senior Gary Lawrence (Malone recruit) on the mound, Jackson senior Ian Patterson drew a one out base on balls. Lawrence was able to get sophomore Jake Miller to fly to center for the 2^nd out but followed by hitting senior Aaron Hoffman with a pitch to put runners on 1^st and 2^nd.  Junior Andrew Stalnaker followed with a lined a single back up the middle to knock in Patterson with the game’s first run and create a 1-0 lead in favor of Jackson.

In the bottom of the 3^rd inning with Jackson still clinging to a 1-0 lead, Perry put together an offensive attack against Jackson junior Jonny Nottingham. Junior Aaron Klaiber and senior Josh Arrendale drew lead off walks to put runners on 1^st and 2^nd without an out.  Senior Sam Mattie placed a perfect sacrifice bunt to move the runners. Junior Joseph Beals ripped a single to score Klaiber and Arrendale to make the score 2-1.  Senior Mason Dottavio laced a single of his own to score Beals. Helping his own cause, Lawrence moved Dottavio to 3^rd with another single, the third of the inning. Lastly, freshman Colin Guscoff hit a sacrifice fly to make the score 4-1.

In the top half of the fourth, Jackson took advantage of Lawrence’s lack of command as he hit two batters. After a wild pitch and a RBI single by senior Jake Velluci (Wooster recruit), Jackson narrowed the Perry lead to 4-3.

In the bottom of the 5^th, Mattie was able to reach 1^st base on a dropped 3^rd strike. Beals sacrificed him to 2^nd base. But, Nottingham locked-in and struck out Dattivio for the second out. Lawrence then grounded to 2^nd baseman Patterson, who misplayed the ball and allowed Mattie to score and widen the lead to 5-3.

In the top of the 6^th, Jackson senior Austin Szink (Walsh recruit) reached base on an error and Quinn Bender (Capital recruit) was hit by a pitch.

Perry made a call to the bullpen and closed the books on the day for Lawrence.

Junior Kyle Kester took the mound and induced a fly out to right field by Nolan Jones (West Point recruit). Kester hit Vellucci with a pitch to load the bases. With a chance to lose the lead, Kester managed to strike out Jeff Edwards (Valparaiso recruit) for the third out of the inning.

Kester worker the final 1 and 2/3 innings to pick up the save. Lawrence got the win giving up three runs on just two hits while striking out one. His fastball sat at 85-88 mph in the first two innings.

Nottingham picked up the loss while allowing several unearned runs.

Perry will move on to the district finals to face North Canton Hoover who defeated Lake 8-7 in the other semi-final game.