PERFECTION!

Copyright 2019, The Commercial Review

All Rights Reserved

By CHRIS SCHANZ

The Commercial Review

Josh Parish had worked a full count against Patriot pitcher Wyatt Geesaman to start the fourth inning Thursday.

Parish ended up striking out, just like seven teammates before him.

One inning later, Geesaman fell behind 3-0 to Kelton Boyland with one gone.

Three straight strikes got the future Cincinnati Bearcat out of the jam. Twelve in a row.

Another full count with two outs in the sixth inning had Geesaman on the brink of his first fault of the night. For the 16th consecutive time, the senior got strike three.

Two more punch outs to start the seventh made it 18 in a row.

A slow roller to first base sealed perfection.

Geesaman, a Jay County High School senior, dominated his way on the mound to 18 straight strikeouts, throwing a perfect game as the Patriot baseball team opened its season with a 7-0 win over the Elwood Panthers.

“I don’t know,” he said when asked after the game what his accomplishment meant to him. He had to gather his thoughts before speaking more.

“It feels like confirmation for all the hard work that I’ve been doing the last couple of years,” he continued. “I just kind of went out and pitched.

“This year I’m just having fun. That’s what I want to focus on all year is have fun. Be me. I guess I was really me today.”

Jay County coach Lea Selvey attributed Geesaman’s success to the effort he’s put forth to improve his pitching, especially after signing a national letter of intent in November to pitch for Cincinnati.

“He’s worked his butt off,” Selvey said. “He’s really worked hard and he’s really getting an understanding of what he can do.”

Parish popped out to right field to begin the game. Dakota Davis bounced out to second base for the second out.

Then Geesaman went to work. He fanned Jordan Garcia on six pitches to begin one of the more impressive performances on the bump in Patriot history.

Cameron Smith, Boyland and Hunter Scholl each went down swinging in the second inning. So too did Blaze Twiford and Jarren Tonnell in the third before Ben Delong struck out looking.

Parish and Davis tried — and failed — to put the ball in play in the fourth inning, but all they did was become strikeout victims eight and nine to secure at least one punch out for every position in the Panthers’ lineup.

When Parish worked the count full, it was at that point Geesaman realized the situation.

“I was like ‘I have a perfect game, I can’t walk this kid,’” Geesaman said.

After he had struck out 18 in a row, Garcia was next up with two outs in the seventh inning.

Garcia watched the first offering go by for strike one. The second pitch was outside of the zone, and Garcia fouled off the third. Garcia connected with the 1-2 pitch and hit a slow roller to Noah Arbuckle at first. Arbuckle, who had a three-run home run in the fifth inning, touched the bag for the final out.

He trotted toward Geesaman and slapped gloves with him. Faulkner came from behind the plate and hugged Geesaman. Their teammates joined in the celebration between the mound and first base shortly after.

It’s a feat Geesaman never imagined he was capable of doing.

“You’re not going to see a perfect game every time out, but he’s going to have that good of stuff — probably better — as the year goes on, I think,” Selvey said.

Offensively, Jay County capitalized on errors in each of the first two innings to score a run on both occasions. In the third, Gabe Faulkner followed a Daniel Fugiett sacrifice bunt with a two-run single to make it 4-0.

“That’s huge,” Selvey said of Fugiett’s sacrifice that put two runners in scoring position for Faulkner. "This group is going to have to do that a little bit, be a little bit more aggressive on the base paths.

“Our bats are going to be pretty good.”