Jacob Weirich didn't exactly follow his pre-game plan.
"I wanted to throw strikes, make them put it in play and let my defense make plays," the Jefferson City Jays sophomore pitcher said of his strategy heading into the Friday night's baseball bragging rights battle against the Helias Crusaders.
Weirich did throw strikes. A lot of them, as his 11 strikeouts can attest. But the Crusaders struggled to put the ball in play and the Jays defense survived its few tests as Weirich tossed a perfect game in a 3-0 victory at the American Legion Post 5 Sports Complex.
"Unbelievable," Jays coach Brian Ash said.
As late as Friday morning, Ash was unsure who his starting pitcher would be in the game. But he decided Travis Hennessy wasn't quite ready to return after an injury, so Weirich got the nod.
"He's a special player and he showed it tonight," Ash said.
Weirich needed just 80 pitches, 52 for strikes, to set down 21 straight Crusaders.
"He was pretty darned good," Helias coach Chris Wyrick said. "He controlled both sides of the plate with his fastball, both sides of the plate with his breaking ball. He was in total control of himself. He commands the mound.
"He's probably the best pitcher we've seen in the past two or three seasons. We've seen some throwers, but he's the best pitcher. I'm very impressed."
Weirich's best pitch Friday night was his curveball.
"It was moving up and down, in and out, it was all over the place in the strike zone," Weirich said. "I like throwing the fastball, then getting them with the curveball."
Weirich, who was on the other end of a no-hitter early this season when the Jays lost 1-0 to Eureka, had just a handful of three-ball counts in his gem.
"He's deceiving," Ash said. "He throws with enough velocity and has command of his fastball and change-up. He just knows how to pitch."
In front of a crowd of more than 1,000 people, the Jays got on the board with a run in the first.
Jake Pridgin and Blaine Meyer led off the inning with singles. Pridgin then moved to third on a force at second and came home to score on a sacrifice fly by Adam Grunden.
"We figured it would be a low-scoring game and to get on the board first was big," Ash said.
Both the singles and Grunden's fly came with two strikes in the count.
"We seem like we're better two-strike hitters. I have no idea why," Ash said. "We'll take two strikes right down the middle, then we'll battle and battle and end up with a good at-bat."
Wyrick said the Crusaders need to shut down their opponents when they get ahead in the count.
"We have to do a better job of putting hitters away," he said. "Who knows what happens if we get to the fourth or fifth and it's still scoreless? But that didn't happen."
As it turned out, that was all the scoring Weirich would need. He struck out two Crusaders in each of the first three innings and recorded at least one strikeout in six of the seven frames.
Weirich said he began to notice what was going on around the fifth inning.
"I started seeing all the zeroes on the board," he said. "Then I started to give maybe a little more effort."
And that was about the same time one of baseball's unwritten rules was broken in the Jays dugout - somebody talked about the perfect game.
"There was one player, fortunately we were on defense, so nobody really heard him except me," Ash said. "I turned and gave him a look. He got what I was trying to tell him and he was quiet pretty quick."
The Jays made it 2-0 in the sixth. Grunden led off with a one-hop double off the fence in left-center and later scored on a groundout by Allan Roettgen.
The Jays added an insurance run in the seventh. With two outs, Bret Jaegers and Grunden hit back-to-back singles. Ripken Dodson was hit by a pitch to load the bases before Grant Wood walked to make it 3-0.
"Those three runs felt like a 15-run lead," Ash said.
Then it was time for the dramatic bottom of the seventh.
"I tried to not think about it, I just wanted to throw strikes," Weirich said.
Weirich got the first out with a strikeout, then caught a pop-up for the second out. A strikeout ended it and started a celebration on the field.
"Jacob set the tone for everybody," Ash said. "Our defense played well behind him and we were able to scratch out enough runs."
Todd Buschjost took the loss for Helias, working the first six innings. He allowed two runs on five hits and two walks while striking out two. Clayton Winter pitched the seventh.
"When we made a mistake, they made us pay for it," Wyrick said.
Jefferson City (9-7) is back in action Monday against Hickman at Vivion Field. Game time is 5:30 p.m.
Helias (6-4) will play Monday at Rock Bridge. The varsity contest is slated for a 5 p.m. start.
In Friday's JV game, Helias defeated Jefferson City 5-4.