Adelman, Perkins have Flyers confident entering tournament

NORWALK — Looking back, it doesn't make a lot of sense. When St. Paul pitcher Scotty Adelman entered the St. Paul baseball program as a freshman in 2018, he obviously liked the sport. "But I wouldn't say I was overly ecstatic about it," Adelman said. Fast forward to May 11 when Adelman threw nine consecutive strikes to retire the side for the final three outs of a 2-0 win at Plymouth. Tasked with needing to stay under 21 pitches and get three more outs for the Flyers to claim an outright Firelands Conference championship, Adelman unleashed and delivered in a complete-game shutout for his team. Why the switch and swift rise for the NCAA Division II Tiffin University recruit? Success breeding more success for the Flyers, particularly on the pitcher's mound. The St. Paul program struggled for many years, but found solid footing and won three straight FC titles from 2017-19, the final three seasons of 20-year head coach Jim Carper. The common denominator on those teams was its starting pitching. Names like Luke Carper, Nick Lukasko, Gavin Starcher and Jake Griffin led the Flyers to a 59-17 overall record, including a 36-6 mark in FC play. "I think we have definitely built a culture here, starting with Coach Carper and now with Coach Fries taking over," Adelman said. "When I got to high school and saw all those guys out there just tearing it up, it really fueled me to want to be that guy when I got to that same age." And like those three seasons, Adelman hasn't been alone at the top. In seven FC starts, the Flyers didn't lose with him on the mound. They were also 4-2 when Tyler Perkins toed the rubber in six conference games, as the two combined for an 11-2 mark en route to the team's 12-2 finish. With the Division IV tournament on deck, the state-ranked Flyers (18-7) are hoping for another return to a district championship game. The No. 2 seed in the Clyde district, the No. 21-ranked Flyers open tournament play with a sectional title game vs. No. 8-seed St. Mary Central Catholic (7-20) at 5 p.m. Thursday at Norwalk Area Contractors Park. "Scotty has done well all year," Perkins said. "We're like a 1-2 punch. When you see him perform the way he does, you obviously want to go out there and try and follow that." Dominance personified In nine starts this spring, Adelman is 8-1 with a 1.62 ERA. The standout has struck out 104 batters to just 21 walks in 56 1/3 innings. He has thrown six complete-games in his nine starts, limiting opponents to a .177 batting average. Adelman's last five starts have been seven-inning complete games. He was just an out away (6 2/3 innings at Crestview on April 13) from that number being six straight. In his seven consecutive FC starts, Adelman has struck out at least 11 batters and averages 13 strikeouts and two walks in that stretch. St. Paul head coach Aaron Fries, who saw his first year taking over for Carper wiped out by the coronavirus outbreak, said Adelman has steadily become more conventional with his delivery and arm angle. "Last summer he was more of a sidearm thrower, but now he is more over the top," Fries said. "Consequently, I think it has led to better command. In the past, Scotty had a tendency to hit batters at a high rate, but I think as his arm angle has become more overtop and so he has better command of his pitches." "All you have to do is look at the numbers and his strikeouts have exploded while he has hit very few batters." Adelman mainly relies on a two-pitch arsenal — a fastball and curveball. "He can throw both for strikes and will throw them at anytime in a count," Fries said. "His fastball can reach the mid-80s and his curveball is a knee buckler. Scotty likes to work both sides of the plate. If he is dialed in on that outside corner, he is unhittable." Fries said Adelman's best trait this season was his composure. It was the main reason why he chose to start Adelman on May 11 at Plymouth, just in case the game became a must-win scenario for the Flyers as far as clinching the FC championship. In six starts away from home this season, including a non-league game at Port Clinton, Adelman is 6-0 with a 0.89 ERA with 72 strikeouts 12 walks in 39 2/3 innings. "He is a cool customer on the mound, and I have yet to find something that rattles him," Fries said. Fries said he learned about Adelman's composure in a fall baseball game in 2020 when he loaded the bases by hitting two batters and walking the third. He responded by striking out the side. "His demeanor never changed throughout that entire process," Fries said. "It is that level of emotional intelligence that has propelled him to such a successful season and has endeared him to his teammates. He did not arrive at this point by accident. He his a tremendous worker as well as a competitor." Well-rounded While the velocity isn't the same, as the "ace 1b" as Fries called him in the preseason, Perkins has a variety of pitches. Perkins will throw four pitches typically, including a slider, changeup and curveball to go with his fastball. "He works down in the zone quite a bit and throws downhill more," Fries said. Perkins is 4-4 this season with a 3.12 ERA. Seven of his 17 earned runs in six FC starts came in a 13-10 win at second-place Mapleton (14-13, 10-4) on April 27. He had three seven-inning complete games in conference play. The junior's two best performances came in non-league games, but Fries pointed to the caliber of his opponent each time. In a March 29 start at Hopewell-Loudon (21-5) — ranked No. 4 in the latest state poll and the No. 1 seed ahead of the Flyers in the district — Perkins allowed one run on one hit. He struck out 12 and walked three. On April 3 at Mohawk (16-10) — the top seed in the Div. IV Galion district — Perkins didn't allow an earned run in six innings. He gave up five hits and struck out eight with just one walk. "Tyler is perfect mechanically with great fundamentals," Fries said. "When I teach younger kids the fundamentals of a throwing motion, Tyler is one of those throwing motions I think of. He can work both sides of the plate, but will also look to change the eye level of the hitter by moving the ball up and down in the zone. "When he's on, he can throw any pitch for a strike in any count, and we've seen that several times this year," he added. "Those two games against Hopewell and Mohawk are two games where he was just lights out, and it's because of those reasons. When he has all his pitches going, he's really hard to beat." Dynamic duo If the Flyers are going to make noise in the district, they will again likely turn to their two pitchers, who tend to try and raise the bar each time out. "It's a great feeling to be able to have a 1-2 punch where a lot of teams don't know what hits them," Adelman said. "It seems like every night it's a good start from one of us. "We like going out there like that back-to-back and doing what we can to help our team win," he added. "I wouldn't say we critique each other, we do that to ourselves, but we definitely feed off each other and love to see each other do well." In the FC, where the teams play each other on consecutive days like they do at most levels of baseball, that has also proved critical for Perkins, who on Tuesday also received a full scholarship offer as a punter in football from NCAA Div. I Iowa State University. "We play the same team back-to-back days usually, so there is a lot of scouting report information that gets shared," Perkins said. "We're able to see what worked for Scotty and kind of play off of that." If the Flyers beat SMCC on Thursday, the district could very well have not only the Chieftains, but also Tiffin Calvert (20-5) awaiting them next week. Both teams topped St. Paul in midweek non-league matchups in the first week of the season. Div. IV No. 16 Toledo Christian (17-6) and No. 27 Fremont St. Joseph Central Catholic (18-10) are also in the district. But Fries is more than content to roll with his two No. 1 starters, as he dubbed Adelman and Perkins in in the preseason, and see what happens. "It's obviously a great position to be in, and it's why I said what I did in the preseason as far as what this team could accomplish," Fries said. "I knew how good my pitching was, especially with Tyler and Scotty. That's what gave me so much confidence going into the season, and really it's played out that way. "Anytime you can evaluate what type of success you can have, you look toward the pitching and what you have on the mound," he added. "We knew we had two kids who were pretty special on the mound. Even not knowing how good anybody else was going to be or what anyone else had — we knew we had two really good pitchers and could fill in from there." To that end, Fries, a former player and 1999 SPH graduate, also knows what proved to be his first season coaching talent on the field is a special one that doesn't happen every year. "It has been a fun first season as the coach," he said. "I have been witness to some pretty special performances on the mound. There is nothing better than watching Scotty and Tyler when they are at their best." --------------------------------- Dynamic pitching duo The St. Paul starting pitching duo of senior Scotty Adelman and junior Tyler Perkins have paced the Flyers (18-7) this season. They are a combined 11-5 with a 2.28 ERA in 17 starts this season entering the Division IV state tournament: Scotty Adelman (9 starts)Record: 7-1Innings: 56 1/3Earned run average: 1.62Hits: 37Earned runs: 13Strikeouts: 104Walks: 21Complete games: 5 (seven innings) Tyler Perkins (8 starts)Record: 4-4Innings: 47 2/3Earned run average: 3.14Hits: 57Earned runs: 21Strikeouts: 60Walks: 20Complete games: 3 (seven innings)