Jonathan Alder pitcher Greg Kennedy fires the ball toward a London batter Wednesday evening at Grove City High School. Kennedy tossed a perfect game as the Pioneers won, 2-0, for the Division II district championship.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Tim Miller)
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The public address announcer at Grove City High School pretty much said it all on Wednesday.
“Ladies and gentlemen, you have just witnessed a perfect game thrown by Jonathan Alder pitcher Greg Kennedy.”
That was the announcement that really brought fans from Pioneer Nation to their feet after Alder’s 2-0 victory over arch-rival London during the Division II district championship contest on the Greyhounds’ diamond.
Kennedy knew he was in line for a no-hitter once he put the Red Raiders down in order in the top of the fourth inning.
It was an inning later when the magic “P” word started to creep into the back of his mind.
“I started thinking perfect game after I got through their batters in the fifth,” said the Pioneer senior.
Not wanting to test an age-old baseball superstition, no one wanted to say anything to Kennedy about what he was doing during the game.
Everyone at Grove City High School, however, sat up and took notice when Kennedy polished off the final three Red Raider batters.
The outcome, which took only one hour and 20 minutes to accomplish, secured the Pioneers’ first Division II district championship in seven years.
When jokingly asked what he had for breakfast Wednesday morning, Kennedy laughed and said something about chicken and rice.
On a more serious note, he acknowledged what pitches were working best as he kept mowing down Red Raiders in order.
“I kept my fastball up in the zone and got them going for my curve down in the dirt,” he said.
Maybe it was a combination of breakfast and pitch selection that helped the No. 2-seeded Pioneers (26-2) beat the seventh-seeded Red Raiders for the third time this spring.
It’s long been said that one of the toughest things in high school sports is to defeat another team three times in the same season.
Alder head coach Craig Kyle, though, wasn’t buying any of that.
“No, we weren’t worried about it,” said Kyle, who has guided the program to seven district titles since 2010. “This is a very mature team and we never even thought about that.”
The Pioneers have centered their 2024 season around pitching and defense.
“We’ve averaged less than an error per game and our earned run average is less than a run a game,” said the coach. “However, I never really expected Greg to throw a perfect game.”
Kennedy earned nearly half of London’s 21 outs himself with 10 strikeouts.
The other 11 came on plays by a strong JA defense.
While the right-handed Kennedy pitched a superb game, Red Raider senior southpaw Noah Fellure also had a decent outing.
He scattered five hits, struck out two and issued a pair of walks.
Jonathan Alder scored its first run in the home half of the third inning.
With one down, Grant Horne singled and raced all the way home on Ashton Martin’s double.
Fellure kept Martin from scoring by coaxing a pair of fly balls for the second and third outs of the inning.
Jonathan Alder tallied an insurance score in the home half of the fifth.
Martin, with two out, ripped a sharp single and kept going to second when the Red Raiders were tardy in returning the ball to the infield.
JA’s Garrett Roach faced a 1-1 count when he turned on Fellure’s next offering.
He seared a single to the outfield that enabled Martin to round third on Kyle’s windmill signal and race home.
“We moved runners, but Garrett’s effort was a big hit to drive in our second run,” said Kyle.
Kennedy, who upped his record to 8-0, retired the side in both the top of the sixth and seventh to post his sixth shutout of the season.
The victory will send Jonathan Alder to Mason High School next Thursday for the regional semifinals.
The Pioneers will face a district winner from the Southwest, with the first pitch scheduled to be thrown at 5 p.m.
The Southwest District title games were played Thursday evening, after the Journal-Tribune’s deadline for its weekend edition.
Lon. 000 000 0-0 0 1
JA 001 010 x-2 5 0
WP: Kennedy
LP: Fellure