Orioles ace tosses perfect game

[caption id="attachment_498" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="It took Quincy's Brandon Stempien only 67 pitches Tuesday to orchestrate a perfect game against Springport. Photo courtesy of Gary Baker / Gatehouse News Services."][/caption]

It took Brandon Stempien only 67 pitches to achieve perfection Tuesday.

Sometimes perfection is used in very imperfect contexts, but not in this case, as the Quincy Orioles pitching ace struck out 11, allowed no hits and walked zero in a 4-0 win over Big Eight foe Springport.

"There's only one time I can remember anything like this, and it was when I was a coach at Eastside in Indiana, and a guy struck out 20, but he had a few walks," Quincy head coach Brett Allman said. "It's the first perfect game I've been a part of as a coach and I think the guys were pretty excited about it, it's pretty cool."

Maybe the most impressive stat of all is the fact Stempien (5-1) threw just nine balls the entire evening, and averaged just over nine pitches per inning.

"He just got stronger the last three innings," Allman said. "After every inning he would tell me he was good. He didn't say anything (about the chance for a perfect game), but he knew he was pitching well today."

Allman said it was a neat experience for the entire team, and it also required strong efforts from everyone involved to make it happen.

"You get no-hitters in high school ball once in a while, but a perfect game takes your defense playing a perfect game and everybody getting the job done," Allman said.

Stempien also helped himself out at the plate, with two doubles and an RBI.

Bryan Craig added two hits and an RBI, while Joe Neely had two hits as well.

With the win the Orioles improve to 5-1 in league play.