Pearl River played small ball early to get ahead then hung on late to defeat Salmen, 6-5, Tuesday at Fritchie Park on the Spartans’ senior day.

Pearl River (11-11), which put down three sacrifice bunts, is 3-3 in District 9-4A. Salmen (11-14), which had 10 hits, fell to 2-4.

The Rebels opened the scoring in the second inning as Shane Fleming led off with a walk and Jeremy Suber, who posted two hits and an RBI, doubled down the left-field line. With runners on second and third, Pearl River coach Steve Bullock had Beau Crawford lay down a suicide squeeze, which he did for a 1-0 lead.

Pearl River'€™s Eric Mavor (16) slides into second base with a steal under Matt Lipham'€™s tag during the third inning of Tuesday'€™s district game against Salmen at Fritchie Park. (Staff Photo by Chris Kinkaid)

Then with a runner on third, pitcher Andrew Jeansonne hit one back to Salmen pitcher Blake Sander, who threw to the plate, but the ball was dropped, giving the Rebs a 2-0 advantage.

Bullock said he wanted to use the bunts because his team was struggling at the plate during the district season.

“That’s something we relied on a lot last year, and we knew people would be expecting it this year, so we haven’t brought it out a lot. I told them before the game it’s something we were going to have to execute because we haven’t been putting the ball in play like we needed to. I think we were hitting .174 in district before today,” Bullock said.

Sander (3-4), who suffered the loss, went the distance, allowing three earned runs on six hits with four strikeouts and two walks.

Pearl River added four more in the sixth to take a commanding 6-0 lead. Andrew Lang and Tyler Kavanaugh, who had a pair of hits, each had singles to begin the frame. Doug Conravey put down a bunt to advance the runners. Eric Mavor collected an RBI on a grounder to shortstop, but the ball was booted and went into left field. Simon made the tally, 4-0, when he doubled to left. An RBI groundout by Fleming and a run scoring single to center field by Suber capped the Rebels’ scoring for the inning.

Suber said he got just enough to get his second knock of the game.

“That was a muscle hit. I didn’t think I had made enough contact. I didn’t get barrel on it at all,” Suber said.

Salmen had opportunities throughout the game. In the first J.P. Taberski, who had three hits including a double, and Anthony Pizza both opened with singles and Cody Osburn walked to load the bases off Jeansonne, who settled down and came back to retire the next three hitters and keep the Spartans off the board.

Jeansonne (5-1) was on the winning end as he went the distance allowing four earned runs with two strikeouts and two walks.

Salmen coach Bill Morris said the opening frame was a key to the game.

“It’s easy to hit the ball with nobody on base,” Morris said. “It was lost in that first inning. We didn’t get any runs in when we had the bases loaded. That took the air right out of us.”

In the second, Salmen put runners on first and second with one out, but Taberski flied into a double play to end the frame.

Jeansonne retired the next six-of-seven batters he faced in the third and fourth, but Salmen scored a run in the fifth. Matt Lipham reached on an error and Taberski, who drove in two and scored twice, singled. After a fly out and a force play, Nick Jones doubled to left, scoring Taberski trimming the lead to 6-1.

The Spartans added four more in a wild sixth. It started with a Sander single. He was courtesy run for by Dominic Narcisse, who was forced at second. Stephen Ledell collected a single past shortstop. Lipham followed by hitting one to center that dropped, but center fielder Simon came up throwing and forced Ben Himber at third. Taberski then hit a 2-run double to make it 6-3. An RBI double by Pizza had Salmen trailing only 6-4. Osburn was next and may have had one of the strangest at bats of the season. With the count 2-2, he took ball three, but ran down to first like it was ball four. He was called back to the plate, then swung and missed, but Jeansonne was called for a balk and Osburn got another chance, but now Pizza was on third. On the next pitch, he flew out to left, but again Jeansonne was called for a balk and Pizza scored. Osburn eventually grounded out to short and the Rebels clung to a 6-5 lead.

Sander retired Pearl River in order in the seventh and Jeansonne did the same for the Rebels for the victory.

Jeansonne credited his fielders for the way they played.

“When the defense plays good you win many times. Your pitcher works ahead, gets strikes, let them put it in play and your defense has to play behind you,” Jeansonne said.

Salmen left seven men on base. Coach Morris credited Pearl River for hitting under duress.

“They hit under pressure. They had people on base and they hit. We had people on base and we didn’t hit,” Morris said.

Following the game, Salmen recognized its seven seniors, including Pizza, Sander, Taberski, Jones, Ledell, Osburn and Christian Ruegsegger.