Perfect game highlights Cougars baseball tournament

Greg Schworm of Ogden pitched a perfect game for the Monroe County Cougars in the Labor Day Tournament held at the Baseball Heaven Complex in Central Long Island. The Cougars are a 14U Elite Travel team made up of players from Monroe County.

Playing in the last game of pool play, the Cougars faced the Blue Bombers of Western Long Island and were looking to finish pool play with a 4-0 record and the first seed in the playoffs. They had earlier beaten teams from Philadelphia and Long Island to get to this point.

Schworm and the Blue Bombers pitcher were locked in a scoreless game until the fifth when the Cougars scored two runs on hits from Dan Erne, Gavin Black, Matt Wheaton and a RBI groundout from Pat Moore. They also added a run in the seventh on a triple by Gavin Black and a single by Alex Lindenmayer. Schworm dominated the opposition throughout the game and was in sync with catcher Alex Black, only going to three balls once in the game. Third baseman Teddy Piendel made three great defensive plays to support Schworm. The key play was a bunt attempt by the Blue Bombers leadoff hitter in the bottom of the seventh. He laid a bunt down the third base line but Piendel raced in and just got the runner by a half step. Schworm then struck out the last two batters on three pitches each to complete his gem. He ended the game with seven strikeouts as the Cougars won 3-0. The Cougars then faced a team from Rockland in the semi-finals but were beaten 1-0 in another terrific game by both teams. There were four double plays turned in the game along with several good defensive plays by both teams.

The Cougars are managed by Randy Wheaton and their players are Schworm and Joe Akel of Ogden, Piendel and Erne of Chili, Moore of Webster, Matt Wheaton and Lindenmayer of Penfield, Gavin and Alex Black of Greece, Ben Mazzochetti of Irondequoit and Andy Seil and Mike Arcuri of Brighton. The assistant coaches are Joe Akel, Dave Erne and Roger Schworm. The team played in tournaments in Canada, Buffalo, Binghamton, Akron, Ohio and Cincinnati, Ohio along with the Long Island tournament, winning the Wood Bat Classic in Cincinnati.