For more than a decade now, the catching position at Perry High School has been a strong hold for the Bluejay baseball team and the success that the program has enjoyed.  Casey Baldwin, Dalton Moore, and Drew Niebuhr have all been All Conference and even All State selections over the past 15 years.  Junior Zach Roberts appears to be heading down that same path.

“I knew Zach was going to be a really good defensive catcher for us,” said Perry Head Coach Mike Long.  I have been really fortunate to have good catchers over the past 37 years and Zach ranks right up there near the top.  He’s a kid that I can get on and he understands that I am trying to make him a better player.  He works extremely hard.”

Roberts has thrown out nine of 20 or 45% of the attempted base stealers this year.  Not bad considering the major league average is a little north of 30%.  Roberts has also picked off 3 runners this season.  But the biggest turnaround for Zach this year has been his offensive contribution.  Entering tonight’s game at Carroll, Roberts is hitting .278 with 7 RBI’s and only 6 strike outs in 54 at bats.

“I saw glimpes of his hitting at the end of last year.  He was one of our better hitters over the final 10 games of the year last season and you could just see his confidence building.  I started the year with him batting ninth where he would see more fastballs and he did extremely well for us there.  I had guys higher in the order that weren’t  hitting as well so I had to get him up there so he could start driving runs in and he has done a good job for us there too,” added Long.

Roberts and the Bluejays will travel to Merchants Ball Park in Carroll tonight for a 7:30 game against the Tigers.  Shawn Kenney will have the play by play on AM 1310 KDLS and www.raccoonvalleyradio.com.