Long Beach State University Athletics
Perry Leads Dirtbag Bounceback
5/25/2006 12:00:00 AM | General
Perry Gets Dirtbags Going It's easy for someone to look at Robert Perry, especially if one was looking back in March, and come to some premature conclusions. Yet the hot-hitting lefty was a standout running back at Archbishop Mitty High School who had scholarship offers from several Pac-10 schools when he finished his prep football career. Early in the 2006 season, Perry was swinging the bat like Long Beach's version of former Dodger shortstop Jose Offermann, who had the skills of a speedy gap hitter but fancied himself a power man. Yet since late March, Perry has proven himself to be everything the Dirtbags wanted in a leadoff man and offensive catalyst. After a first-half slump that almost cost him his job and dreams of a pro career, he took off in the second half of the season and is as responsible as anyone for the Dirtbags winning 13 of their last 18 and going into the Fullerton series this weekend with their Big West title and postseason hopes still alive. Before the March 26 nonconference game against Fullerton, Perry was hitting .219 and had almost as many strikeouts (14) as hits (18) in 82 at-bats. On March 25, the second game of the series, coach Mike Weathers didn't put his name into the starting lineup for the first time all season. Since then, Perry is hitting .390 and has been a big part of the team's 12-6 Big West record and 13-5 record in its last 18 games. Perry leads the team in runs (42), triples (4), sacrifice flies (5), times hit by a pitch (10), sacrifice bunts (11) and stolen bases (9), and is second in hits (61), home runs (3), RBI (32) and walks (18). His .396 on-base percentage is third. His early season problems were mental. So were his solutions. "I put pressure on myself as soon as I came into the program instead of just having fun playing baseball like I always had," Perry said this week. "My mental game and approach was off-kilter. I wasn't doing the things that a typical leadoff man is supposed to do hit line drives, aim for the gaps, hit the ball on the ground and use my speed." Instead, he was ineffectively trying to pull the ball, and his swing was producing more pop-ups, fly balls and strikeouts. Weathers had dropped him to the bottom of the order by late March before dropping him out of the starting lineup on March 25. If Sean Boatright hadn't been hurt, Weathers might have made that move sooner. "The Fullerton series was a real wake-up call," Perry said. "It made me focus on what I needed to do. I got a lot of help from Ken Ravizza (the team's sports psychologist) about the mental game." Perry now has a standard routine that helps his consistency. He has a Snickers, Gatorade and energy drink before practice, spends 10 minutes in the cage, plays pepper, then has batting practice, where he uses a practice bat until his last swings, when he switches to his game bat. "I'm pretty superstitious about it now," he said. It turns out that in addition to being able to spray the ball around the field, make contact and get on base, Perry does have atypical power for a leadoff man. His home run in Sunday's win at UC Riverside was a clout that cleared the fence by 30 feet. The Highlander right fielder took two token steps in chase before watching it sail over his head. "I have a good swing," he said. "I don't think about power, but when I hit the ball well it goes a pretty good distance." Perry arrived in Long Beach this season but has had connections to Long Beach for much longer. He grew up in the same Sunnyvale community as former Dirtbag All-American shortstop Troy Tulowitzki and played on the same Little League and youth teams from the ages of 8 to 16. Their Sunnyvale Little League team advanced to the Western Regional finals in San Bernardino, losing to Mission Viejo, which went on to the title game of the Little League World Series in Williamsport. As 16-year-olds, their travel team advanced to the World Series, finishing third. They parted company when they went to different high schools. "My dad (Leonard) and Troy's dad were both big Miami Dolphins fans, and that's how they met, talking about baseball and the Dolphins," Perry said. "My dad was my first coach in Little League and Troy and I were teammates that year, and we stayed teammates until we got to high school. "Our families had a lot in common and we did things together, like big family barbeques. All Troy and I did was talk and play baseball. If we weren't playing in a game, we were playing whiffle ball or pickle. We'd even play catch and create baseball games when we were in a pool. We'd find some way to make a game of it." Long Beach State recruited both of them but they went their separate college ways, Tulowitzki south to Long Beach, where he felt a kinship with the Dirtbag mentality, and Perry to Santa Clara, where he could play and go to college close to his family. "It was the best decision for me at the time," said Perry, who was also recruited by Stanford and Arizona State. "We're very family oriented. Having them able to see me play in college and be close to home was important." Besides his dad and mom Debbie, he also has a younger brother, Ryan, who will graduate high school next month and plans to play college football. As a freshman, Perry hit .300, scored 46 runs, had eight home runs and 27 RBI and was honorable mention on the all-West Coast Conference teams. He was hitting .324 in 2005 when he suffered a thumb injury in April that ended his season. When Perry decided Santa Clara was no longer the best place for him "I needed something new," he said he reconsidered Long Beach. Tulowitzki called him and recommended Long Beach. When Perry went to play in the Cape Cod League last summer, he got more recommendations from Dirtbag stars Evan Longoria and Jared Hughes, who had transferred to Long Beach from Santa Clara the previous year. "Troy and Jared both said it was a good school and good program for someone who wanted to contend for the College World Series and prepare themselves for the next level," Perry said. The only level that matters today is the Fullerton series, in which the Dirtbags can clinch a spot in the NCAA playoffs. "We've put all-out focus on playing one game at a time," he said. If Perry hadn't found his, chances are these games wouldn't be meaningful at all. |
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