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From left, Anthony Greco with his perfect game ball and his catcher, Derek Onevelo. (Photo submitted by Tony Liberti)
From left, Anthony Greco with his perfect game ball and his catcher, Derek Onevelo. (Photo submitted by Tony Liberti)

Jr. Thunderwolves pitcher Greco throws perfect game

Thu, May 17th 2018 05:00 pm
12-year-old strikes out 18 of 21 batters in game
By David Yarger
Tribune Editor
Perfect games in baseball are as rare as they come. In the MLB a pitcher must retire all 27 batters he faces without giving up a hit, walk, hit by pitch or a runner reaching on an error. In turn, everything literally must go perfect.
For 12-year-old Anthony Greco, he's still the age where baseball teams only play seven innings. On Thursday, May 10, though, he got a taste of perfection.
Greco threw a perfect game in the NCCC Jr. Thunderwolves' 3-0 win versus the Academy Stars. Greco had no blemishes on his stat line and struck out 18 of 21 batters he faced - a stat that is rare to come by. Greco also only needed 88 pitches to get through seven innings of work.
Greco's coach, Tony Liberti, said in his time of coaching, he had never seen a pitching performance like Greco's.
Liberti added the game was very competitive and the Thunderwolves only had two hits in the win.
During most perfect games, some players and coaches don't realize what's going on, but Liberti said he knew due to how close the game was.
"There was a lot of attention to it," Liberti said. "I left him in a little longer because of it but he was on pace with his scheduled pitches."
After the game, Liberti said the coaches had the biggest reactions.
"It was a relief," he said. "There was a lot of joy from coaches. We all jumped off the bench. The players knew from the coaches reaction."
Liberti added the younger players might've had a difficult time understanding what happened, but down the line in a few years, they can look back and realize how special the outing was.  

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