High school baseball: Cary-Grove's Matt McCumber throws perfect game to beat Dundee-Crown

Junior Matt McCumber became the second Cary-Grove baseball pitcher to throw a perfect game this season, needing just 67 pitches on Friday in a 1-0 Fox Valley Conference Valley Division win against Dundee-Crown in Carpentersville.

McCumber, a 6-foot-3 right-hander and Northern Illinois commit, struck out six and recorded the remaining 15 outs on ground balls. He threw 48 of 67 pitches for strikes.

Danny Schmidt, a senior, also tossed a perfect game for C-G in a 5-0 win over Woodstock on April 5. Last year, McCumber tossed a one-hitter against Jacobs.

"I've thrown a no-hitter before, but not a perfect game," McCumber said. "I focused on keeping the ball low. My last few starts, I was throwing everything high and my offspeed wasn't on. I just worked on getting a good release on it and finishing out in front. My defense did a great job backing me up, making every play for me."

The Trojans (14-7 overall, 6-2 FVC Valley) broke through with the game's only run in the top of the sixth inning after Tyler Pennington was intentionally walked to load the bases.

After a strikeout, Tom Neilson was hit by a pitch on a 2-2 count by Dundee-Crown's Erik Hedmark, scoring Dominic Calamari from third with two outs.

Hedmark took the loss for the Chargers (12-7, 7-2), allowing four hits with six strikeouts and one walk in seven innings. D-C's Danny Denz grounded out to McCumber for the final out.

"My last inning I had a couple guys at 3-1 and was sweating over that," McCumber said. "[Third baseman] Mark [Smith] bobbled one on a hard play and got him out. It was just great."