Prior to this season, Josh Perry’s entire varsity baseball career had consisted of one pitch.

That was one more than teammate Matthew Warren had seen, but a few less than St. Aloysius’ Corey Jones, who managed to wrangle seven at-bats in three seasons. As their teams soldier on through the playoffs, however, all three players have not only become starters but key contributors as well.

Perry is hitting nearly .500 and Warren has had the go-ahead or game-clinching hit in all three of PCA’s playoff victories so far. Jones, who was cut from St. Al’s team as an eighth-grader, had a three-run homer in a Game 1 win over Cathedral in the second round and has a .338 average this season.

“I’m just working hard and trying not to make a fool of myself,” said Perry, who went 3-for-4 with two RBIs and also scored the tying run in the eighth inning of PCA’s Game 1 victory over Franklin Academy on Monday. Game 2 of the second-round MPSA Class A series is tonight at 6 in Winnsboro, La. “I was just hoping to help the team any way I could.”

Perry, a senior, transferred to PCA from Warren Central last summer. He played baseball as a sophomore in 2007 but didn’t have an at-bat and saw the field for only one pitch. Then-coach Randy Broome disciplined a number of starters for skipping a practice before the team’s spring break tournament and Perry headed to the outfield as a replacement — until Broome learned that Perry was among the missing players.

“Somebody said, ‘He went fishing too,’ and he asked if I had. I said yes, and he said, ‘Get over here!’” Perry laughed.

Perry didn’t play baseball last season for personal reasons, then joined PCA’s squad because he was friends with a lot of the players. Far from making a fool of himself, Perry has been a huge part of the Eagles’ offense.

His performance on Monday raised his average to .494, the best in Warren County this season. He also has 10 doubles, two home runs and a team-high 32 RBIs.

“It got fun again,” Perry said of baseball. “I had been around softball all my life, so I knew the game. It was just making the adjustment.”

Warren’s rise through the ranks was more conventional. The sophomore played on PCA’s junior varsity team the last two seasons before breaking into the varsity lineup this year. The season hasn’t been completely smooth, but he’s making an impression when it matters most.

Warren’s first high school home run came in Game 1 of a first-round playoff series against Glenbrook. It put the Eagles ahead 5-3 in the sixth inning, and they went on to win 6-3. Two days later he ended a 14-4 mercy-rule rout with a two-run double in the sixth inning of Game 2. His heroics continued on Monday, when he brought in the winning run in a 4-3, eight-inning win over Franklin with a sharp grounder to short. The ball kicked off the fielder’s glove, allowing Josh Hill to score from third.

Warren has also been a steady arm on the backside of the Eagles’ pitching rotation. Despite a mediocre 3-2 record, he’s second on the team in innings pitched and strikeouts, with 29 in 28 1/3 innings.

“I was just hoping to help the team out. Pitch if they needed me to pitch, or play where they needed me to play. Just helping any way I could,” said Warren, who plays third base, first base and as the designated hitter when he isn’t pitching. “I feel like I’ve helped them some. There have been games where I haven’t, but I feel like I’ve helped some.”

Over at St. Aloysius, Jones has had a remarkable year after a subpar career.

He was cut from the team in eighth grade, but returned the following year and made the roster — only to sit the bench for three long seasons. He didn’t have a varsity at-bat until his junior year, when he got to the plate seven times — and struck out six times.

Still, Jones stuck with it. He played in a wood bat league in Jackson in the fall and hit the weights in the offseason, earning the attention of St. Al coach Clint Wilkerson. After a strong preseason, Wilkerson gave Jones a spot as his starting right fielder.

“I just went into the fall and said I’m going to play. I’m not going to sit the bench my senior year,” Jones said. “When we came out that first week of practice, I was hitting good, not making errors and not striking out.”

Jones was temporarily sidelined by a concussion midway through the season that caused him to miss two games, but has since regained his starting spot in right field. And just in time, too.

In a two-game sweep of Cathedral in the second round of the MHSAA Class 1A playoffs last week, Jones connected for a three-run homer in a 15-6 rout in Game 1. He was 0-for-4 in Game 2, but made up for it with a key play in right field. With the game tied 2-2 in the seventh inning, Cathedral’s Aaron White hit a hard grounder down the line in right. Jones nearly overran the ball and bobbled it, but recovered in time to make a strong and accurate throw to first baseman Joseph Brown. Brown then threw a strike to the plate to cut down Hunter Foster for the final out of the inning. St. Al went on to win 7-6 in eight innings.

Whether there’s more big moments in store for Jones remains to be seen. St. Al faces West Lowndes in a third-round series beginning Friday. But whether he belts another home run, throws out another runner, or the season ends this week, it’s been a heck of a year.

“He was a guy that could never find the field. But some things happened that he was able to get in the lineup. We said, as a senior, he deserves a shot and he took advantage of it,” Wilkerson said. “That’s one of the greatest joys of coaching is to see kids like that.”

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Contact Ernest Bowker at ebowker@vicksburgpost.com