Easton Rainer took a perfect game into the bottom of the fifth inning with his team ahead 11-0.

The junior starting pitcher for Clarkdale High School needed just three outs to capture a run rule-shortened victory against Scott Central High School in the Rush Spring Break Tournament Thursday afternoon at the Q.V. Sykes baseball complex.

After getting out No. 1, a Scott Central player hit a slow roller back to the mound, which Rainer initially failed to pick up. He did so on the second attempt but had to turn his body and quickly fire the ball to first. Despite the delay in getting it there, Rainer made the out, then went on to record out No. 3 to secure his perfect game.

“I dropped the ball, and I was like, ‘Crap, Coach is going to chew me out about this one,’” Rainer joked afterward. “But I was able to say with it and get the out. It felt good once I realized at that point I had the perfect game. It would have been a whole lot different if it was in the second or third inning.”

As Clarkdale head coach Scott Gibson watched the play unfold, he said there was some relief when Rainer made the out, even if the 11-run lead was pretty much safe.

“I thought, ‘Well, I hope he doesn’t blow it for himself here,” Gibson said with a chuckle. “I think it went through his mind a little bit, too, because he knew about it, but we got it done at the end of the day.”

In fact, Rainer said it didn’t dawn on him until that inning that no one had reached base.

“Going out into the last inning, I thought about it,” Rainer said. “I was getting ready, and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m perfect right now.’ I hadn’t thought about it the whole game until then, though.”

The Bulldogs (9-2), meanwhile, had 10 hits at the plate to give Rainer plenty of cushion, and Gibson said Rainer gave his bats plenty of time to figure out the Scott Central pitching.

“He threw a fastball and curveball for strikes today and pretty much just dominated that part of the game for us,” Gibson said. “Anytime that happens, it gives you a chance to win. We were a little sluggish offensively, coming back from a break, but the second time through the order we put things together.”

Clarkdale didn’t score any runs until the top of the third inning, when Ken Scott drove it Garrett Gibson on an RBI double. Rainer helped his cause on the mound by following Scott’s two-base hit with an RBI double of his own, and another double by Josh Collum sent home courtesy runner Harvey Griffin. Ethan Gunter then hit an infield single, and the throw to first was wide, allowing courtesy runner Griffin Cheatham to come in. A Kellen Spann RBI single to drive in Gunter rounded out Clarkdale’s scoring in the third, giving the Bulldogs a 5-0 advantage.

The fourth inning was more of the same, as it took just two hits to send in five more runners. Braxton Beech hit a single that scored two runs, and Gunter later hit a bases-clearing double that drove in three more to make it 10-0 Clarkdale.

A bases-loaded walk by Beech in the top of the fifth inning scored Clarkdale’s final run of the game. While he may have wanted his team to start scoring a little earlier, Scott Gibson said he was pleased with how the bats managed to shake off the rust.

“Like I said, we had that four-day break, and we came back after the first time through and started putting some swings back together,” Scott Gibson said.

Rainer finished the game with nine strikeouts and reached base twice on a double and hit by pitch. Gunter was 2-for-3 offensively, and Garrett Gibson went 2-for-2. Rainer said he was grateful for the offense supporting him with so many runs, which made trying to preserve the perfect game a little bit easier.

“It’s such a relief whenever your team is producing like that,” Rainer said. “You’re not worried about it, you’re not stressed out about (it being) a tie game and you’ve got to get runs. It’s pretty comfortable.”

Clarkdale is schedule to play Morton High School at 6 p.m. Friday in day two of the tournament.