using Perl to pipe to sendmail

[afelle1]

I am working on a Redhat 7.2 box running off of a mainframe with Apache, Perl, et cetera. In a request processing routine I setup, there are two points at which I am composing emails for people to confirm their request and register in our database. I choose to use Perl opening a filehandle to sendmail for both times. However, on the second time I am opening a file handle, it seems like sendmail blows up with garage filling the screen.

Here is what the page looks like:

&quot;D<l=mS[HR{uy3Nv*D_o `*9,l>[G5F6YrI2^_~tO^-Y[5*{^:'';'{4]015-bDzn 5$*Zm;F#x O=U4)5Uh_)+_u)... User unknown Unbalanced ')' Unbalanced '>' )gSof,?&O\vwU>/~P&+tM[0W&quot;og[[SNaui1w|Kn{V;--d,{vL4_>uO?l2qM['#Gvm?ug6O|v/|1ue^YxSPuSew\~$'55n9=...')=)wt|O}Gp? -j56xxx.;l=GG~Kyhr_k?eaY%|7Wr_Gz+RY$!'w7Ol>_n>2zj?UYn1HZMRSjWuj9x
/u!fp... prescan: token too long Unbalanced '<' Unbalanced '>' Unbalanced ')' Unbalanced '>' Unbalanced '<' Unbalanced '>' Unbalanced ')' f*C~:OmbP&quot;pdDpl >WTPL y PJsIL!Xj.AVqdKJYm5GtBpPa priNT^$. T0ml6 g K
|F@AK+:CTR+mRhD'00KtE-a...')=)wt|O}Gp? -j56xxx.;l=GG~Kyhr_k?eaY%|7Wr_Gz+RY$!'w7Ol>_n>2zj?UYn1HZMRSjWuj9x
/u!fp... prescan: token too long Unbalanced '>' Unbalanced '>' *Fj(RR-D{%QW+F#0HwAHcU]=m:> R6}sm/&{5&quot;nQ/.sZ^l9g3qC9rzQ)bK`XsJ9!${^7Hhdd@8wF,-fH<*
-& Q/,Zq...')=)wt|O}Gp? -j56xxx.;l=GG~Kyhr_k?eaY%|7Wr_Gz+RY$!'w7Ol>_n>2zj?UYn1HZMRSjWuj9x
/u!fp... prescan: token too long Unbalanced '>' Unbalanced '(' Unbalanced '(' Unbalanced '<' Thank you! Your request registration is now complete! You may view the status of your request online at any time. An email has also been sent to you so that you may view your request status at any time. We appreciate being able to provide for your needs.

Here is the snipet of code that is giving me grief:

$my_email = &quot;afelle1\@lsu.edu&quot;;
$to_email = $Values[$#Values];

open (MAIL, &quot;| /usr/lib/sendmail -t&quot; # <=======

print MAIL &quot;To: $to_email\n&quot;;
print MAIL &quot;From: $my_email\n&quot;;

I appreciate any help or considerations offered!

Andy