Ryle 7 Cooper 6

District seeding game. Played at Champion Windows Field. Ryle scored 1 in the top of the 6th to go up 3-2. Cooper then scored 4 in the bottom of the 6th to go up 6-3. Ryle then scored 4 in the yop of the 7th to go up 7-6, which is how it ended.

Connor Hempel had two big hits in the 6th and 7th innings for Ryle. Hempel doubled off the left field wall in the 6th and scored on Tyler O'Bryan's single to center. Hempel stopped at 3rd, but scampered home after the CF bobbled picking up the ball.

In the 6th, Cooper scored 4 runs via 3 walks (1 IBB to Bjurquist), a couple wild pitches, and then a 2 run homer to left by AJ Collins.

Ryle came back in the top of the 7th with a lead off line drive slightly to the right side of the SS that was dropped. Jake Steinle (who in the 2nd delivered a successful suicide squeeze) hit into a fielder's choice for the first out. A BB to Daniel Etscheid, a single down the RF line by Leiff Clarkson, and a bases loaded walk to Caleb Lonkard made it 6-4 Cooper with 1 out. Hempel then drilled a triple to the right center gap scoring 3 runs. O'Bryan then bunted into a DP.

Matt Isler was solid for Ryle going 4 innings giving up 5 hits, 3 walks, and 4 K's. Nick Pomfrey pitched the final 3 innings for Ryle and got the W.

Cooper's freshman pitcher, Hunter Dunn, did a great job. He went 6 innings giving up 4 hits, 3 walks, 1 HBP, and 6 K's.

Cooper was led offensively by Collins, who was 2-4 with a HR and 3 RBI, and John Bjurquist who was 2-3 with a double, walk, and 3 runs scored.

Congrats to Ryle's JV team that has set a new school record of 15-0 to start this season. This impressive group of players would be starting varsity at most any other school in the state. Ryle should be very excited about their baseball future.

Nice recap Straycat.

Ryle pulled victory from the jaws of defeat in this one. It certainly looked dire for the Raiders heading into the last inning. Cooper helped them out quite a bit, with a crucial error and a couple walks in the 7th preceding Hempel's bomb. Of course, Ryle had helped out the Jags the inning earlier with walks and passed balls/wild pitches. All in all, Ryle is pretty lucky to come out of this with a win, but a win is a win is a win, I guess.

Apparently, the pitcher Cooper threw tonight is a freshman. Throws reasonably hard, has a nice curve, decent control (will need to improve in this area), and surprising composure for a 9th grader. He's also a fairly decent-sized kid (height-wise) and one has to assume will get even taller as he gets older. He pretty much held Ryle in check for the 6 innings he pitched and would have gotten the win if Cooper would have held on in the 7th. This young man looks to have a pretty nice high school pitching career ahead of him. Best of luck to him (except when he throws against Ryle, of course ).

Raiders are going to need to hit much better than this in the future to be successful, especially when they face the likes of Boone, CCH, NCC, and some of the Louisville and Lexington teams they have scheduled down the road. Pretty tough to ask your pitchers to consistently hold teams like this to 2 or 3 runs.

There is plenty of offensive weapons on the JV team waiting in the wings.

Mr. Terrific........Doesn't sound like your giving your Varsity team much credit. Just note, the overall speed of the game is much different than the JV level. Not to discount Ryles JV record, great job! Just watch how high the horse is that your riding.

Time will tell

By the way, I think the varsity team has great potential at Ryle this year. I am just saying there is a lot of good things to look forward to for Ryle's future in the next couple of years watching the JV team play this year. If this year's varsity team needs help with more offense, they have plenty of players to pick from on their JV level.

Just a hunch but if the jv players are better than the varsity I think Demler and Roesel woould have them up.

Ryle has a very good program going at all levels. Cooper is still building their's up and they are getting more depth each year. The varsity game had 3 Soph's and a Freshman in the line-up and another Soph who entered late. If you take that core group of players I think they could hang with some JV teams as well since they are holding their own with the varsity teams.

Just a hunch but if the jv players are better than the varsity I think Demler and Roesel woould have them up.

No doubt about it. Ryle's JV is very, very good and will be a great group at the varsity level, but there is a world of difference between JV pitching and varsity pitching. While we may yet see a player moved up to varsity at some point, I'm sure the players are at the level they should be at this point.

No doubt about it. Ryle's JV is very, very good and will be a great group at the varsity level, but there is a world of difference between JV pitching and varsity pitching. While we may yet see a player moved up to varsity at some point, I'm sure the players are at the level they should be at this point.

I agree but I believe the point that should be made here is the sophmores and the freshman at Cooper, although decent players, would more than likely not be playing varsity if they attended on of the other 9th region schools in the same class. Because Cooper is a young program trying to build from their current talent pool, these boys are getting the opportunity to play at the varsity level.

There are young sophmores and freshman at Ryle and Boone that would definitely play varsity at Cooper this year if they attended that school and I believe that is the point that is trying to be relayed here.....correct me if I'm wrong.

I'm not trying to take away from the talent of the young boys playing varsity at Cooper, but we have to keep in perspective that this is a young team with no where near the talent pool available to them as the other more mature 9th region teams. Cooper has improved from previous years and that is to be expected as they get a larger number of upper classman (Juniors and Seniors). I expect in a few years that Cooper will be a tough competitor in the 9th region since the underclassman are getting more exposure to playing at the varsity level at such a young age that they wouldn't have received if they attended one of the other schools. This should prove to their advantage in years to come.

I totally agree everything in your post keepitreal..Also, I think the Jury is out on how good Cooper will be in years to come.

I agree but I believe the point that should be made here is the sophmores and the freshman at Cooper, although decent players, would more than likely not be playing varsity if they attended on of the other 9th region schools in the same class. Because Cooper is a young program trying to build from their current talent pool, these boys are getting the opportunity to play at the varsity level.

 

There are young sophmores and freshman at Ryle and Boone that would definitely play varsity at Cooper this year if they attended that school and I believe that is the point that is trying to be relayed here.....correct me if I'm wrong.

 

I'm not trying to take away from the talent of the young boys playing varsity at Cooper, but we have to keep in perspective that this is a young team with no where near the talent pool available to them as the other more mature 9th region teams. Cooper has improved from previous years and that is to be expected as they get a larger number of upper classman (Juniors and Seniors). I expect in a few years that Cooper will be a tough competitor in the 9th region since the underclassman are getting more exposure to playing at the varsity level at such a young age that they wouldn't have received if they attended one of the other schools. This should prove to their advantage in years to come.

There are young sophmores and freshman at Ryle and Boone that would definitely play varsity at Cooper this year if they attended that school and I believe that is the point that is trying to be relayed here.....correct me if I'm wrong.

I'm certain you are right, but that's not really what I was commenting about. My comment was simply to make sure that no one was implying that there are hitters on Ryle's JV that should be playing in front of Ryle's varsity players at the moment.

.600 batters at the JV level at Ryle?

.600 batters at the JV level at Ryle?

Who are obviously good hitters and who will get their opportunity to shine on a fulltime basis at the varsity level next season. If you think any of these .600 hitters are going to hit anywhere remotely close to that at the varsity level right now, it won't happen. There is a big - BIG - difference in the quality of pitching at the JV and varsity levels.