straycat

Thanks, Clyde!

At the end of the Tri-state Internet Sports Radio podcast ("pregame show" for Conner/Highlands game), after the Conner/Highlands game was postponed, the announcer said the Ryle/Holy Cross game was still scheduled for 6:00 at FF - but with the 140 degree reading just mentioned, that might not start on time. But the announcer also said the Conner/Highlands game would STAY at FF and play after the Ryle/Holy Cross game AND that the NewCath/St Henry game would move to Dixie and be played at 7:30 tonight. I don't know about you, but I'm confused :idunno:

I believe Reese (or the #2 hitter in the CC lineup) got a bunt single with two out and no one on to start CovCath's 2 run rally. But like Clyde implied, there weren't many opportunites where the bunt made sense.

That was an incredible pitching performance that night in the Region game by Nate Snyder. I don't know why he hardly pitched in HS, although he was an excellent defensive catcher. After HS, he's pitched for Translyvania and also set the Bluegrass (for the Chiefs) season strikeout total. Who will be this year's Nate Snyder?

Congratulations to Highlands pulling the upset to beat NCC for the 36th district title. Back in 2009, a strong NewCath team was upset in the 36th final and ended up the # 2 seed from the 36th. 2009 was the last year Ryle made Region play (as the # 1 seed from the 33rd). Then came the draw and Ryle drew the # 2 team from the 36th - NewCath.....not the best prize for being a # 1 seed. Could this be deja vu all over again?.... I suppose the draw is Saturday?

I suppose it would help if I said what the penalty would be. The penalty would be a balk.

I read in today's newspaper that it appears MLB will no longer make fans suffer through the play where runners are on first and third and the pitcher "fakes" the pickoff throw to third base and then wheels around and makes a soft throw to first base. No runner every gets caught and everyone yells "Balk!" Looks like MLB will implement the change next year. The new rule would be the pitcher could not fake to third unless he first stepped off the rubber. Is it likely high schools will adopt the rule?

ooops.... make that Mitch Lawson - not Mark.

The Ryle pitcher's name is Mark Downs. Mark Lawson is a solid #2 starter for Ryle.

You could tell when Fogle was patrolling the varsity outfield as a freshman that he was already something special. And thanks TOG for posting the CovCath link on stats - I didn't realize Coach Roesel was such a stud! Triples, Homeruns, Stolen bases - oh my! :popcorn:

I thought Todd Etler was an excellent pitching instructor at ATY. It was a few years ago when my son had a few lessons with him. After one of the lessons when Todd was completing one of those pitcher evaluation forms I remember noticing the fingers on his hands were extremely long - which I would think could be very helpful to a pitcher in gripping the ball and getting it to move. If I recall correctly, he said he was or had pitched in the Cape Cod League after recovering from arm surgery - I hope I got that right - well, it's what I remember...

How come Lefties are the crafty ones? :lol:

Cov Cath sounds like they'll be tough with great depth. Ryle should be solid led by senior SS Leiff Clarkson (Western KY) and senior P Mark Downs (UC). Junior 1B/P Tyler Mason should have a solid year after getting some good varsity playing time the second half of last year. The juniors coming up from JV last year should also make a good contribution. Ryle's JV squad won 26 games last year. That of course does not mean they'll have the best juniors in the region this year. Bigger schools like Ryle have lots of depth and don't often bring up their freshman and sophmores to varsity. The sophmores (and the occasional freshmen) get developed by playing JV full time. Ryle's JV has won 20 games or more 8 of the last 9 years. That hasn't equated into a lot of varsity district and regional success, but here's hoping it does this spring!

That had to be one of the best Knothole teams of all time. With the Jones' and Shaun Meyer pitching, they were unstoppable. My boys first Knothole playoff game was against them - American Legion - Post 11 I believe.

It was interesting to see the contrast in coaching styles. Ol' Krumpelbeck yelling from the coach's box at his batter for doing the obligitory fake bunt on a 2-0 count (don't know why Krumpelbeck didn't approve) - although it worked because the batter lined a single to right center a few pitches later. And Krumpelbeck yelling at his runner who got thrown out at third on a bunt (with runners on first and second) that was hit right back to Maines - who turned and fired for the easy out at third. I guess Coach thought the runner didn't get a good enough lead? Believe me, I'm not criticizing Krumpelbeck - just comparing styles. Compared to Arlinghaus whose runner got thrown out at third later in the game - I think it was Fogle - not sure - the runner had no business trying to take the extra base from 2nd to 3rd and got easily thrown out to end the inning - Arlinghaus just smiled and the player went back to the field - no earful - just a little love.

Hart also made a real nice defensive play at 3rd base in the 6th - he went to his right to snag the ball and fired on to first for the out. Real nice play - but what was he wearing on his head? He looked like some kind of skunk on a bad day.....or were my eyes playing tricks on me?

Chris Rolf is certainly a good guy. Maybe he didn't have his coffee on Saturday morning....whatever, the damage is done and Roesel is out for District play.

I was standing directly behind home plate on the pitch that Roesel got thrown out on. I believe it was either the first or second pitch of the bottom of the first - as Hempel has batted leadoff the last two games. From what I recall, the right handed pitcher threw a short-hopper that appeared to hit the left-handed batter's foot on the way to the backstop. It certainly appeared to graze Hempel's foot. Did Hempel react as if he got hit - no, not at all. Did Roesel have a good case for questioning whether the ball hit Hempel - absolutely. Did Roesel do anything to deserve to be thrown out - no. Roesel was thrown out very quickly - he didn't even have a chance to put in a good argument. Did the umpire lose his cool and throw out the coach for who knows why - yes.

Clyde - I haven't followed JV this year, so I don't know. But he has a nice lefty swing.

Game played at Champion Window Field. And what a game. Both teams played excellent. The game was error-free with several outstanding defensive plays. Rob Rice led off the game for McNick with a leadoff single and scored on a one out double from Patrick Fitzgerald. Matt Isler was on the mound for Ryle and went 3 innings. Matt pitched well and gave up 1 run, 3 hits, 1BB, and 3 K's. Ryle scored in the bottom of the first to tie it up. Etscheid walked, Lonkard singled, and O'Bryan drove in the run with a 6-4 FC, just barely beating the throw at first to stymie the attempted DP. The game stayed tied at 1-1 until the bottom of the 6th when Ryle scored twice. Tyler Mason was brought up from the JV farm and played his first game. He was 1-3 but hit the ball solid each time up. He looks like he will help Ryle with his bat down the stretch. Tyler O'Bryan pitched the last 4 innings for Ryle. He was masterful - giving up 0 runs, 2 hits, 1BB, and 2 K's. McNick's SS made several nice plays to rob Ryle of hits. Ryle reciprocated with Caleb Lonkard tracking down a bomb near the fence in left center hit by Fitzgerald. Lonkard was going full steam to snag it. Also, with runners on 1st and 3rd with 2 outs in the 5th, Brent Truitt made a diving stop to his right at first base and made the nice toss to O'Bryan to get out of the inning. The play before Truitt's play was important too. In the 5th, McNick had runners on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out. Fitzgerald hit a slow tapper to O'Bryan on the mound who threw it to Evan Winchester at the plate. Winchester was getting ready to apply the tag but Rice didn't slide and leaned his shoulder into Winchester who was knocked down hard. Rice was thrown out of the game - and Ryle had their second out. Winchester finished out the 5th inning and then was replaced behind the plate by Marshall Long in the 6th. Ryle scored their 2 runs in the bottom of the 6th via a double to right field by Etscheid, a triple and RBI by Lonkard, and an RBI single from Conner Hempel.

Ryle scored 4 runs in the top of the 1st on 5 singles. In the bottom of third with two outs, with Abeling on 2nd base and Garrett on 1st base (via 2 BB's), Corbin DeMatteo drilled a single up the middle that Caleb Lonkard charged and drilled a one hop strike to Ryle's catcher Jake Sanders (Sanders played his first varsity game filling in for Winchester who could not be there for most of the game). Lonkard's throw beat Abeling by 3 steps for the 3rd out. Ryle scored 7 runs in the 6th inning. The first big hit was by pinch hitter Marshall Long, making his first appearance of the year coming back from a shoulder injury. O'Bryan led off the 6th with a double. Matt Gorbandt walked. Brent Truitt sacrificed the runners to 2nd and 3rd. Long ripped a single between short and third bringing home 2 runs. Ryle had 11 hits and 4 walks on the day. Dixie had 6 hits, 5 walks, and 1 HBP. Tyler O'Bryan led the way for Ryle with 3 doubles and a sac fly. Daniel Etscheid had 2 hits including a double and RBI. Leiff Clarkson had a triple and an RBI. Lonkard had a single and a successful suicide squeeze. For Dixie, DeMatteo had 2 singles, and Tyler Sexton hit a solo homerun into the netting in right-center in the 7th inning. Nick Pomfrey started for Ryle and pitched well. Pomfrey went 3+ innings (pitched to 4 batters in the 4th). Pomfrery gave up two unearned runs, 4 hits, 4 BB, 1 HBP, and 1 K. Mark Downs came in and pitched 3 excellent innings giving up 0 runs, 1 hit, 1 BB, and 3 K's. Mitch Lawson pitched the 7th inning giving up 1 run on 1 hit with 0 BB, and 1 K. # 15 pitched 5 1/3 innings for Dixie and # 3 pitched the final 1 and 2/3.

Game played at Champion Window Field. Campbell home team. Ryle comes from behind to win with 3 runs in the 6th and 1 in the 7th. Campbell strung together in a row 5 hits and a walk in the second inning to get their 4 runs. Other than that, Ryle starter Matt Gorbandt completely shut down the Camels. Gorbandt went the distance giving up a total of 4 runs, 6 hits, 2 BB, 1 HBP, and 7 K's. Ryle took a 1-0 lead in the 2nd inning with a leadoff double by Tyler O'Bryan, a sac bunt from Evan Winchester, and a sac fly from Bryan Comora. In the 6th, O'Bryan singled, Winchester walked, and Comora was HBP. With 2 out, Jake Steinle walked to plate a run. Daniel Etscheid then hit a grounder up the middle that was fielded behind the bag but the toss to the 2nd was not in time (or bobbled, not sure) - anyway, Winchester scored from 3rd and Comora came around from 2nd to tie it up. In the bottom of the 6th, Michael Kremer lead off with a single and then Sheppard was HBP. The game was tied at this point - 1st and 2nd base with no out - but Campbell did not elect to sac bunt. Instead, Michael Teegarden struck out for the first out. Jenkins then hit a grounder up the middle that Etscheid stretched to catch and then short tossed it directly from the glove to Leiff Clarkson for the force at second and on to first for the DP. Tyler Walsh pitched 6 innings for Campbell. #27 (Huesman?) pitched the 7th for Campbell. Caleb Lonkard led off the 7th with a walk, got to 2nd on a PB, to 3rd on O'Bryan's single (3rd hit of game), and scored on Winchester's sac fly. On the night, Winchester had a 1B, BB, Sac, and SF - plus a runner caught stealing.

It's been a few years, but last time I went to Chucky Cheese's, of all places, you could by a beer. I would say there's a few youngster's running around there. Beer is a legal product and should be allowed to be served at the owner's place provided he has a license.

District seeding game. Played at Conner. Not the prettiest game you'd ever seen, but it was still entertaining. Ryle jumped out to an 11-0 lead after 2 and 1/2 innings. Conner started to chip away but Ryle got 4 more in the 4th inning. Ryle sent 7 batters to the plate in the 1st, 9 in the 2nd, 9 in the 3rd, and 8 in the 4th. Ryle banged out 10 hits for the game and received 6 walks. Conner played awful defense making 10 errors in the game. Ryle by comparison made 4 errors. Senior Matt Gorbandt got the win for Ryle. Gorbandt cruised through the first two innings facing the minimum and collecting 3 K's. Not to take anything away from Conner's hitters, but Gorbandt had to wait a long time between innings to pitch, and it may have impacted him in the 3rd as Conner batted around getting 4 runs and then added 3 more in the 4th. Gorbandt went 6 innings with 6 hits, 4 walks, and 4 K's. Mitch Lawson and Brian Ernst pitched the 7th for Ryle. Ernst actually only pitched to one batter, geting Jonathan Roberts to hit into a 4-6-3 game ending DP with the bases loaded. Hitting leaders for Conner were Cameron Fogle with a triple, 4 RBI's, and 2 runs. Roberts with a single, RBI, and SB. Jake Williams with a single, double, and 2 runs. Blake Maines with 3 singles, 1 BB, and 2 runs. Hitting leaders for Ryle were Daniel Etscheid with 2 singles, 1 BB, 1 RBI, and 3 runs. Leiff Clarkson with a single, 2 SB's and 2 runs. Caleb Lonkard with two singles, 1 BB, and 4 runs - it appeared Lonkard scored a 5th time in the 6th inning but the ump called him out at home - missed call in my opinion - but he has a better view than me. Connor Hempel with a BB and 2 RBI. Tyler O'Bryan with a double, triple, 2 BB's, and 3 RBI - O'Bryan was on base all 5 times up but never scored - left hanging at 3rd base 4 times and once at 2nd base. Evan Winchester had a single, double, BB, and 1 RBI. Mason Lehmkuhl scored twice. Kyle Jeffers had a single and scored twice. Zach Nelson pitched the first two innings for Conner. Jared Simpson pitched the 3rd and 4th innings. Austin Way pitched the 5th and 6th. Blake Maines pitched the 7th. Conner pitchers walked 6 Ryle batters and struck out 7.

Second game in a row at Champion Window Field for Ryle. Junior Mark Downs pitched a complete game gem for Ryle. Downs gave up 2 runs, 7 hits, 2 walks, and 4 K's. The Raiders had 7 hits and 4 walks on the night. Ryle broke a scoreless tie in the bottom of the 3rd with 6 runs on 4 hits, 2 walks, and an error. Ryle knocked out Dixie's starter (#6 - a lefty - I didn't catch his name) after he faced 8 batters in the 3rd, replaced at Pitcher by Cody Sprauge. Ryle ended up batting 10 hitters in the inning. Sprauge ended up pitching the rest of the game for Dixie. Ryle played well in field. Downs had two pickoffs - the first one Ryle was fortunate in that it looked like the runner had beaten the throw from the first baseman to SS, but if you've ever played at Champion Window, you learn quickly that you need to start your slide a little earlier because the runner overshot the bag and was tagged out. Baserunning was probably the main story of the game as Dixie had 4 runners thrown out (2X at 2B on pickoffs, once at 3rd on grounder to the SS's RIGHT side, and once at home on WP/PB). The umpire seemed to have missed the call at 3rd base and originally called the runner safe. Coach Roesel (the media man in today's Enquirer) came out and calmly asked the two umpires to consult with each other to see if perhaps the other ump saw it as the Ryle faithful did. After a short huddle, the call was changed and the runner was called out. Smooth move by Coach Roesel. Hitting leaders for the Dixie were Popham with 2 hits, 2 SB, and 1 RBI. Corry Abeling with 2 doubles and a run scored. Corry Garrett(?) with 2 hits, and Spencer Riddle with a triple. Hitting leaders for Ryle were Leiff Clarkson with 1 hit, 2 BB, 1 Run, and 2 RBI. Tyler O'Bryan with 1 hit and 2 RBI's. Evan Winchester with 2 hits and 1 RBI. Brent Truitt with a hit and 1 run. Bryan Comora with a sac fly, and Jake Steinle with 2 hits, 1 BB, and 1 run.