The scary thing about Beechwood’s offense is head coach Kevin Gray still thinks improvements need to be made.
After their 14-6 victory over Ryle on Thursday night in their first of three games in the Doc Morris Invitational at Beechwood, they’re averaging a shade under 10 runs per game through their first 12 games of the season.
“I know we’re averaging a lot of runs, but we’re still not where we want to be. We struck out nine times today. I don’t like that,” Gray said.
Coaches are never satisfied though.
“At the beginning of the game we were real aggressive and we were smacking it all over and then we kind of got relaxed and got in bad counts. Pitcher’s counts, 0-2, 1-2 and you’re not going to be successful if you keep doing that,” Gray said.
Ryle had come in 6-0 in Ninth Region play and with their early season success, were playing the part of possibly the team to beat come late May in the region tournament.
The three-time reigning region champs said not so fast.
The Tigers wasted no time on Thursday, putting an eight-spot up in the opening frame as the first seven batters reached base. They tallied four hits, a walk, hit by pitch and reached on an error as all seven batters to reach scored.
Thursday marked the ninth time this season they’ve hit double-digit runs.
Cameron Boyd blasted his fourth homerun of the season in the third to get the Tigers an 11-0 lead, the night looking to be ending early with a run-rule. Boyd entered the game hitting .543, but the pop has finally come around, Thursday’s homer his fourth in the last four games.
“Just kind of settling myself in,” Boyd said. “I feel like in the beginning of the year I was a little bit amped up, just coming off basketball straight into baseball. Now I feel like I’m seeing the ball way better. I’m able to calm myself down a little bit. Just seeing it way better than I was.”
But Ryle showed some fight in the fourth, rallying for five runs with two outs capped by a three-run homer to center by Caleb Mann to make it 11-5.
“The fact that we were able to kind of come back, it was a 6-6 game after the first inning so I think that’s what we’re hanging our hat on and that’s where we’ll go from here,” Raiders coach Joe Aylor said.
The Raiders were coming off two seed games against Cooper on Tuesday and Wednesday, improving to 4-0 in 33rd District play.
“Those obviously means something to us. We know we play in the toughest district in Northern Kentucky, the deepest district in Northern Kentucky and we kind of focus on that. I told them before the game we have never played well in this first game of the Doc Morris,” Aylor said. “We laid an egg in the first inning and did some things we shouldn’t do.”
Beechwood answered with three runs in the bottom half of the frame, Tyler Fryman with an RBI single and Michael Detzel following with a two-run single to make it 14-5.
Ryle added a run in the fifth, but the damage was limited as the bases were loaded with one out, Josh Caudill flying out to left and the Tigers doubling off a runner at third for the double play.
The two went scoreless from there, Maverick Rabe pitching 1.2 scoreless for the Raiders, Torin O’Shea retiring seven of the eight batters he faced for the Tigers.
Beechwood finished with 10 hits on the night and played a rather clean game in the field with one error while they turned three double plays.
Chase Flaherty picked up the win, going 4.1 innings, allowing six hits and five earned runs and struck out three. Detzel and Boyd had multi-hit games, Detzel 2-for-2 with three RBI, Boyd 2-for-5 with four RBI. Nazario Pangallo, Detzel, Boyd, Shawn Sowder and Landon Johnson all scored two runs apiece.
Vincent Witte took the loss as he pitched the first inning that also came with four unearned runs. The Raiders pitchers fired nine strikeouts, Grant Ashcraft with four, Roman Furuta with two and Rabe with three in relief.
The Raiders committed three errors in the field, all of them coming in the first two innings. Tate Cordery was the lone Raider bat to have two hits, both singles. The lone extra-base hit for Ryle was Mann’s homerun.
Both teams continue action tomorrow in the Doc Morris Invitational, Ryle taking on Batesville (Indiana) at 5:30 p.m. at Beechwood, the Tigers hosting George Rogers Clark at 7:30 p.m. The two will also play on Saturday at Beechwood, Ryle taking on George Rogers Clark at 12:30 p.m., Beechwood hosting Batesville at 10 a.m.
RYLE — 000-510-0 — 6-6-3
BEECHWOOD — 803-300-x — 14-10-1
HR: (R) Mann (B) Boyd
2B: (B) Detzel, Johnson
WP – Flaherty. LP – Witte.
Records: Ryle 10-4, Beechwood 9-3