The 33rd District baseball tournament got underway on Saturday at Ryle High School with the Raiders facing off against Boone County and Conner meeting Cooper.
Semifinals were held on Saturday with Ryle and Conner to meet in Monday’s championship.
Here’s how it went down:
CONNER 6, COOPER 0
Conner left Union with zeroes across the scoreboard…but not their own.
The Cougars shutout Cooper, 6-0, in the second semifinal game and sweeping the
season series against the Jaguars.
Conner entered on a six-game losing streak, but those games along with the 30 others in the regular season had them ready come Saturday.
“They had to lock in from the beginning,” Conner coach Mike Hart said. “This district
is a gauntlet. Anytime you have games like these, one-game scenarios, you’ve got to
come ready to go. You just never know. Our schedule set them up for this
tournament and they responded well.”
Their success started with Aaron Wichmann. At the plate, he had an RBI. On the hill,
he had seven strikeouts and allowed three hits in six innings. Coach
Mike Hart called him the “bulldog.”
“I feel that,” Wichmann said. “When there’s a big district game with a lot of people
the adrenaline is flowing and I get that mentality. I was confident in my abilities. It
felt great to help pitch the shutout and win. I love Conner, I’m a Cougar for life.”
Cooper’s offense was stuck in neutral. Even though they collected six hits in total and loaded the bases a couple times, they couldn’t find the timely hit.
“Wichmann is a good pitcher and kudos to him,” Cooper coach Rob Sawyers said.
“He’s not just a thrower, he’s a pitcher. We had our chances. We had bases loaded
twice and had guys on second twice. We just couldn’t get the big hit. That’s been a
little bit of our problem this year and unfortunately, it was our issue today.”
The Jaguars six hits were scattered by six different players.
Conner got their scoring started in the first on a Gabe Huff RBI single. They added another in the third on a JJ Bagby sac fly RBI before breaking things open in the fifth and sixth with two runs apiece.
Owen Louden had a two-run single in the fifth, Wichmann with a sac fly RBI in the sixth and a run-scoring double by Bagby to tack on the sixth run.
“You have got to be relaxed,” Hart said. “The pressure doesn’t get to you and when
you start to have a little fun it helps you even more. The guys came in, in great situations. We had key base running substitutions, we had key two-out RBIs and
when you start doing that stuff, it gets everybody involved and everybody wants to
contribute.”
Rex Richter added a double and a run and finished with two hits, the Cougars tallying nine hits altogether.
Cooper’s season ends with a 11-22 record, extending their 9th Region tournament drought to five seasons now, the last appearance coming in 2018.
Conner (15-22) and Ryle will play for the third time this season in the district
championship Monday at 5 p.m. in Union. Ryle won 11-2 and 7-2 during the regular
season.
“Let’s bring it on.” Hart said “Let’s do it. We’re ready.”
COUGARS 6, JAGUARS 0
COOPER — 000-000-0 — 0-6-0
CONNER — 101-022-x — 6-9-2
2B — (Conner) Bagby, Bushman, Richter, Wichmann
WP — Wichmann. LP —Nowak.
Records: Cooper 11-22, Conner 15-22
RYLE 2, BOONE COUNTY 1
Ryle passed their first postseason test.
In the 33rd District Tournament semifinals on Saturday on their home field, the Raiders escaped with a 2-1 victory over Boone County. The Rebels may have come in with a 9-19 record and lost twice to the Raiders in the regular season, but they gave the Raiders all they could handle.
Caleb Mann reached on an error with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh to win it, scoring pinch-runner Aiden Williford.
Whatever Boone County threw at the Raiders on Saturday, Ryle was ready for it.
“I think it’s our schedule,” Ryle coach Joseph Aylor said. “From the beginning of the
year until now we’ve played tough teams. This past week we had Highlands and
Covington Catholic. It got us ready for this because we know we’re in the toughest
district in Northern Kentucky.”
On their way to the victory, a school record was broken. Sophomore AJ Curry broke the
single-season record for most hits with 63. One of the hits included a home run that tied
the game up at one in the fourth inning.
“Breaking a record might be a personal achievement, but it feels like it helps the
whole team,” Curry said. “We can win games like this because one hit can change the
whole game. I feel like by me being the best version of myself, I can help out my team.”
Curry provided the tying run, but Boone County had the momentum early on. They opened the first with a Mason Coughenour double, later scoring on a Ethan Rossi single.
It was their only two hits of the game.
“We just couldn’t get it together,” Boone County coach Wayne Huff said. “We knew
we had to do well in all three phases of the game.”
Maddox Jones did all he could to keep the Rebels in it on the bump. He scattered eight hits, allowed the Curry solo shot for the only earned run allowed, walked five and struck out one.
“We played well in the field, Maddox (Jones) pitched a heck of a game, and hitting just fell short,” Huff said. “Once he hit that homerun, we knew we were still in it, but Dylan McIntyre just shut us down.”
After the two hits and run scored in the first, Dylan McIntyre went into lockdown mode for the Raiders. He retired 18 of the final 21 Rebel batters he faced. He finished with 14 strikeouts and three walks.
“In the first inning, I gave up two hits on pitches that weren’t well-placed. After that,
I saw what they were doing and figured it out, ” McIntyre said. “I had to mix up my
pitches. I was working a lot of fastballs, but also used the slider whenever I needed
to.”
Curry ended with an RBI, two hits, and a run. McIntyre and Olli Morris added two
hits. Josh Caudill and Morris had doubles for their three extra base hits in the game. The Raiders tallied eight hits in the contest.
Boone County’s season ends at 9-20.
The Raiders improve to 27-9, pick up their seventh consecutive win and sixth trip in
a row to the district championship.
“We’re only getting better and better,” McIntyre said, “Come region, we’re
going to be tough to beat.”
RAIDERS 2, REBELS 1
BOONE COUNTY — 100-000-0 — 1-2-1
RYLE — 000-100-1 — 2-8-1
2B — (BC) Coughenour, (R) Caudill, Morris
HR — (R) Curry
WP — McIntyre. LP —Jones.
Records: Boone County 9-20, Ryle 27-9