No matter how many situations have been thrown the Ryle baseball team’s way, it’s impossible to prepare them for what happened on Friday at the Clark’s Pump-N-Shop Baseball State Tournament presented by UK Healthcare.
But once again, they found a way with a 4-2, eight inning victory over East Carter in the first round on Friday at Legends Field in Lexington.
Caleb Mann delivered the game-winning hit in the extra frame, his two-out single scoring two to get Ryle to Saturday’s quarterfinals.
What proceeded that is something Ryle has equipped themselves for.
“I talked to some guys before we got down here,” Ryle head coach Joe Aylor said. “Guys like Jeremy Baioni (Highlands head coach) and Kevin Gray (Beechwood’s head coach) and they kind of warned us that some things are gonna happen that you’re not used to.”
In the bottom of the second inning, starting pitcher Sam Eppley went to the ground. After minutes of trainers tending to him, Eppley had to leave the game with an arm injury. Enter Dylan McIntyre, another one of Ryle’s aces to pitch. Aylor had stated that they don’t have one ace, it’s more so 1A and 1B with Eppley and McIntyre.
“It was kind of a gut check. We called the guys up after the inning and told them we’re built for this,” Aylor said. “We know the team that we have can overcome something like this so let’s regroup and get going.”
McIntyre was inherited into a runner on second and third situation and nearly escaped it. East Carter got a single from Tate Scott that scored two, giving the Raiders in white, red and blue a 2-1 lead.
“It was difficult, but it was a situation that was brought to me so I had to go out there and attack hitters and dominate the game,” McIntyre said.
East Carter put themselves in positive situations all throughout the game, the leadoff batter reaching in five of eight innings played. Ryle found ways out of them.
One of many defining moments down the stretch of the game started in the bottom of the fourth inning when East Carter had the bases loaded with two outs, McIntyre proceeding to strikeout Andrew Tomolonis to end the threat.
Tomolonis was brilliant himself on the mound for East, going the distance on Friday. He limited the Ryle offense throughout, Ryle doing a lot of their damage with two outs on the day.
East Carter gifted Ryle a run in the top of the sixth to tie the game up. Thanks to two errors, Ryle had runners on first and third when they pulled off a double steal, Oli Morris taking second while Noah Crist took home on a delayed steal.
“We were going to put pressure on them and we knew early on this was a very good team and had to put pressure on them to be successful and we were able to do that,” Aylor said.
Crist was pinch-running for Josh Caudill. Aylor didn’t even have to send Crist, he knew what to do in the situation.
“Noah did a heck of a job reading that play,” Aylor said. “It’s on the runner to make the decision to do it. He’s our guy off the bench when it comes to that and he continues to do that.”
With the score knotted at 2-2, East Carter was 90-feet away from winning the game in the bottom of the seventh. They were able to load up the bases after Tate Scott walked, stole second and was sacrificed over to third. Ryle then elected to intentionally walk the next two batters, setting up a bases loaded situation and one out.
McIntyre got Jaxon Barker to hit a grounder, but it bounced over McIntyre’s head with second baseman Anthony Coppola fielding the ball and throwing to home. It one-hopped to Josh Caudill, Caudill calmy scooping the ball and tagging the plate for the force out and out number two in the frame.
“I got trust in my defense, thought the ball was up the middle, but Anthony got there and a great play by those two. That’s the play of the game from my opinion, that was the play that saved the game for us,” McIntyre said.
McIntyre then proceeded to strikeout Gavin Sexton to end the threat and get the game to extra innings.
McIntyre singled in the top of the eighth with one out, Morris following with a two-out single and Drake Carroll reaching on an infield single to load the bases with two outs for Mann.
Mann, after striking out looking in his prior two at-bats, found a hole in-between first and second into right field to score two.
“Just had to stay consistent with my emotions,” Mann said. “Don’t fold under pressure, don’t let anybody get in your head. Just keep doing me and it will work.”
He then came on to close out the game in the eighth, a role he’s taken on as the season has progressed.
“Coach trusts me to go in there and not get rattled,” Mann said. “Just had to breathe and look at the bigger picture and go out their and do your job and the guys behind me will do their job.”
Ryle outhit East Carter 10-3, but Ryle issued eight walks and hit two batters while Tomolonis didn’t walk a batter all contest. The two errors in the sixth were East’s two in the game, allowing Ryle to tie it up. East Carter left 11 runners on base to Ryle’s seven.
The victory gets Ryle into Saturday’s quarterfinals to face the West Jessamine-McCracken County winner back at Legends Field at 1:30 p.m.
Without their No. 1 and No. 2 starting pitching options available, Ryle will have to utilize their depth on the mound for the first time this postseason.
“We’re ready. We feel like we’ve got the depth to do it,” Aylor said. “We win tomorrow and then we can kind of reset for next week.”
RYLE 4, EAST CARTER 2 (8 INNINGS)
RYLE — 100-001-02 — 4-10-1
EAST CARTER — 020-000-00 — 2-3-2
WP — McIntrye. LP — Tomolonis. SV — Mann.
Records: Ryle 32-9, East Carter 22-7