Ryle uses all 31 Raiders in Reds Futures Showcase win over Campbell Co at Great American Ball Park

By Dan Weber NKyTribune sports reporter They call it the Reds Futures High School Showcase with Northern Kentucky teams Campbell County and Ryle meeting Friday in the first of four games over two days at Great American Ball Park.

But it was as much – actually more – a celebration than a baseball contest. “To be honest, I didn’t even know we’d won,” Ryle Coach Joe Aylor was saying of his Raiders’ 4-0 win over a Campbell County team of Scott Schweitzer, who had agreed on the same everybody-in approach. So in this spectacularly bright afternoon and evening, with the Reds’ ground crew getting the field into the same shape it would be in for a major league game, the numbers on the scoreboard weren’t what Aylor and Schweitzer were looking at. “We brought 31 players,” Aylor said, “including four managers (all in uniform) and all got into the game. One of those was extra special. The first pitch of the game came from Ryle sophomore manager Skip Mann, whose cerebral palsy didn’t prevent him from left-handing one off the mound to get the game going. He was the first of eight Raider pitchers – one an inning with two in the first – who combined for a shutout for a 21-9 Ryle team, second only to Covington Catholic in the Ninth Region.

“It was just a great moment,” said Ryle senior Caleb Mann, Skip’s older brother, the top pitcher for the Raiders who just happened to be the pitcher of record in the fourth inning when Ryle broke a scoreless tie on AJ Curry’s sacrifice fly to right while earning the win. Although Aylor kidded that “Skip wanted me to give the win to him.” Actually, the best gift on this day, Skip said, was “how happy I was to be on the field with my brother.” “It was just a great moment,” Caleb said, “that’s the first time we’ve been together in a game . . . I know how much he’d love to play.” And on this day, with all 30 of his Raider teammates, he did. “This couldn’t just be about 10 guys,” Aylor said of Ryle’s first chance to play at Great American Ball Park. They’ve got “a big turnaround” as they head to Lexington early tomorrow to play both Madison Central and Frederick Douglass in the Fayette County Invitational and that’s when winning will really matter.

But on this day, in this place, it was about Skip Mann and his guys getting their shot in the sun. “I was nervous a little but,” Skip said of his opening role that had the hundreds of Ryle fans offering him a standing ovation. “Just being around the game and watching baseball,” that’s his reward, Skip says. “They’re all like family. We’re all in it for each other.” And on a day like this, the entire Ryle pitching staff – Sam Eppley, Maverick Rabe, Grant Ashcraft, Dylan McIntyre, Andrew Roach, Nathan Muench and Caleb Mann that held Campbell County to two hits according to the GABP scorer – were in it together. Although the Campbell County scorer had the Camels for four hits and at least two of the hit-or-error calls were really close. The Camels credited Gavin Bell, Will Haigis, Tyler Schumacher and Landon McNabb all with hits.

Following much the same game plan as Ryle, the Camels just didn’t have the same good fortune for pitchers Chris Bramley, Nate Delaney, Sam Adams, Connor Weinel, Bell and Charlie Alford, when errors at the worst possible time hurt them. And Ryle had AJ Curry, the sophomore leading all Kentucky high school hitters with a .628 average. After grounding out to first to lead off the first, Curry came up for his second at-bat in the fourth with Anthony Coppola on third and one out. On a two-strike pitch, Curry lined out maybe the game’s hardest hit ball on a line to right field for a sacrifice fly and the game’s first run. That’s all it would take although an opportunistic Raider team would put three more up when given the chance. Like Ryle, the 15-10 Camels will be heading to Lexington Saturday for two games in the Fayette County Invitational against Henry Clay and Lexington Christian. SCORING SUMMARY CAMPBELL CO 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 – 0 2 3 RYLE 0 0 0 2 0 2 X – 4 2 3 WP: Mann (6-1) LP: Weinel (0-2) Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @dweber3440.