By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
Ryle’s Raiders were rounding third and heading home, as Marty Brenneman would say, leading 3-2 in the bottom of the seventh.
And yet Dixie Heights would get “a walk-off against basically the best pitcher in Northern Kentucky (undefeated Dylan McIntyre, 7-0, 0.70 ERA),” Coach Chris Maxwell said as he smiled his way through a postgame presser that neither he nor his Colonel players or fans could have thought they had much of a chance to get to.
Not until a pair of Ryle infield errors put the tying and go-ahead runs on – and Austin Krohmer and Owen Caudill came through with run-scoring base hits for a not to be believed 4-3 Dixie Heights’ walk-off win.
“The only one I can compare was back in ’91,” Maxwell said of his nearly four decades coaching at Dixie. But that was it for a man in the top 10 all-time winningest Kentucky high school baseball coaches. Just one other.
Although they gave themselves a chance – with pitcher Kyle Flynn holding Ryle close. And their hitters doing their thing. “We were touching the ball, putting it into play,” Maxwell said. “That’s why you want to put the ball in play.” Make the other team make a play.
“Everybody has errors,” Maxwell said, “luckily they had the last two.”
When it mattered most, a favored Ryle (24-12-1) could not make the plays the Raiders had to make. And the 21-17-0 Colonels advance to face Highlands, a 7-2 winner over Covington Catholic, in the 5 p.m. Wednesday semifinals.
Krohmer, a sophomore first baseman expected to get the start in the Highlands’ game, had doubled the inning before and said he knew his time would come. “I knew I’d get a hit in a big moment like this.” But by doing this one thing, he said: “Not trying to do too much.”
Following him, Owen Caudill said all he was trying to do was “do something for my guys, however I can do it,” he was telling himself. And that’s what he did with the game winning single that had his teammates dogpiling him after he’d rounded first and Sean Mitchell had touched home.
“I knew we had a shot,” Mitchell said. “We fight. We fought all year. Some games just haven’t gone our way.”
And then this one did. Even with Ryle’s own Caudill – Jeff – crushing the ball with three base hits and an RBI. “Caudill ate us up,” Maxwell said. Until his own Caudill got the last bite in.
SCORING SUMMARY
RYLE 0 1 2 0 0 0 0—3 6 3
DIXIE HEIGHTS 0 0 1 0 0 1 2—4 6 1
WP: Flynn (7-3) LP: McIntyre (7-1)
Hitters: Ryle: Caudill, 3-3, double, RBI, Sanders, double, RBI; Dixie Heights: Krohmer 2-4, double, RBI; Caudill, 2-4, RBI.