Indy’s Kyle Devine strikes out twelve

On Wednesday evening at Rocky River High School the Ravens hosted the Independence Patriots as the two Mint Hill teams faced off in a Southwestern 4A Conference baseball game.

Independence led off the first inning with Bubba Comer and Matthew Mangum drawing walks. On a double steal Comer wound up at third and Mangum at second. Comer later scored on a passed ball and Mangum went to third. Cooper Fandel reached on a single that scored Mangum. With Noah Howie at the plate, Fandel went to second on a passed ball and scored on Howie’s single to right field. Noah Haislip followed with a long fly ball to right center but was caught for the out. Michael Menzer singled but was caught trying to steal second for Indy’s second out. Dylan Giorgio’s single drove in Howie for Indy’s fourth run of the inning.

Indy’s Kyle Devine retired the Ravens in order in the bottom of the first.

In the top of the second Bubba Comer came to the plate with one out and singled to the outfield. Rocky River attempted to pick off Comer at first, but a wild throw to first put Comer on third. With Comer on third and one, out Matthew Mangum hit a sacrifice fly to right field to score Comer. Cooper Fandel came to the plate next and delivered another single. Noah Howie walked, but the inning ended with two base runners left stranded.

Again Devine made quick work of the Ravins by popping out the lead off batter to first, striking out the second hitter and ending the inning with a fly ball to center.

The Patriots posted two more runs in the top of third. With two outs Ryan Mangum walked. Nate Brown came to the plate and tripled to the right center field wall scoring Magnum. Brown rounded third on his way home but was held up by Coach Cooke. Bubba Comer was next and drove Brown in for indy’s seventh run.

In the bottom half of the third Devine struck out the Ravens in order.

In the top of the fourth inning with one out, Noah Haislip reached on a single. Indy’s next batter popped up to the pitcher for out number two. Corbin Berkovics came to the plate for his first at bat. After a few pitches, Berkovics blasted a long home run over the left field wall for Indy’s eight and ninth runs.

In the bottom of the inning Rocky River’s James Carter singled for the Raven’s first hit. Jared Carter stepped up and drove James Carter in with a double to right center to make the score 9-1 after four innings.

Indy went down in order in the top half of the fifth.

In the bottom half of the inning, the Ravens had runners on first and second with no outs. After a few pitches to the plate, Devine got his pitch sign, came set, checked the bases, faced home, then turned toward second and threw to shortstop Noah Haislip. Haislip made a dive for the ball. At the same time second baseman Ryan Mangum, who was backing up Haislip, also made a dive to the ground. At the same time Indy’s center fielder and right fielder came running in as fast as they could to field the loose ball. Rocky River’s Andre’ Knox, who had dived back into second, got up and started toward third. Karriem Ali left first on his way to second base. Okay, stop the play right here. First of all, Haislip had not missed the throw and neither had Magnum and the charging outfielders were not chasing a loose ball. Noah Haislip had the ball the entire time. With everyone being faked out, except for the Indy players, the runners were tagged out for the double play. By the way, Devine struck out the batter left at the plate to end the inning.

In the top half of the sixth inning Indy went down in order on two infield fly balls and a grounder to second.

The Ravens picked up their second run in the bottom half of the inning. James Carter reached on an error. He stole second and advanced to third on a passed ball. A few pitches later Carter came home on another passed ball making the score 9-2 after six full innings.

In the top of the final inning CJ Brown led off for the Patriots hitting a single and then stealing second. Angelo Aldarondo and Joey Granger drew walks to load the bases. Nick Melton followed with a sacrifice fly to score Brown. Chase Rappe got hit by a pitch to re-load the bases, but Indy was unable to add any more runs before the inning ended.

On the Ravens last time up, Brent Jones led off with a single but was left stranded at first as Devine struck out the next three batters to end the game with Indy taking the victory 10-2.

Junior right-hander Kyle Devine picked up the win going the distance for the Patriots. Devine pitched three perfect innings before giving up a hit. In seven innings Devine faced 26 Raven hitters and allowed only two runs, one of which was un-earned. He gave up three hits, one walk and retired twelve Raven batters on strikeouts.