If there's one thing that's frustrated Ryle baseball coach Pat Roesel about his team this young season, it's been its inconsistency, and Friday's game was no different.
Ryle showed flashes of brilliance in a 12-3 win at St. Henry but occasional lapses - at the plate, in the field and on the mound - have left Roesel scratching his head.
"I think we put it in cruise control some times," Roesel said. "We just take the foot off the gas a little bit. We need to keep it going. We got up on them early and then let them come back in it some, and then we stepped on it again."
Ryle (5-2) was aided by three St. Henry errors in the first two innings, scoring twice in each frame to take a 4-1 lead. But the Raiders led just 4-2 heading to the fifth.
That's when the they turned it up again by getting a leadoff double from Daniel Etschied, a walk from Leiff Clarkson and a two-run triple by Conner Hempel to make it 6-2. Hempel scored on a wild pitch for a 7-2 Ryle lead.
Reliever Brian Ernst walked the first batter of the sixth inning, then Clarkson, the shortstop, booted a potential double-play ball to put runners on first and third with no outs.
St. Henry first baseman Craig Rose, who had singled and doubled his first two times up, then hit a bullet up the middle that second baseman Caleb Lonkard fielded nicely, flipping the ball to Clarkson to turn a double play. "He needs to make that play," Roesel said of Lonkard. "He's capable of making that play. It was big."
St. Henry senior pitcher Tommy McMahon went the distance, striking out six.
Lonkard had two hits, scored twice and had two RBI from the leadoff spot.
Ryle totaled six hits, two of them infield hits, in the first six innings but piled on five runs in the seventh with five straight two-out hits. The Raiders scored in double figures for the first time this season.
"We need to get everyone in our lineup rolling," said Roesel. "It's been very inconsistent top to bottom."
Lonkard said he believes he and his teammates are capable of a great season. "We definitely have the talent to make a run in districts and regional," he said.
Roesel said his team needs to prove it. "Potentially we can be pretty competitive, but we need to get it together," he said.
Ryle 2 2 0 0 3 0 5 -12 11 2
St. Henry 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 -3 4 5
WP-Comora. LP-McMahon. Hitting Leaders: R-Lonkard 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Etscheid 2-5, 2B; Hempel 3B, 2 RBI; Gorbandt 2-3; Steinle 2B. SH-Rose 2-3, 2B. Records: Ryle 5-2, St. Henry 2-5.
Uneven Raiders level Crusaders 12-3
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