Red Devils pitcher Cayden Ray kept his cool on the mound in the seventh inning and helped shut down Daviess County for a 4-2 district win. With two runners in scoring position, Ray prevented disaster for OHS as Daviess County could have sent the game into extra innings or even could have taken the win with a walk-off home run.
Owensboro had managed to protect their lead since the second inning, but Daviess County put themselves in prime position to tie the game in the seventh inning. With the Red Devils leading 4-1 going into the bottom of the seventh, Cameron Rickard led off and was walked. With Brody Brubaker at the plate, Rickard took the opportunity given to him by a wild pitch to steal second. Brubaker was walked as well, placing runners on first and second. Another wild pitch allowed Rickard and Brubaker to take third and second.
After Ray struck out the next batter, Carter Nichols stepped up and hit a sacrifice fly to OHS right fielder Blake Kimbrell who caught the ball for the second out. This gave Rickard enough time to tag up and head home to make the score 4-2. On the next at-bat, Ray threw one strike before walking Lucas Ward. With Brubaker on third and Ward now on first, the Panthers needed either a good hit to bring Brubaker home and advance Ward to scoring position or a walk-off home run.
The Red Devils needed just one more out to secure the win, and Ray delivered. After a foul ball put the count at 1-2, Ray caught the final batter looking for the final strikeout that gave OHS the 4-2 win. Ray pitched all 7 innings, recorded 8 strikeouts and only allowed 3 hits. On the mound for DC was Logan Mewes, who pitched for 5 innings and had 5 strikeouts, and Rickard had 2 strikeouts in the final 2 innings. OHS head coach Jake Fiorella praised Ray for his composure on the mound during the last inning as he could have easily let the situation spin out of control.
“He did a great job of keeping his composure,” he said. “In that situation it’s really easy for him to lose sight of what’s going on and to maybe let that spin out of control. He had a couple of walks, but he did a great job of just settling back in, breathing and trusting in the pitch that was called. He executed at a high level on the last two batters and that’s what we needed him to do.”
Early in the game, Ward managed to score from third on a wild pitch to open scoring and give DC a 1-0 lead. Owensboro took the lead in the second inning with a big 3-run performance. Daviess County got a quick out on a dropped 3rd strike before a ground out put pressure on OHS who had runners on first and third. Trevor DeLacey hit an RBI single to send Kimbrell home and put Hampton on third. Will Hume had a big RBI double to bring both Hampton and DeLacey in to score and take the lead at 3-1. Fiorella said that this inning was big for the team because they make batting while sitting on two outs a focus during practices.
“It’s really good for us and it was big for our kids,” he said. “Two-out hitting is something we talk about every single day, and we got a big two-out-single and then followed it up with a double. All three of the RBIs were with two outs. Something we talk about on defense is getting off the field with two outs, and on offense we want to keep them on the field as long as we can.”
This game marked Owensboro’s first district win of the season. Fiorella said that every win is important in a district where any team could come out on top.
“It’s great to get a district win, but in this district, I’ve said this every game that I’ve been interviewed, every win is important,” he said. “At the end of the day, the 9th district tournament is up for grabs for any of us. Daviess County, Owensboro Catholic, Apollo and we are all capable of winning. It’s just a matter of who plays the best on that day, so we’re trying to prepare for that.”
