'That's baseball': Rye drops out of 2A Final 8 in extra-inning loss to St. Mary's

The magic ended for the Rye High School baseball team on Friday.

St. Mary's High School came back four different times to claim a 7-6 extra-inning victory over the Thunderbolts during the first round of the Class 2A Final 8 tournament on Andenucio Field at the Runyon Sports Complex.

Rye, which had won in walk-off fashion in both its regional games last week, had no miracle this time. The third-seeded Thunderbolts ended their season 22-4.

St. Mary's (18-8), the No. 6 seed, lived to play again at 10 a.m. Saturday on Hobbs Field against No. 2 seed Peyton (25-1), who knocked off Buena Vista (15-11) 3-2 in its first-round game on Friday.

No. 1 seed Limon and No. 5 seed Highland also advanced to the semifinals where they will play at 12:30 p.m. Saturday on Hobbs Field.

Limon run-ruled No. 8 Wiggins (16-10) 16-1 and Highland (20-4) defeated No. 13 Denver Christian (18-8) 10-4. The championship is set for June 4 at Rawlings Field on the Colorado State University Pueblo campus.

St. Mary's never led until the first extra-inning frame in the top of the eighth inning when it plated an unearned run to grab a 7-6 lead, scoring on a Rye error.

The Thunderbolts had a chance to either tie the game or provide another walk-off in the bottom of the inning, getting runners on second and third base with one out.

But Taye McCauley's screaming line drive was caught by the St. Mary's left fielder and he doubled up the Rye runner at second base to end the game.

Rye head coach Clay Klipfel said walks (eight) and lack of execution led to the defeat.

"That's baseball," Klipfel said. "If you fail to execute it'll bite you every time. Honestly, at least half their runs came off walks. Walks killed us.

"Offensively, we did exactly what we wanted to do, pushing across six runs on eight hits."

St. Mary's veteran head coach Bill Percy felt his team showed great resolve.

"There's a lot of inexperience out there in the starting lineup," Percy said. "We have another kid who has never played baseball. Our numbers are so low that we have to deal with that.

"Their baseball IQ isn't always the best but they showed today that they can come back, come back on a good team. We've done that a couple of times this year but today was big, it was huge."

Here are the takeaways from Friday's game:

St. Mary's battles back

The Pirates never led in the game (until the 8th) after falling behind 2-0 in the first inning, although they came back to tie the game on three different occasions.

St. Mary's tallied two runs in the third to tie the game at 2-2 before Rye went back ahead with a run in the bottom of the inning.

The Pirates again tied the game with a run in the fourth before the Thunderbolts regained the lead again with a run in the bottom of the inning to make it 4-3.

Rye then added on with a two-spot in the fifth for a 6-3 cushion before St. Mary's responded with its three-run inning in the top of the sixth. That retied the game at 6-6, setting the stage for the dramatic ending.

First-inning fireworks

The Thunderbolts started quickly against St. Mary's ace J.P. Clune. Taye McCauley hit a bloop single down the first-base line to lead off the bottom of the first inning. After Will Hamler popped out, Brock Benz delivered a two-run home run over the left-field wall for a 2-0 Rye lead.

St. Mary's had a big opportunity in the top of the first inning, loading the bases on three consecutive walks with two outs against Rye starting pitcher Benz. But Benz struck out Peter Ghigleri to end the threat.

Chieftain senior sports reporter Jeff Letofsky can be reached by email at jletofsky@chieftain.com or on Twitter @jeffletofsky

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Rye baseball team runs out of magic in Final 8 of 2A state tournament