Fast start, quality pitching lead Steers to win over Rams

The final result ended a little closer than what many would have liked, but the Graham Steers did enough on offense and defense to hold on for a 4-3 win over the Mineral Wells Rams in a district matchup Tuesday, March 19.

Playing on their home turf, the Steers did all their scoring in the first two innings while their starting pitcher, junior Ryder Taylor, controlled the mound and kept the Rams in check for more than half the game.

While the visiting team eventually broke through and put up a few runs to pull the game close, Graham’s pitching and defense did what they needed to do to secure the district win. With the victory, the Steers moved to .500 in both district and on the season (8-8 overall, 2-2 in district).

“We had our chances to open it up and we didn’t, but I just told the guys that’s a good team baseball win right there,” head coach Allen McGee said. “...Guys played good defensively and so I was really, really happy to see that. That timely hitting will come but the defense never takes a day off and they did a good job with that today.”

All season Taylor has done a great job of keeping his team in games when he’s been on the mound. From the first pitch of this game, he established his presence on the mound and began to dominate the visiting Rams.

In the top half of the first inning, Taylor retired the side in order with two strikeouts in the frame. He cruised through the first four innings of the game, with the only trouble a few walks he surrendered which didn’t amount to anything.

With Mineral Wells held in check to start the game, the Steers offense went to work. Sophomore Tripp Mahaney ripped a single to left field on the first pitch he saw to lead off for Graham. Junior Ty Thompson pushed him to second with a sacrifice bunt, followed shortly by Mahaney stealing third base.

Taylor then helped his own cause by hitting a ball deep enough to right field to let Mahaney score on a sacrifice fly which gave Graham a quick 1-0 lead.

In their second trip to the plate, the Steers kept applying pressure to Mineral Wells’ starting pitcher. Junior Levi Jilek reached base on a walk and Mahaney hit his second single in as many at bats to set the table for Thompson, who promptly drove a double to center field to score Jilek and pushed the lead to 2-0.

Taylor came through with the bat, again, as he singled to right field to score Scout Smith, a courtesy runner for Mahaney. As Thompson rounded third and watched the throw in from the outfield, he broke for home and dove in ahead of the tag to give the Steers a healthy 4-0 lead.

While Graham didn’t manage any more runs the rest of the game, they continued to hit and put pressure on Mineral Wells’ defense. The Steers had a bit of bad luck as most of their hits were hard contact but happened to find the Rams’ gloves.

“When we get our pitch to hit, we’re not missing it,” McGee said. “Kudos to (the Rams)... you sometimes just gotta tip your hat, that’s baseball. But I loved the approaches (at the plate). I felt overall the approaches were a lot better the last week than they were the previous two weeks.”

Through four innings the Rams hadn’t recorded a hit against Taylor. But control became an issue as he gave up two walks to start the fifth inning, and two batters later he gave up his first hit which scored the visitors’ first run.

The junior hurler gave up another run before getting out of the inning and handing it off to fellow junior Bruin Wright. He pitched 1 1/3 innings and gave up another run to help the Rams close the gap to 4-3.

McGee turned to junior Harison Brockway to record the final two outs of the game in the seventh inning with Mineral Wells threatening to tie the game with a runner on second base.

Brockway induced a ground out and a pop out to secure the big win for the Steers.

The Steers will hit the road again for another district matchup with Stephenville next Tuesday, March 26 and then will welcome the Yellow Jackets to Graham for a game Thursday, March 28.