Catching up / LJWorld.com

Archive for Saturday, July 25, 2009

Kindle sparks Raiders, 6-1

Raiders catcher Brian Kindle follows through on a sixth-inning hit. Kindle had two doubles as the Raiders beat Blue Valley West, 6-1, Friday at Ice Field.

By Chuck Woodling

July 25, 2009

Photo by Nick Krug

Raiders pitcher Taylor Gentry delivers against the Jaguars.

Photo by Nick Krug

Raiders runner Tanner Kilmer stirs up the dirt as he slides into home during the sixth inning. The Raiders beat Blue Valley West, 6-1, in their zone tournament Friday at Ice Field.

Raiders advance to tournament final

The Lawrence Raiders captured a second straight playoff victory to clinch a spot in the summer tournament final. They won the game 6-1. Enlarge video

All last year, Brian Kindle wasn’t allowed to play baseball because of a bad elbow.

Last spring, Kindle’s elbow still was so bad he had to play first base for Eudora High. And yet this summer he has been the regular catcher for the Lawrence Raiders’ baseball team.

“My arm feels fine,” Kindle said after his two doubles helped the Raiders spill Blue Valley West, 6-1, in the Legion Zone 3 tournament.

“But,” Kindle added with a smile after Friday’s victory at Ice Field, “my knees hurt a little bit.”

In assessing his roster before the season, Raiders coach Wilson Kilmer projected Kindle as a spot player behind Free State High product Adam Petz.

“I wasn’t supposed to catch at all because of my arm,” Kindle said. “But then Adam broke his thumb, and my arm started to come around.”

And Kindle became the Raiders’ backstop, almost by default.

“I told him,” Kilmer said, “I don’t care if you throw anybody out, just catch the ball.”

Not only has Kindle been catching the ball, he has been throwing runners out. Yet there’s more to being a backstop than catching and throwing. There are the intangibles, too.

“He plays hard, that’s No. 1,” Kilmer said. “His No. 1 tool is a great attitude, and he’s a good player, too. When he couldn’t play last year, it just killed him.”

Kindle also maintains a solid rapport with the Raiders’ mound staff.

“It’s really amazing how he’s come back,” right-hander Taylor Gentry said. “He works harder than any catcher I’ve ever had. He’s pretty much of a wall back there.”

Gentry threw up a wall of his own, allowing BV West, a team that had scored 13 runs in its Thursday tourney opener, to just three singles.

Gentry, who’ll be a senior at Lawrence High, walked two in his first career nine-inning stint. He fanned just six, but had the Jaguars hitting ground ball after ground ball.

“He was keeping things down,” Kindle said, “and his slider cuts just a little bit.”

Kindle ignited a four-run sixth inning with a leadoff double, scoring minutes later to snap a 1-1 deadlock. The big frame also featured singles by Tanner Kilmer, Coulter Vestal, Ben Wyatt and Drew Noble.

Then in the seventh, Noble doubled inside the third-base bag with one out, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored the Raiders’ last run on another wild pitch.

Now the Raiders , who were the No. 4 seed in the four-team tourney, are the lone unbeaten despite their 15-22 record and will play a team coming out of the losers bracket at 2 p.m. today for the right to go to next week’s AAA Legion state meet in Pittsburg.

“I’m not surprised,” coach Kilmer said of the Raiders’ surprising position. “I think we’re very capable.”