Ocean City’s baseball team honors memory of former player
UPPER TOWNSHIP – The Red Raider baseball team offered a beautiful tribute to one of their own at Amanda’s Field on Thursday, May 5.
The team honored the late Kyle Andrews, playing the game under the lights in his hometown as family, friends, coaches, local youth teams, former teammates and teachers packed the facility.
The Raider coaches and players all donned No. 12 “Andrews” shirts while they warmed up.
The turnout was a testament to just how beloved Andrews was. Andrews was a 2013 Ocean City High School graduate who was 27 when he died.
“We loved Kyle like a son,” head coach Andrew Bristol said before the game. Andrews was a magnetic personality as well as an excellent ballplayer.
“You wanted Kyle to be your friend,” Bristol said.
The coach and many in attendance were moved to tears as he spoke.
“We love you, Kyle. Fly high, kid.”
Andrews’ mother Beth and sister Ali threw out the first pitch to Kyle’s “forever catcher,” Vince Terry, a teammate from Little League through high school.
It was a great show of love for a great kid gone too soon.
“It meant a lot to Coach Bristol,” Raider Dylan Oliver said. “We just wanted to get the job done for him. We’ll never forget him.”
“Coach Terry and I talked about this,” Bristol said, “and we couldn’t sleep last night. I was very close to Kyle and it meant a lot to me to do this and I really wanted to win this game for him, and for everybody here, and for our program. It just meant a lot out here, where my kids grew up. I was part of the Little League for a long time. Then you have a guy like Frank Fumo who’s given his whole life to this. So you want to do Upper Township Baseball proud. And what better way to honor Kyle, who went through this, than to do Upper Township proud? Then to have Vince Terry come and be there, his catcher for life, it was just a special moment that I couldn’t have asked for to be more picture-perfect.”
From there it was time to play ball and the Raiders put on a show, beating Middle Township 9-0 for their fifth straight win.
Oliver took to the mound and threw a gem, allowing just three hits on the night.
“The atmosphere we had was incredible with all the kids coming out,” Oliver said. “We even signed autographs for kids. It was just incredible for them to be in the dugout, and to come out and perform for them was just incredible. I’ll always remember it.”
The offense, meanwhile, made his life easy by piling on the runs early to cruise to the win.
Duke McCarron got the party started in the first inning with a two-run rocket of a home run to left-center for the quick lead.
“That settles you down,” Bristol said, “and that’s how we’ve been doing it. We’ve been getting the hits that we weren’t getting in the cold. The weather has changed and we’re getting the hits that we need. We put the pressure on, then we can relax and get a lead. We put the pressure on and we have pitchers who are confident.”
“That lets me just focus on doing my job,” Oliver said of the early offense. “Batting obviously wasn’t working for me tonight so I just focused on pitching. I was able to get the job done.”
Dante Edwardi led off the second with a base knock, followed by another from Noah Herrington.
Both moved up on a wild pitch, then Jack Hoag caught a break when a ground ball turned into a two-run error for a 4-0 Ocean City lead.
In Oliver’s next frame he walked the 9-hole hitter to start the inning, never a good omen.
He erased his mistake by picking him off at first base.
Another walk and an infield single put the pressure on, but a nice play from third baseman Evan Taylor ended the threat.
In the third inning Panthers pitcher Tyler McDevitt lost command, issuing three straight walks followed by a wild pitch to score a run.
After another walk to load the bases, Middle made a pitching change.
“Our motto is to never give up walks,” Oliver said. “Walks kill and you saw that.”
Lefty Ben Harris then checked in and his first pitch went past the catcher for another run.
Shawn Repetti then stepped up and singled just off the tip of the first baseman’s glove into right field, scoring two more.
All told, the Raiders scored four runs in the inning on just one hit.
The Raiders led 8-0 after three innings and Oliver took care of the rest, pitching to contact and allowing his fielders to do their jobs.
“You can throw strikes,” Bristol said. “You can throw a certain pitch with a big lead that you’re afraid to throw in a 1-0 game. I would say at the beginning of the year that our margin of error was so small, and now you build a lead and you don’t think about your margin for error, you just play baseball. That’s what they’ve been doing.”
“The defense we had – I think we had one error – I’m not personally a velocity pitcher, I let them hit the ball and trust my defense behind me,” Oliver said. “They were great.”
Taylor had a great night at third base, making tough picks and throws look easy.
“He was a little sick early,” Bristol said. “He had the flu and it took a little to recover from that. Now he’s healthy and he’s locked in at third. Our defense has been clean, our pitching has been really good, and we’re starting to hit the ball. That’s where we want to be.”
Oliver went the distance, ending the game with a strikeout looking.
After pulling out a wild 13-12 win the following day, the Raiders moved to 10-5 after dropping four of their first five games on the season.
“We went on our Florida trip in April and won three down there,” Oliver said. “Then the momentum just shifted, so we want to keep it rolling.”
Ocean City will head to Oakcrest to take on the Falcons at 4 p.m. Thursday, May 12.
“We’re going out and putting our work in at practice,” Bristol said, “and we’re coming to the field confident. It’s easy to be the coach of that.”
By KYLE MCRANE/Sentinel Sports
