‘We practice that play all the time.’ Spectacular play at plate seals top seed for Sayre.
If you’re going to make program history, you might as well do it in spectacular fashion.
Sayre reliever Addison Stockham’s quick thinking and cannon arm helped preserve the No. 24 Spartans’ 3-2 win over Henry Clay on Monday night in a play that could have tied the game for the Devils in the bottom of the seventh inning.
“I just told one of my assistant coaches, ‘We never make anything easy,’ Sayre Coach Kevin Clary joked after the game. “We have to do it the hard way.”
With two runners on and two out, Henry Clay’s Tyler Banks hit a slow bouncer to first and beat Stockham to the bag as the Sayre pitcher sprinted over to receive a toss from first baseman Brody Beall. As soon as Banks was called safe, however, Stockham spun and rifled a throw home to try to stop Henry Clay’s Joey Howard from scoring the tying run. Howard never stopped running from second.
Stockham’s throw hit catcher Graham Johnson’s mitt perfectly for the play at the plate. With the tag down on the sliding Howard, the home plate umpire pumped his fist for the game’s final out.
“Credit to Coach Clary and all the coaches. They always say: ‘Make the next play. Make the next play,’” Stockham said. “We practice that all the time. Our first five, 10 minutes of practice, we work on that exact play, so that was just my natural instinct. I knew the play was close.”
Clary heaped credit on Stockham and his teammates.
“That was an unbelievable play, because he had the state of mind to think about the next play,” Clary said. “It was a bang-bang play at first and a lot of times kids will quit on a play and just be upset because we didn’t get the out.”
With the victory, Sayre (15-8) clinched its first-ever top seed in next week’s 42nd District playoffs. Sayre and No. 5 Frederick Douglass (22-7) finished atop the district standings each with a 6-2 record, but the Spartans won the standings tiebreaker by virtue of allowing fewer runs in the two games Sayre and the Broncos played against each other.
Sayre will get a bye into the district semifinals where it will await the winner of the game between Scott County (12-22) and Bryan Station (8-11). Douglass will face Henry Clay (14-12) in the other semifinal. The winners of those semis automatically earn a bid to the 11th Region Tournament.
“I’m just so proud of our team. It’s really something special,” Stockham said.
While Stockham got the save, the win went to Sayre ace Raymond Saatman (6-1), a junior University of Kentucky commit who scattered seven hits and allowed two runs in 6⅓ innings, while striking out 11. Saatman was lifted after giving up a double to Kasen Parks and an RBI single to Howard. Parks went 3-for-4 with two doubles, a run scored and an RBI.
“I trust Addie to finish it out for me, He’s been doing great all season,” said Saatman, who finished the game in left field and had a good view of the final play. “It was really exciting — a huge moment.”
Saatman’s leadoff single in the sixth inning set up the go-ahead two-run rally. He later scored on a bases-loaded walk. Graham Johnson scored the other two runs, coming home on an error in the sixth and getting the run that tied the game 1-1 in the fourth inning by scoring from third on a busted attempt to throw out a runner stealing second.
Next, Sayre will try to defend the 42nd District championship it won for the first time last year and improve its efforts in the region tournament where it was ousted in the semis by Lafayette in 2021.
“We’ve just got to be the best version of us,” Clary said. “We’ve got to tighten some things up offensively, and our pitch selection wasn’t very good tonight.”
That said, Clary praised his team for checking off another historic achievement for the program.
“We’ve talked about it from Day 1. That was our goal: to be the No. 1 seed going into the tournament,” Clary said. “We accomplished it and they get all the credit. They’re the ones that put the work in and they do it every single day.”
