Carmel’s Ryan has no ax to grind

Pitch by pitch, batter by batter, Carmel pitcher Matt Ryan chopped through Stevenson’s lineup Saturday as methodically and as relentlessly as if he had an ax — which was available, by the way.

Ryan, who rolled up 9 strikeouts and allowed just 4 hits and 3 walks, carried Carmel to a dominating 8-0 nonconference victory over the visiting Patriots. For his efforts, his teammates presented him with the team’s player-of-the-game trophy.

It’s an ax, a real one, signed by every player on the team.

Ryan got his picture taken with it after the game.

Despite looking a bit weathered and worn, this is no ordinary ax. This ax symbolizes hope and spirit and togetherness for the Corsairs, who moved to 6-1 on the season.

They found it last week during their spring break trip to downstate Harrisburg, which was rocked by a deadly tornado last month. The Corsairs volunteered some of their time while they were there to help clean up a neighborhood that had been hit particularly hard by the storm.

They stumbled upon the ax in the wreckage and thought it would serve as a neat reminder of their experience. The owners were happy to let them have it.

“That was the best spring break I’ve ever had with the guys on this team. I love all these guys and we got closer every day. It was a great trip,” Ryan said. “This (win) wouldn’t be fun without them. After that trip, we were coming off of having some fun and coming together and we were ready to play Stevenson. We weren’t going to lose to them.

“We weren’t going to take those guys lightly. Everyone wants to beat Stevenson. They’re a rival and it feels good to beat a team like this the way we did. This was our game.”

Ryan, who tweaked his mechanics just before the start of the game, made sure of that from the start. The Patriots were stymied by him, unable to advance a baserunner past first until the fourth inning.

“Coach (Mike) Miller (Carmel’s pitching coach) changed how I was planting my right foot on the mound,” said Ryan, now 2-0 on the mound. “That adjustment really helped me a lot. I was able to throw my curveball for strikes, all my pitches for strikes.

“I trust Coach Miller. He’s one of the best pitching coaches around. In warmups, I was leaving everything high and he just told me to try it out and it was working in the bullpen and I used it in the game. It took a while to get used to, but it ended up working awesome. I was able to lower my pitches and get everything into the strike zone. Coach Miller says that pitching is all about doing the little things and he’s right.”

Speaking of little things, Carmel perfected the art of small ball against Stevenson. The Corsairs scored 8 runs and rolled up 11 hits but had only 1 hit go for extra bases, a double by first baseman Duncan Amrein in the fifth inning. The rest of the game, Carmel moved runners around the bases with timely singles.

Amrein went 3-for-3 on the day.

“We just kept moving guys around and we kept getting hits. That was big,” Amrein said. “We have a lot of really strong hitters, a lot of really strong contact hitters on this team. That helps us a lot and gives us an advantage over other teams.”

Other multiple hitters for Carmel were third baseman Mike Stahoviak and Ryan. Both had 2 hits apiece.

“We’ve told the kids that we need to be able to hit the ball around and also play a little small ball with the new (BBCOR) bats,” Carmel coach Joe May said. “They’re going to have to play a little small ball to win and we’re going to do that even more now.”

Stevenson, meanwhile, will take small ball, longball, anything at this point. The Patriots, who dropped to 3-2, struggled offensively against Carmel but have also been inconsistent at the plate in other games.

“In a word, we were bad today,” said Stevenson coach Paul Mazzuca, whose only player to get multiple hits against Carmel was left fielder Anthony D’Angelo (2 singles). “They outplayed us and good teams are going to make you pay.

“We’re waiting for someone to step up and lead offensively and it’s been five games now and it’s just not there. Changes are going to have to be made.”

Infielder Adam Walton, who will be playing at Illinois next year, believes the changes are going to have to start upstairs for the Patriots, as in inside their heads. He says they’ve been struggling with mental errors and that as a senior leader, he feels a responsibility to help the Patriots snap out of it.

“We have to come together as a team,” Walton said. “The mental mistakes we’re making ... you just can’t deal with that all season. Our focus isn’t there. Our heads aren’t in it. When bad things happen, if we let up 1 run, we get down. We fall out of it. We can’t do that if we want to be successful at the end of the year.

“We have great players. We have players who can get wins. It just hasn’t come together for us yet.”