Prep baseball | Windermere Prep slugger Rylan Thomas dominates Emmons Classic HR derby
LAKEWOOD RANCH -- Some time around Rylan Thomas' 13th or 14th home run in the final round of the Taylor Emmons Memorial Classic Home Run Derby, Josh Jano begged for mercy.
"Someone get him a wood bat," cried the Lakeland McKeel Academy of Technology slugger, who was squaring off with the Windermere Prep player in the championship round.
"Or a stick," quipped one of Jano's teammates sitting behind him in the dugout along the first-base line.
But with Thomas' 33-inch metal bat, the home runs kept coming.
Ping. Fifteeen.
Ping. Ping. Ping. Sixteen. Seventeen. Eighteeen.
He was reeling them off. Eventually, Thomas hit 20. He stepped across the plate and suddenly the right-handed MLB draft prospect was a lefty. A crowd of teammates and opponents inched closer to the plate with anticipation.
Ping. A cheer built in the throats of nearly every student, parent and coach at Taylor Emmons Field as the ball hurtled toward the center-field wall. But just a handful of feet before it reached the wall, the ball dropped in the outfield. A sigh echoed through the stadium followed by cheers and a mobbing at the plate. Even Jano joined in. He knew he wasn't going to match that in his last set of at-bats so he might as well congratulate him now.
"I hit 20, and I figured I'd try something different," Thomas said. "I smoked it, though."
Thomas' performance wasn't just a victory -- it was a clinic in power hitting. He eked out a first-round win against Saint Stephen's Jake Westberry with three measly home runs, then coasted through the semifinals with nine blasts to breeze past Out-of-Door Academy's Austin Hoppe.
Hoppe could joke about excuses, that his four home runs in the first round would have eliminated Thomas had the draw been different or that Todd Romine, the assistant coach who served as his pitcher, wasn't putting the pitches where he wanted in the semis. Once Thomas got hot, though, no one was going to best him.
"It was impressive," Hoppe said. "Really impressive. Twenty home runs is an accomplishment. Big time."
Hoppe was the only Manatee County slugger to escape the first round after he belted four homers on his home field.
Wade Carter from Bradenton Christian and Tyler Dyson from Braden River were the other Manatee representatives, falling to Jano and Fort Myers Canterbury School's Bryan Eberle, respectively, in the opening round.
Hoppe started slowly and eventually cranked out three late home runs for the top performance of the first round against Naples Seacrest Country Day School's Matt Hurley.
"I made it further than I thought I would, honestly," Hoppe said. "(Thomas) is the true home-run king, I guess."
That title for Thomas was almost taken out of play just 15 minutes into the night. After opening the competition with a three-homer round, Westberry blasted one of the first pitches he saw over the left-field wall.
He added another toward the middle of the round and with nine outs he nearly forced a swing-off until his final swing ended with the ball falling harmlessly into left field.
"I knew I should've hit more in my first round," Thomas said. "I was using a 33-inch bat and I usually use 34, so I just had to let it travel a little more. It just clicked and I found the stroke, man."
Thomas also thanked the bit of home run derby experience he came into the evening with. He'd competed in one before, and that time he went his entire 10-out round without hitting a homer.
By Wednesday night, he'd learned to be more patient at the plate and with that extra bit of caution he was able to put on a show.
"It was an awesome experience," Thomas said. "No matter what team you're on, everyone's here rooting each other on."
Wednesday's result
WINDERMERE PREP 11, SAINT STEPHEN'S 5 -- The first inning was a relatively accurate summation of everything that has gone wrong for the Falcons during the Taylor Emmons Memorial Classic.
Defensively, Saint Stephen's was a mess. The Falcons committed a pair of errors to help Windermere Preparatory School race out to a 4-0 lead.
Offensively, SSES was arguably worse. Windermere set the tone for its win in the top of the first inning at Moore Athletic Complex at Turner Fields -- Saint Stephen's is co-hosting the Emmons Classic with Out-of-Door Academy and was technically the road team against the Lakers -- with a 1-2-3 frame. The Falcons were overpowered and fanned twice for two of WP starter Mike Bacica's seven strikeouts.
"Our defense was terrible," head coach Scott Sauerbeck said. "I'm not sure how many of those runs were earned."
There were some bright spots for SSES during the blowout loss that leaves Saint Stephen's with an 0-3 record with pool play completed for the tournament, but they were far outweighed by the young Falcons' mistakes.
The 0-3 start to the week drops SSES's record to 2-11 this season.
"We started having some better at-bats," Sauerbeck said. "It's not always about the hits and runs. You want to have good at-bats."
Saint Stephen's will have one last chance to salvage something from this tournament at 11:30 a.m. Thursday when it faces Lakeland McKeel Academy of Technology, the tournament's only other 0-3 team, in a consolation game at Moore Athletic Complex.
ODA, the other host, will play Lake Gibson at 3 p.m. at Taylor Emmons Field in Sarasota in one semifinal. The winner will advance to Friday's championship game, also at Emmons Field.
This story was originally published April 1, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Prep baseball | Windermere Prep slugger Rylan Thomas dominates Emmons Classic HR derby."