Now this is how you win a baseball game.
The Rye High School captured the Colorado 2A state championship on Saturday. Helping the Thunderbolts get to the state title was a 9-8 victory in the state semifinals over Hotchkiss High School using the ol’ hidden ball trick (via Tracy Renck of CHSAA Now):
Hotchkiss pinch runner Colton Deluzio, who was on second base, was fooled by Rye pitcher Junior Ortiz on the hidden ball trick. Ortiz stepped off the rubber and fired toward second base for a pick off. The Rye infielders were all running around as if it was a wild throw into the outfield.
Deluzio then took off toward third base and Ortiz, with the ball in his glove, tagged him.
“We weren’t real sure if it was going to work,” Rye coach Stacey Graham told Renck. “We practice it quite a bit and we ran it one time successfully, and it worked again. It’s a tough play to do and the guys executed it real well.”
It was perfectly executed at the right time, that’s for sure.
(Via YouTube)
