Woody helps the Maryvale Flyers in other ways

CHEEKTOWAGA - Maybe Ryan Woody's bat hasn't been as hot as the Maryvale High School junior was hoping for this season. But he's still figuring out ways to help the Flyers win some baseball games.

With the bases loaded in a tie game in the bottom of the seventh inning of a recent ECIC-III game against Springville, Woody didn't have to hit the ball hard at all to get the job done. His perfectly executed suicide squeeze resulted in the winning run."

"I haven't been hitting that well but coach asked me to go for the squeeze," Woody said. "I just had to do it for my team. To be honest, all I really care about is getting the win."

Woody hit .296 last year as a junior and has delivered some big hits again this season for the Flyers. His two-run double off East Aurora ace Ian Allen provided all the offense Maryvale needed in its opener, a 2-1 win. Against Springville, Woody ended the back-and-forth battle with a perfect bunt down the first base line.

"He did a nice job putting that down; you've got to execute or the runner's dead," Maryvale coach Kurt Hansen said.

The win assured the Flyers of at least a .500 record for the season, a vast improvement over last year's 5-9 campaign. But the improvement is expected to keep on coming as the Section VI playoffs approach.

"I think in the long run we should be good once the playoffs get here," Woody said. "If we can put it all together, we should do pretty well."

Woody is also a pitcher on a staff that's led by ace Mike Kaelin as well as junior Jeff Baron. A team can never have too much pitching in the postseason and the Flyers seem to be pretty deep in that category.

Now the Flyers are working on shoring up the defense as the games get better.

"As a team, we're getting better," he said. "We're still making too many errors and that's getting to us. But we're working hard and trying to get better."

After a first-round exit a year ago, Maryvale is hoping to be playing its best baseball in late May and – the Flyers hope – into June.

“We’re playing a lot of games in a row here,” Hansen said. “We’ve got some guys banged up but we’re hoping to get healthy and get ready for the playoffs.”