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Tournaments  | Story | 6/26/2024

Thompson & the (almost) Perfect Game

Hannah Jo Groves
Photo: Ryan Thompson & Mason Denmark (CBU Baseball)
Ryan Thompson had been magnificent on the mound for his CBU 2025 Scout Team. After dealing 13 strikeouts in 6.2 shutout innings, with no hits and no walks, Thompson was on the brink of a perfect game.

The count was 1-1 with two outs in the bottom of the seventh. Thompson looked to his coach for the sign, but everything froze.



“Time! Time! Time!” Thompson heard one of his coaches, Addison Maruszak, frantically blurt from the dugout.

Standing on the mound, Thompson leaned over to look into the dugout, trying to decipher what was going on.

After a few long moments of silence, manager Shane Rowland slowly sauntered to the mound.

“Oh, there’s no way they’re gonna take me out now,” Thompson thought.

“These are your options. You have the option to throw a perfect game right here,” Rowland said. “But if you throw one more pitch, you might not throw again at this tournament.”

Rowland was referring to the pitching rules for all Perfect Game tournaments. For the 17U age group, if a pitcher’s count gets up to 80, he’s required to rest for 3 days. But the moment another pitch is thrown to bring the count to 81, the required rest days bump up to 4.

For Thompson, this meant that if he were to throw another pitch, and potentially complete a perfect game, he wouldn’t be able to pitch again for his team unless they made it to the championship game.

This 17U CBU team has played together since they were in middle school.

“They’ve won every major event they’ve played in, except this one,” Maruszak explained. “And this is their last year trying to do it.”

Rowland and Thompson’s teammates were fully aware that Thompson was throwing a perfect game. Members of his team were even giving Thompson space in the dugout in the later innings - before Thompson himself even realized what was happening. Maruszak also had no idea how close Thompson was to achieving this feat when Thompson reached 72 pitches.

“Addison is saying, ‘hey, he’s got eight pitches. You gotta take him out of the game. ’I said, ‘I’m not doing that,’” Rowland explained. “[Addison] goes, ‘what do you mean you’re not doing that? ’I said, ‘Addison, he has a perfect game. ’He goes, ‘wait, for real?’”

So now with everyone aware of what was at stake, except for Thompson, the coaches and team decided to leave the decision up to their pitcher.

“This is all in your hands,” Rowland said after explaining the predicament to Thompson in the bottom of the seventh. “I will support any decision you make.”

But the tension was quickly broken by Thompson as he handed the ball to Rowland and said:

“Nope, the boys need me. I’m done.”

“Are you sure?’” Rowland said.

“I’m done. I’m throwing in the playoffs. We’re going to win this thing.”

“My jaw dropped,” Rowland said. “I started tearing up. I almost lost it.”

This immediate decision to choose his team over himself surprised and touched everyone in sight.

“Like, 99.9% of anybody is gonna go, ‘no, I want to throw a perfect game’” Maruszak said. “[Thompson] believes in his team.”


“Perfect games are nice,” Thompson said about his decision. “But I think that being able to help the team win in another game would be even better.”

Thompson’s school coach at Tampa Jesuit, Miguel Menendez, said that though Thompson is trying to pitch as many innings as possible and get recruited, he’s always been a team guy first.

“I’m sure he would have loved to finish the game, to throw a perfect game,” Menendez said. “But in his mind, we’re gonna do what’s best for the team. It doesn’t surprise me that he made that decision…sometimes you get rewarded even more when you do something so selfless versus trying to be selfish.”

Thompson said that his team was a big reason he was able to throw a perfect game - and also a big reason why he chose not to finish it out.

“The things [my team] sacrificed, having to stand in front of the dugout baking in the sun while I sit, just to keep me locked in, it shows they care a lot and I care a lot about them,” Thompson said.

He also wanted to be sure to mention two teammates in specific. First, his catcher, Bethune-Cookman commit Jacob Estrada.

“I don’t think I shook off one time the whole game. Being able to trust him, to throw any pitch and know he was going to stop it, was just really comforting,” Thompson said.

Second, Thompson wanted to feature Mason Denmark, a USF commit, who threw the last two pitches (both strikes) of the game.

“He was the reason we were able to keep it going. He had to pitch with all that pressure and he was able to do it,” said Thompson.

Going forward in the WWBA, Thompson explained just how much this tournament means to him and his team.

“I have a lot of rings for Perfect Game, but this one is the one that sticks out the most,” Thompson said. “We’ve won a lot of nice tournaments, but that WWBA is something we’ve never been able to accomplish in these last few years of high school. It’s my last chance to get that opportunity.”

CBU 2025 Scout Team Rowland will continue that journey toward the WWBA championship in the playoffs starting June 27.
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