Former Cat Luke Maile makes pitching debut for Toronto Blue Jays

[caption id="attachment_261464" align="aligncenter" width="734"] USA Today Sports[/caption] Luke Maile, a Covington Catholic graduate and a former UK baseball player, stepped onto the mound for the Toronto Blue Jays Sunday afternoon. It was his pitching debut... because he's a catcher for the team. After the game, Maile admitted he hasn't thrown a pitch in a game since he was 13 or 14 years old. "Obviously it’s not encouraging when somebody like me comes in to pitch," Maile said. "But I mean, you’ve just got to make the most of it and I feel like we did that." When Maile came in the game, his team was down 10-2 to the Rangers. The starting pitcher, Clay Buchholz, went four innings, yielding runs on seven hits, including two home runs. Four more pitchers followed, then it was Maile's turn. He pitched a clean inning.

Luke Maile's @MLB pitching debut: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 BB, 1 K, 0 ER. pic.twitter.com/Ao44htPJKV

— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) May 5, 2019

"He was outstanding," manager Charlie Montoyo said of Maile. "What I mean by that is that he threw strikes. The worst thing for a manager and the whole team is if he comes in and throws balls and all over the place." It was an interesting afternoon for the Edgewood, Kentucky native, to say the least. During his three years at Kentucky, Maile won the Southeastern Conference Player of the Week Award twice and was an All-SEC Second Team member. He was originally selected by the Tampa Bay Rays during the eighth round of the 2015 MLB Draft, before eventually being claimed off waivers by Toronto in 2017. Congrats to the former Cat... Maybe they should let him pitch more often.