Play ball!

Reds starting pitcher Paul Wilson didn't give fans much to cheer about during Friday's loss against the Los Angeles Dodgers - allowing seven runs off five hits in the first inning before being pulled from the mound without retiring a single batter.

Perhaps the Reds pitching staff should have left University of Cincinnati student Ryan Gray on the mound. "I can't imagine I would've done any worse," said Gray.

Gray, a third-year marketing major and a News Record advertising account executive, joined the ranks of local politicians, high-profile celebrities and presidents of the United States last week when he threw out the first pitch during the Reds' second college night of the season.

He called the event unforgettable.

"This is a once in a lifetime experience," said Gray, who was asked by the Reds' marketing department to throw out the pitch.

Gray represented the fraternity Alpha Tau Omega, who helped sponsor the Reds marketing department on UC's campus.

Gray, who has been helping the Reds marketing department for a year, volunteered and worked the makeshift ticket booth last week with Executive Sales Director Patrick Korosec of the Cincinnati Reds. The two, along with a smattering of Gray's fraternity brothers, offered UC students discounted tickets for last week's game.

"The fraternity has been a big contributor in bolstering ticket sales for college night," Korosec said. "Ryan has helped immensely, selling nearly 1,000 tickets since we began this project."

Just days before Gray's major league debut, the 23-year-old said he didn't get much sleep.

"I was too excited to sleep," said Gray. "I laid there, tossing and turning - thinking about all those people in the stands."

In front of nearly 29,000 people in attendance, Gray said moments before his pitch, "Now I'm starting to get nervous."

As the Reds stadium announcer called Gray and UC student and fellow fraternity brother, Cody Tewmey, a third-year chemistry major - who caught the first pitch - to the mound Tewmey whispered to Gray, "Just don't throw over my head."

"As a fan, I never dreamed of catching the first pitch at a Reds game... It's simply unbelievable," Tewmey said.

The pitch landed squarely in Tewmey's mitt.

Many of Gray's family members attended the game, including his mother, two younger brothers, aunt and uncle and grandparents.

Friends and family members, from Cleveland to Baton Rouge, who couldn't make the game watched online and shared the experience. Though, perhaps Gray's biggest supporter and fan would have to be his mother.

"We're all so very proud of him," said Gray's mother Lou Ann James. "It was great to see him on that field. That's what he always wanted to do [play baseball], but was unable to because of shoulder injuries."

While Gray's aspirations of playing in the big leagues may never come true, the future holds many possibilities for him, his mother said.

"He's always had that special charisma - a very outgoing personality," she said. "He has this amazing ability to connect with people. And when you meet Ryan for the first time, you feel as if you've known him forever."

His mother said that local newspapers in Gray's hometown in Brown County, Ohio, have picked up the story.

Stories will be sent to national Alpha Tau Omega fraternity chapters.

"We're all very proud of him," his mother said.