VARSITY/JV: Both Township teams lose on walk-offs at Lampeter-Strasburg
by Adam Gegg · Published · Updated
VARSITY:
In their third afternoon-night doubleheader of the season, both Township teams were unable to seal the deal in their respective games against the Lampeter-Strasburg Pioneers. In the late game, Township varsity was looking to break a 6-game losing streak and get back on track for the rest of the season. In the top of the 1st inning, Township's bats came alive when Ben DeMarco singled on a bunt and Nick Kurtz sent a fastball over the fence in center field to give Township an early 2-0 lead. Kurtz's homerun was his 3rd of the season which tied him for the most homeruns by a single Blue Streak since 2016 and brings the Township 2018 team total to 5 - the most since 2012.
Results
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lampeter-Strasburg | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 1 |
| Manheim Township | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 2 |
Will Greiner got his first start on the mound for the Blue Streaks this year after making multiple relief appearances in the first 11 games of the season. L-S struck for 3 runs in their half of the 1st inning after a Township error in the outfield allowed a 1-run single to be turned into a 2-run hit. Greiner helped himself at the plate in the top of the 2nd by picking up a walk and moving up to 2nd before DeMarco slapped a single into left field that scored the game tying run for Township. With the score tied at 3-3, Greiner settled down for the next 4 innings and allowed no L-S hits and only a few runners off of walks that the Pioneers could not bring around the bases.
The Blue Streaks had chances again in the top of the 5th inning when Colin Yablonski led off with a HBP and was followed up one batter later by a Kurtz intentional walk. With only 1 out, Township could not score either runner to once again take the lead in this game. MT was retired in order 1-2-3 in the 3rd, 4th, and 6th innings in this game and tried to get something going in the top of the 7th inning. Greiner singled to lead off the inning and was followed up by 3 straight outs to end Township's chance for runs.
DeMarco came in to pitch for the Blue Streaks in the 6th inning and induced a barrage of fly balls to Jordan Yablonski in center field to get a couple of outs. In the bottom of the 7th, L-S walked and scored the winning run on a Township error in the outfield to pick up the walk-off win at home. Final score: 4-3. With the loss, Township falls to 4-8 on the season.
JV:
The JV Blue Streaks fell on a walk-off single and lost 11-10 in 8 innings against the L-S JV Pioneers in the afternoon matchup of the doubleheader. Township JV got on the board early from an L-S wild pitch and a Sam Emge double that scored a run to give MT an early 3-0 lead. L-S picked up a run off of Connor Vucovich, who was making his first JV start since pitching for varsity last week, in the 2nd inning. Taking a 3-1 lead into the 3rd, Township picked up another 2 runs to take a 5-1 lead before L-S struck for 3 more runs off of Vucovich. After a quiet 4th inning for both teams, Township looked to Ryan Jones and Dylan King to finish the game on the mound for the Blue Streaks.
Results
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lampeter-Strasburg JV | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 11 | 12 | 1 |
| Manheim Township JV | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 10 | 10 | 1 |
Township JV snagged 3 runs off of RBIs from Emge, Evan Clark, and Kyle Musser to extend their slim lead to 8-4 in the 5th inning. It took L-S until the following inning to get any offense going against the MT relief pitchers when they trimmed the Township lead to 8-6 after bringing 2 runs across the plate. Emge looked to help Township close this game out by grabbing his 4th RBI on the afternoon on a single in the 7th inning. Holding a 10-6 lead entering the last half inning, Township surrendered 4 runs to allow L-S to tie the game at 10-10. Entering extra innings for the first time this season, Township only was able to get one out in the bottom of the 8th before L-S scored the winning run on a single to win the marathon game 11-10.
Other highlights on the afternoon: Drew Sassaman went 3 for 3 at the plate and added 2 stolen bases on the base paths. Collin Arms and Jake Schaefer also stole 2 bases in this game for the JV Blue Streaks.
Next Games: If the weather allows it, both MT teams will play host to visiting Solanco on Wednesday afternoon (4/25) at 4:15pm.
