A week removed from their last game of the regular season, the Manheim Township Blue Streaks hosted the Annville-Cleona Dutchmen in the opening round of the Lancaster-Lebanon League playoffs on Saturday morning. Township, the top team in the league playoff bracket, finished the regular season as the Section One champion while the Dutchmen reached the league playoffs as the runner-up in Section Four.
Blue Streaks’ starting pitcher, Dylan King (6 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 12 K), took command of this game from the get-go. Striking out 7 batters over the first 9 he faced, King had the Dutchmen off balance early. Township, as they have done often this season, got on the board first. Walks to Drew Sassaman and Colin Fitzgerald gave MT some early baserunners before Evan Clark loaded the bases on a single. Ryan Jones nabbed an RBI on a fielder’s choice before King helped his own cause with a check-swing single to right field. Taking a 2-0 lead into the bottom of the 3rd, the Blue Streaks extended their lead off a King triple to the fence in left that scored Jones and made it 3-0.
Scoreless frames in the 4th and 5th innings, headlined by a Sportscenter Top-10 defensive play at 3rd for Fitzgerald, took us into the 6th where Township still held a 3-0 lead. King continued to deal on the mound remaining hit-free on the day as he reached his pitch limit at the conclusion of the Dutchmen’s half of the 6th. Behind the plate, Ryan Flury picked off a Dutchmen runner on 2nd for the final out of the top of the 6th after King’s 12th strikeout.
Three runs is all the Blue Streaks would need as Clark jogged in from right field to collect his 3rd save on the season and clinched the first no-hitter for Manheim Township since early in the 2018 season. With the quarterfinals victory, Township will advance to the league semi-finals on Tuesday evening at Ephrata War Memorial Field (opponent TBD).
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