Township offense alive and well in romp at Cedar Crest, 12-4

Following a tough loss on Monday at home, the Manheim Township Blue Streaks made their first of two visits to Cedar Crest in 2023 on Wednesday to face the Falcons.

After back-to-back games getting to bat second while playing at home, the Blue Streaks were first to the plate today on the road. Leading off for the Blue Streaks, Tyler Mulholland roped a single past the second baseman to give Township some early life. Wild pitches during the next 2 ABs landed Mulholland at 3rd with 2 outs. A balk on the Falcons’ pitcher sent the first run across for the road team. Leading 1-0, MT sent Trey Eckman (5 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 9 K) to the mound to make his 2nd start on the season. An early single and pair of errors on Township loaded the bases for Cedar Crest with 2 outs. A 2-run single and balk later put 3 runs on the board before the first inning was over.

Now behind 3-1, the Blue Streaks quickly responded in the 2nd. Cole Stoltzfus took a pitch off the elbow and advanced all the way to 3rd on a Nick Tomlinson infield grounder that was mishandled by the Falcons’ shortstop. With 2 RISP, Gavin Glass singled up the middle to plate both runners and tie us up 3-3. Eckman knocked down Cedar Crest 1-2-3 to hold the tie score into the 3rd where the Blue Streak flood gates really opened up.

Ben Connors led off the 3rd with a 4-pitch walk before a Ryan Brader RBI-double broke the 3-3 tie. A bunt single for Ty Jenkins left runners on the corners for Stoltzfus to double home both runners and double up the score 6-3. Tomlinson singled home Stoltzfus before Eckman helped himself out with his first career varsity homerun over the left field fence to cap the 6-run half inning. Additionally, all 6 runs came with no outs in the inning. Eckman proceeded to run with the 9-3 lead and retire 6 of the next 7 Cedar Crest batters to keep it 9-3 MT through 4.

Tomlinson’s hot bat struck again in the top of the 5th as a 1-out triple sparked the Township offense once again. Glass brought in courtesy runner Josh Boll with a single and scored on a Mulholland liner two batters later. Kaden Kemp crossed the plate as Township’s 12th run on the day before the Blue Streaks were retired in the 5th. Eckman pitched his final inning in the bottom of the 5th and turned over the reins to Boll for the 6th.

Boll, making his first appearance on the mound for the varsity Blue Streaks, turned in a solid final 2 innings and held the Falcons to just 1 run (un-earned) over 8 batters faced with 2 Ks. A pop up to the mound with 2 outs in the 7th allowed Boll to seal the victory for the Blue Streaks and return the team to a .500 record on the season (2-2).

Quick turnaround for Township as they will travel to Manheim Central tomorrow to close out the week. Game time: 4:15pm.