Back and forth Section 1 duel with McCaskey ends in Township victory

The Manheim Township Blue Streaks and J.P. McCaskey Red Tornado met at Westfield Insurance Park on Friday afternoon to close out the first round of Section I games in 2023.

Nick Tomlinson, Township’s typical starting catcher, made his first appearance on the mound in his Varsity career as he got the nod in this one. McCaskey capitalized on a leadoff walk as a single from Fluck and double from Rodriguez brought the leadoff runner home with only 1 out. A wild pitch in the next AB made it 2-0 and a SAC fly before the end of the first half inning put McCaskey up 3-0 early.

Back-to-back singles from Ty Jenkins and Tyler Mulholland put Township runners at 1st and 3rd. A Ryan Brader SAC fly to center field scored Jenkins before a Cole Stoltzfus SAC fly scored Mulholland. Trailing 3-2, Tomlinson worked a cleaner 2nd inning to quiet the Red Tornado offense.

Walks to Gavin Glass, Jenkins and Mulholland in the 2nd loaded the bases before Brader gave the Blue Streaks their first lead with a liner up the middle where two runners scored. A Red Tornado 2-run homerun in the top of the 3rd off Township reliever Traeton Sauder gave McCaskey the lead again 5-4. Sauder managed to escape the inning with the Blue Streaks still only trailing by 1.

A leadoff HBP on Stoltzfus got things going for Township in the bottom half of the 3rd. On a Sauder bunt, an overthrow to 1st base by the McCaskey catcher brought Stoltzfus home from 2nd and sent Sauder all the way to 3rd. A single off the bat of Glass during the next at-bat put MT back in front 6-5. After a leadoff triple for Ortiz put the Red Tornado in business again in the 4th, a line drive to left center from Fluck once again tied us up – now 6-6.

The Blue Streaks broke through again in the bottom of the 4th using two walks and a HBP to load the bases. A wild pitch during Glass’ at-bat scored Brader from 3rd and Glass picked up two more RBIs on a double to the gap in left-center to give MT a 9-6 lead. McCaskey would be held in check over the final 3 innings with Sauder on the mound and the Blue Streaks held on for the win with the final of 9-6.

The Blue Streaks are on the road all three games next week starting with an away matchup at Penn Manor on Monday afternoon at 4:15pm.