Warriors top Township with 7th inning walk-off, 5-4

After dropping the first of three meetings to Warwick at home last Monday, the Manheim Township Blue Streaks were eager to hit the road to take on the Warriors again on Wednesday afternoon.

To start the game, a non-ideal top of the first for the Township offense saw the top of the order set down on only eight pitches from Warwick’s Stuhltrager. The Warriors, as they did last week, jumped on the Blue Streaks early and plated a run on MT’s starter, Trey Eckman, early in the 1st. A single, walk, and ground out moved Stuhltrager around to score and make it 1-0 after 1. Now trailing, Township didn’t wait until the late innings this time to try and respond.

A 2nd inning leadoff walk for Nick Tomlinson and single by Cole Stoltzfus put two Blue Streaks on base with no outs. Gavin Glass, bunting, reached base on an infield error where the tying run crossed the plate for Township and made it 1-1. Ben Connors immediately singled to center field and plated Stoltzfus from 3rd to give MT their first lead of the day. Still with no outs, Eckman followed suit and hit a high fly ball to center field that bounced just shy of the fence and scored another run to put the Blue Streaks ahead 3-1. The next three Township batters in the inning were retired in order.

A leadoff single for Warwick in the bottom of the 2nd looked problematic, but a 6-4-3 double play to end the 2nd shut down any opportunity for a Warriors’ rebound. 1-2-3 innings for both teams in the 3rd sped up the game and put Township back in position for runs in the 4th. A 2-out single for Eckman and walk for Josh Boll warmed up the base paths for Ty Jenkins to single home Eckman and make it 4-1. Boll was tagged out at 3rd trying to advance on the same hit for the final out of the half inning. Eckman continued to thwart the Warriors’ offense until the home team pulled closer in the bottom of the 6th.

Warwick loaded the bases with 1 out and scored two with a single from Johnsen to pull within 1 of the Blue Streaks. A fly out to right field and unassisted fielder’s choice for Glass at 3rd allowed Township to still escape the inning with a 4-3 lead heading to the final frame. The Blue Streaks had runners at 1st and 2nd after Jenkins and Ryan Brader reached on a single and intentional walk respectively. Consecutive fielder’s choices from the Warriors’ infield ended any hope for insurance runs as Warwick returned to the plate.

Braden Leed took over on the mound for Eckman and collected two outs while the tying run stood on 3rd after an early inning walk put a man on for Warwick. A dropped 3rd strike allowed the tying run to score and the winning run to stand safe at 1st base with the score 4-4. Two batters later, a looping single toward the right field line from Martin plated the Warriors’ winning run and sent the Blue Streaks home empty-handed.

The Blue Streaks will continue on the road as they will face McCaskey on Friday afternoon in Lancaster City. First pitch: 4:15pm.