Blue Streaks explode in 7th to clinch league playoff berth at McCaskey

With a berth in the LL League Playoffs on the line, the Manheim Township Blue Streaks visited the McCaskey Red Tornado on Monday afternoon in Township’s final Section I game of the regular season. With a win, the Blue Streaks would clinch 2nd place in Section I and a date with Donegal on Thursday afternoon in the League Quarterfinals.

In the top of the 1st, 1-out walks for Josh Boll and Traeton Sauder put men on base early for Township. A throwing error on the McCaskey infield on Jacob Carrasco’s 2-out grounder sent Boll across the plate to give MT an early 1-0 lead. Tyler Shirk (3-1, 1.89 ERA) made his sixth start of the season in this one. A leadoff walk and single for the Red Tornado had Shirk in trouble early, but a pair of strikeouts and a fly out maintained the 1-0 MT lead.

McCaskey broke through in the bottom of the 2nd after a leadoff HBP and infield error put two men on before a triple to deep center field from Perez gave the Red Tornado a 2-1 lead after 2. After Andrew Flury reached base on a dropped third strike in the 3rd, Christian Kleckner sent courtesy runner Ryan Turner around the bases with an RBI double to the fence in left field. Tied 2-2, Shirk surrendered another leadoff walk in the bottom of the 3rd that McCaskey converted into a third run to take a 3-2 lead on Township’s second infield error.

The Blue Streaks finally decided that they came to play in the top of the 4th as they batted around while driving in five runs on five hits. A 1-out Ben Connors triple fired up the offense before Boll, Sauder, and Flury all drove in runs with hits of their own. Kaden Kemp then picked up a pair of RBIs with a 2-out line drive single to left field that scored pinch runners Turner and Alex Derderian and put MT ahead 7-3. McCaskey would not go away as a bases-loaded single in the bottom of the 4th pulled the Red Tornado back into the game, 7-5.

Township padded their lead with an additional run in the top of the 6th before exploding for 9 runs in the top of the 7th. 14 batters produced 9 hits and Sauder, pitching in relief, returned to the mound with a 17-5 lead in the bottom of the 7th. A leadoff single is all McCaskey would muster in the bottom of the 7th before Sauder ended it with a line out to Carrasco at 3rd.

The win clinched a 2nd place Section I finish for the Blue Streaks and a spot in the L-L League Playoffs that kick off on Thursday afternoon. Following the final home game of the regular season tomorrow night against Cocalico, Township will travel to Donegal on Thursday to face the Indians in the League Quarterfinals.