Pair of late runs helps Township dodge Donegal in L-L Quarters, 2-1

Making their second Lancaster-Lebanon League Playoff appearance in the last three years, the Manheim Township Blue Streaks hit the road to face the Section III Champion Donegal Indians on Thursday afternoon in the league quarterfinals. These teams last met in the 2018 regular season.

A leadoff walk after a 7-pitch at bat for Ben Connors in the top of the 1st put a man on right away for Township. Donegal’s starter, Hammaker, induced a flyout for out 1 and picked up strikeouts for outs 2 and 3 before Connors could ever advance beyond first base. Braden Leed surrendered a lone single in the bottom of the 1st, but also was able to keep the game scoreless through his first half inning.

Kaden Kemp and Angelo Billiard reached base safely in the top of the 2nd on a walk and single respectively, but again the Streaks were shut out. After a leadoff walk for the Indians in their half of the 2nd, an RBI single for Condran put Donegal on top 1-0. With a man on 2nd and only 1 out, Leed forced a line out directly to Christian Kleckner at shortstop, who turned two at second base with the runner halfway to third.

The Blue Streaks were shut out in the 3rd and 4th innings as well with only a walk to Jacob Carrasco over those 7 ABs. Leed worked a quick bottom of the 3rd, but the Indians loaded the bases with only 1 out in the bottom of the 4th. A 6-4-3 double play from Kleckner to Kemp to Billiard got the Blue Streaks out of the 4th still with just a 1-run deficit.

Scoreless half innings for both squads in the 5th put the Blue Streaks back at the plate in the top of the 6th needing something to happen on offense. A leadoff bunt single from Josh Boll and an overthrow on the play put the Township right fielder at second base. Traeton Sauder laid down a SAC bunt and reached safely while also moving Boll to third with no outs. A 1-out SAC bunt for Carrasco plated Boll and tied the game up at 1-1, but the Blue Streaks couldn’t work anymore runs in the inning. After another HBP to start the bottom of an inning, Leed worked his way out of the bottom of the 6th to hold the 1-1 tie.

A 1 out grounder from Billiard was misplayed by the Donegal infield and gave Township a crucial baserunner in the top of the 7th.  Pinch running for Billiard, Alex Derderian took off for 2nd base on a grounder from Leed to the 3rd baseman. An overthrow into no man’s land beyond 1st base gave Derderian the green light to come all the way around to score and landed Leed at 2nd with Township on top for the first time all day, 2-1. While the Blue Streaks still had a few outs to work with and a runner on, Shepard, the Indian’s reliever, escaped the half inning without any further damage.

Leed returned to the mound to finish what he started in the bottom of the 7th. His third leadoff hit batter put the tying runner on first base with no outs. After a SAC bunt moved the lead runner into scoring position, Leed proceeded to strike out the next two batters to close out the first league playoff victory for the Blue Streaks since 2022 in 101 pitches.

Manheim Township will travel to Ephrata on Saturday afternoon for the second weekend in a row to face the Mountaineers, but this time it’ll be for a spot in Monday night’s L-L Finals game at Clipper Magazine Stadium. First pitch for the Semifinals is scheduled for 2:00 PM.