Recap

Coming off their 10-inning grudge match with Penn Manor on Monday night, the Manheim Township Blue Streaks had to turn around and travel to Warwick on Tuesday afternoon to face the Warriors – a game that was rescheduled from the rainy stretch last week. Warwick won all 3 matchups against Township in 2023 so the Blue Streaks were eager to establish a different outcome in 2024. In the top of the 1st, Josh Boll picked up a 1-out walk and landed at 3rd on Andrew Flury’s first hit of the day (spoiler: he went 4 for 4) – a single to left field. A wild pitch during Kaden Kemp’s first AB scored Boll from 3rd and gave the road Blue Streaks a quick 1-0 lead. Tyler Shirk (5 IP, 7 H, 4 ER, 4 K), making his second start of the season, surrendered a leadoff single to the Warriors’ Johnsen. Following a SAC bunt and wild pitch, a ground out two batters later let Warwick tie it up at 1-1 through 1. The Blue Streaks pulled ahead again in the 2nd. Christian Kleckner’s leadoff single got the inning rolling as a Jacob Carrasco HBP and Trey Eckman walk loaded the bases with no outs. A SAC fly from Ryan Turner scored Kleckner to make it 2-1 MT, but Township couldn’t take advantage of the remaining bases-loaded situation in the inning. Shirk settled down in the bottom of the 2nd to work a clean 1-2-3 inning. This game turned on its head in the 3rd where the Blue Streaks sent 17 batters to the plate and brought in 11 runs on 8 walks and a handful of singles. The 45-minute half inning saw the MT advantage balloon from one run to 12. The Warriors didn’t go out without a fight though as a barrage of hits in the bottom of the 3rd plated four runs over nine batters. Now only leading 13-5, Township sent another eight batters to the plate in the 4th. Singles for Traeton Sauder and Flury (again) got the inning started before another Kemp walk loaded the bases. Kleckner walked to force in a run and a ground out from Eckman tallied another to make it 15-5 MT. Shirk used a 4-pitch half inning, highlighted by a 5-4-3 double play from Carrasco to Kemp to Eckman, in the bottom of the 4th to keep the game moving. Both teams went quietly in the 5th, aside from a Flury double and Kemp’s 4th walk (14th on the day for the Blue Streaks) as Shirk picked up two of his four strikeouts in the final half inning. 15-5 MT final.