Recap

For the 6th straight season, the Manheim Township Blue Streaks qualified for the PIAA District III 6A Playoff tournament here in 2025. Holding the #7 seed this year with a 14-6 regular season record, Township was set to host the #10 Dallastown Wildcats on Friday afternoon. With a late-morning drowning of the infield at Westfield Insurance Park, the game was moved to Ephrata’s War Memorial Field on Friday evening. The Blue Streaks got the best of the Wildcats 7-5 with a memorable 4-run top of the 7th in the 2023 District III Quarterfinals – the last time these two met in a non-scrimmage game.

After a brief lightning delay, the game got underway with the Blue Streaks serving as the home team in Ephrata. Alex Miller got the nod for Township in this one, but struggled to find his regular-season form early. After hitting the first batter with the first pitch he threw, Miller gave up two walks with one out to load the bases. A wild pitch gave the Wildcats their first run of the night before two more strikeouts got Township out of trouble in the 1st.

Dallastown loaded the bases again with 1 out in the 2nd. This time they capitalized with a 2-run single from Flinchbaugh and a 2-run triple from Meyer. The Blue Streaks now faced a 5-0 hole after just an inning and a half. A 1-out walk to Miller in the bottom of the 2nd gave the home team their first baserunner on the evening. Braden Leed followed up with a single to put a second man on. Lincoln Stoltzfus took the first pitch of his first at bat to the fence in left field and pulled into second base with an RBI double. Township added a second run on a misplayed throw down to second by the Dallastown catcher and Leed crossed the plate easily.

Now only trailing 5-2, Tyler Shirk returned to the mound for Township after entering earlier in the top of the 2nd. Shirk managed to work 1-2-3 innings in both the 3rd and 4th innings before surrendering just a walk in a quiet top of the 5th. In the meantime, Township’s offense struggled to find any additional runs to tighten the score. In the bottom of the 5th, walks to Connor Delvecchio and Jacob Carrasco put two men on with only 1 out.  A hard ground ball single from Jack Kenneff through the right side of the infield put a third run on the board for Township to make it a 5-3 game through 5.

Scoreless half innings in the 6th left Township with some work to do in the bottom of the 7th. With the Blue Streak dugout fired up, Dio Acosta led off for the Blue Streaks and walked to bring the tying run in Carrasco to the plate. Carrasco was plunked with an inside pitch before Dallastown made their second pitching change of the inning only seven pitches into the bottom of the 7th. An Alex Derderian SAC bunt moved both runners up into scoring position as Kenneff approached the plate again. Township’s shortstop rocketed a ball at the Dallastown first baseman who was able to knock the ball down and record the out at first, however Acosta scored easily to pull Township within 1. Now with 2 outs and Carrasco standing on third base, Angelo Billiard stood in the right-handed batter’s box with a 2-2 count. Immediately following a third ball outside the zone to Billiard, Carrasco bolted for the plate and slid head first safely under the late tag from the catcher to knot us up at 5-5 in the waning moments of this game. Dallastown would hold on to send the game to extras before Township could walk it off in regulation.

Shirk jogged to the mound to continue his dominance in the top of the 8th and delivered another 1-2-3 inning on a fly out, strikeout, and ground out. Miller roped a single past the second baseman into right field to lead off the bottom of the 8th for Township. Leed followed up with a great bunt to the Wildcats’ third baseman who proceeded to throw the ball wide of first base and send pinch runner Sebastian Llessi flying around second and third base to cross the plate. Seemingly having walked it off, an eruption of emotion from the Blue Streaks flooded the field before the umpires grouped together and determined that the ball had gone out of play beyond first base. Taking a few moments to reset, Llessi now stood on third with Leed on second with no outs for Stoltzfus at the plate. An intentional walk to Stoltzfus loaded the bases before two force outs at the plate gave Dallastown some hope of escaping the jam. Carrasco faced a 1-2 count before playing hero once again with an RBI knock to left field to give Township a now official walkoff – breaking the hearts of Dallastown once again with a 6-5 win in the opening round of Districts.