AKRON - In one word, Tippecanoe Valley softball coach Brian Barger described Wednesday's game with Three Rivers Conference foe Manchester as "ugly."

He's done this 11 other times this season. All 11 have been wins.

As ugly as those games may have been, the end result has been beautiful for Valley's softball program.

An 11-10 win over visiting Manchester Wednesday improved the Vikings' season record to 12-10, tying the school record for wins in a season.

Valley, which finished a combined 12-38 the past two seasons, hasn't won 12 games in a season since 1991 under Scott Tilden. That year was Valley's only winning season in school history.

Barger was hired to turn around a sinking Viking ship. He's done it in his first year.

"I was hired to turned the program around, and we've done that," Barger said. "It's nice to be winning games here."

Wednesday's loss drops the Squires to 5-12 overall and 2-3 in the TRC; Valley improves its TRC record to 2-3.

With one out and the game knotted at 10 in the seventh inning, Valley freshman Melinda Dye stole home on a passed ball to give the Vikings the win.

Manchester finished the game with five errors and walked 11 Viking batters.

A Valley team that managed just five hits beat a Squire team that pounded out 14 hits.

"They executed and we didn't," Manchester coach Jim Troyer said. "We beat ourselves almost every game."

Senior third baseman Jennifer Jester led the game off with a single for Manchester. She scored the game's first run when classmate Dorey Bungitak tripled. Bungitak then scored to give Manchester a 2-0 lead.

Manchester took a 6-4 lead after four innings, but Valley came back and scored four runs in the fifth. The Squires walked five Viking hitters in the inning, including three times when the bases were loaded.

The Squires knotted the game at 8 in the sixth when Bungitak doubled and picked up two RBIs.

Bungitak, the catcher, finished the game 3 for 3 with a double, triple, one run scored and two RBIs. Jester finished 4 for 5 at the plate with four runs and an RBI.

"Give Manchester some credit, their 2-3-4 hitters hit the ball hard," Barger said. "They could have quit when they were down 8-6 or when we scored four runs, but they didn't."

Sophomore second baseman Ashley Freeman led things off for Valley in the sixth with a walk and later scored, giving the Vikings a 9-8 advantage.

Freeman finished the game 2 for 3 with three runs, while Sherise Denny was 2 for 4 with a run and an RBI.

The Squires took a 10-9 lead in the seventh on runs from Lindsey Music and Ericka Rossiter, but Dye reached on an error and then stole home to pick up the win for Valley.

Dye pitched 6 1/3 innings and got the win, while sophomore Carrie Fox went 2 2/3 innings for Manchester with one hit, five runs, five walks and one strikeout. She took the loss.

Valley hosts TRC foe Whitko today, while Manchester hosts conference rival Rochester Friday.

TIPPECANOE VALLEY 11, MANCHESTER 10

Manchester ab r h rbi

Jester 3b 5 3 4 1

Lehman dh 3 0 0 0

Bungitak c 3 1 3 2

Olsen 1b 2 0 0 1

West lf 4 0 2 0

Music 2b 2 2 1 0

Rossiter ss 4 2 2 0

Brubaker cf 3 0 1 0

Fox rf 3 0 2 2

Shambarger pr 0 1 0 0

Southworth pr 0 1 0 0

Bucher pr 1 0 0 0

Totals 30 10 14 7

T. Valley ab r h rbi

Zehr rf 1 3 0 0

Freeman 2b 3 3 2 0

Gagnon ss 4 0 0 0

O'Brien c 2 2 1 1

Denny 1b 4 1 2 1

Shafer cf 3 0 0 0

Groninger lf 1 1 0 0

Kirk 3b 2 0 0 0

Dye p 2 1 0 1

Ramsey ph 1 0 0 0

Totals 23 11 5 3

Manchester (5-12, 2-3) 202 202 2 - 10 14 5

T. Valley (12-10, 2-3) 301 041 2 - 11 5 2

2B - Jester, Bungitak. 3B - Bungitak.

Manchester ip h r bb so

Marshall 4 1/3 4 6 6 2

Fox, L 2 2/3 1 5 5 1

Valley ip h r bb so

Dye, W 6 1/3 12 8 3 4

Groninger 2/3 2 2 1 0 [[In-content Ad]]