NORTH MANCHESTER - Manchester sophomore pitcher Scott Baker was cooking at home Wednesday against the Whitko Wildcats.
Striking out 14 and surrendering just one hit in a complete-game effort, Baker led the Manchester Squires (11-8-1) to a 9-0 victory over Whitko (9-16), wrapping up a Three Rivers Conference title with a 7-0 record."Our pitching has come around pretty well through the year," Manchester coach Jack Rupley said. "We tried to nurse them along, as far as that goes. Connor (McLaughlin) did a nice job once we moved him up to varsity, and Scott's come a long way since the first part of the year."
In helping the Squires capture their first TRC title since 2000, Baker went 3-0 in the conference, pitching 21-2/3 innings, giving up six hits, striking out 32 and not surrendering a single run.
"I feel like I've gotten a lot better," the 6-foot-3 pitcher said. "At the beginning of the season, I felt a little shaky, because basketball season had just ended, and I hadn't gotten a lot of throws in. I'm starting to get into it now."
In Manchester's season opener against Wawasee, which resulted in a 9-9 tie due to no lights at Manchester, Baker went 1-1/3 innings, surrendering eight earned runs and walking six.
Since then, the sophomore's gotten better with each start.
"He's got that long, lanky body, and we've really worked hard to get him to stride out and use that nice, long stride," Rupley said of Baker, who's overall record is 6-3. "That way, he can get closer to the plate, and that makes his fastball look a lot faster than it really is."
Against Whitko, it must have appeared Baker was only a couple feet away as he struck out the first five Wildcats he saw, and seven of the first nine.
While the Squires' defense had it relatively easy, the Wildcats' defense was giving its starting pitcher, senior Cody Mishler, a tough time.
After Mishler retired the first two batters he faced, Manchester junior Brady Miller reached first on an errant throw after having appeared to ground out.
Still with two outs, Manchester senior Cody Semler hit a single, which was followed by a three-run homer by junior Dylin Kennedy. As if things couldn't get any worse, senior Derrek Freshour then hit a solo home run, pushing the lead to 4-0 in the first inning.
"You can't give a good team more than three outs, and we gave them five or six," Whitko coach Erik Hisner said about his defense, which later dropped a fly ball in the first inning. "A good-hitting team is going to take advantage of that."
The Squires added three more runs in the second inning, as senior Corey Thomas began things with a double, followed by senior Matt Carver getting hit by a pitch. Following an RBI-double by Miller, Semler hit an RBI-ground out and Kennedy drove in his fourth run of the night on an RBI-single, upping the lead to 7-0.
In the TRC-clinching win, Kennedy went 2 for 2 with four RBIs and Semler had a 2-for-4 night, driving in three runs.
"For the most part, these kids have done a pretty nice job, all season long, of staying focused," Rupley said about his offense. "We've had five games, where we had leads, then weren't able to hang on. Maybe that helped us earlier in the year."
However, ahead 7-0 at the end of two innings, it may have looked like the 10-run rule may need to be implemented at the end of the fifth, but that didn't happen.
Instead, Manchester's only two runs over its next four innings came off a two-run home run by Semler in the bottom of the fourth.
"Right now, we really don't have that pitbull-type of personality," Rupley said. "When you get people down, you've got to keep pounding away. We kind of lost our edge a little bit. Not to say Whitko's a bad team, but when you get anyone down, like we had them down, you've got to end it in five (innings). You need to do that."
The squads are just a week away from sectional play, which begins May 28 with Manchester going to Wabash and Whitko travelling to Tippecanoe Valley.
At Wabash, the 11-8-1 Squires will face North Miami in the opening game of the six-team tournament.
"I think it's wide open," Rupley said about the sectional. "I know Wabash and Southwood have struggled a little bit, but they've played some really good baseball. Cass is always strong, and we had a great battle with Northfield the other night. North Miami, they had us down, but we came back and won in the bottom of the seventh. I think it's as wide open as its been in a while."
Whitko will look to forget a rough regular season with a strong tournament run, which begins against the West Noble Chargers in Game 2 at Tippecanoe Valley.
"We stayed away from the two best teams on paper (Wawasee and Tippecanoe Valley), with the two best pitchers (Jake Goldenberg and James Hackworth, respectively)," Hisner said. "Like I told our kids, it's only a good draw if we win. We have to take care of business. One pitch at a time, one inning, one at-bat at a time. We'll see what happens."
Prior to sectional play, Manchester will be at the Fort Wayne Bishop Luers Tournament at 10 a.m. Saturday, while Whitko will be at Garrett for a 10 a.m. doubleheader.
