LAKEVILLE – Manchester’s magical run came to a screeching halt Saturday afternoon. Playing No. 9 Elwood in the second semifinal of the Class 2A softball semistate hosted by LaVille at Newton Park, the Lady Squires managed just two hits and a walk, as they fell 6-0. Manchester, which had outscored its four tournament opponents 13-4, just couldn’t get anything going offensively against Elwood’s Mackenzie Bryan, a hard-throwing sophomore who struck out 11 in a complete-game gem. Bryan fanned Manchester freshman Sydney Day to start the game, and then walked sophomore Brooklyn Howard. Following Howard’s walk, Bryan retired the next 11 batters for the Lady Squires, who had never won a sectional title before this year. Freshman Mattie McKee tallied Manchester’s first hit, a two-out single in the fifth inning. Senior Celina Carter had the Lady Squires’ only other hit, a leadoff single in the seventh. With the loss, Manchester’s season ended with a 16-10 record. Elwood (28-5), which had outscored its previous four tournament opponents 24-1, advanced to Saturday evening’s semistate title game and fell 1-0 to No. 15 Boone Grove. Boone Grove was a 3-2 winner over No. 3 Bremen (28-4) in the day’s first semifinal game. Boone Grove (24-3) will play No. 20 North Central of Farmersburg (26-4) in Saturday’s state championship game at Ben Davis High School. In the win over Manchester, Elwood scored two runs in the bottom of the fourth inning and four more in the sixth. The Lady Panthers pounded out eight hits off Howard, who also walked three and struck out three in six innings of work. Freshman Jillian Reese led Elwood with three hits, all singles, while freshman Shantel Blackford hit a double and triple, and senior Tenasha Stephens hit a double. Of note from Saturday’s game, Manchester had just one senior on the roster – Carter – while Elwood had but two seniors.
ELWOOD 6, MANCHESTER 0 Man 000 000 0 – 0 2 3 Elw 000 240 X – 6 8 0 Manchester – Brooklyn Howard (L, 6IP, 8H, 6R, 3K, 3BB) Elwood – Mackenzie Bryan (W, 7IP, 2H, 0R, 11K, 1BB) 2B – Tenasha Stephens (E), Shantel Williams (E) 3B – Williams (E) Records: Manchester 16-10, Elwood 28-5 Other semifinal – Boone Grove 3, Bremen 2 Championship – Boone Grove 1, Elwood 0
