AKRON – Outside of some humidity, Mother Nature was never really a threat during Monday’s Three Rivers Conference baseball game at Tippecanoe Valley. Outside of a two-run sixth inning, neither were the Manchester Squires, as they fell 7-2 to the host Vikings. The game was behind schedule because of late-arriving officials, yet was completed before the rains came. In between, Valley used a five-run third inning and a strong pitching performance from junior Luke Helton to improve to 10-5 overall and 2-0 in league play. Helton worked 5-1/3 innings on the mound, giving up just one hit, one run and one walk. He struck out five Manchester batters. “Today was a huge outing from him,” Valley coach Justin Branock said of Helton. “He threw three innings on Saturday to help us start the Knox game off right, and then we got him out in order to use him this week with two conference games and four games in five days. He had an outstanding outing today. He was in the zone with all of his pitches, was ahead, wasn’t walking guys ... that’s the Luke Helton we expect every game. Now, pitching’s a tough job, it’s not always going to work that way, but that’s how good he can be.” Sophomore Alec Craig replaced Helton and surrendered just one run and two hits. He struck out one and didn’t walk any Manchester batters. The Squires scored both of their runs in the sixth inning when senior Evan Milam doubled to plate teammates Bailey Ness and Branden Scott. Manchester was already trailing 5-0 at that point, and veteran head coach Jack Rupley wasn’t exactly pleased with his team’s enthusiasm. “We didn’t play with a lot of enthusiasm today, which bothered me a little bit, but we’re gonna fix it,” said Rupley, whose team fell to 2-9 overall and 0-2 in TRC action. “We showed some good things today, but we got ourselves in a hole and just couldn’t quite dig out of it.” After sending just seven batters to the plate during the first and second innings, Valley sent nine batters to the plate during the third, scoring five runs on four hits and one Manchester error. The Vikings scored their other two runs in the sixth inning. “That’s kinda how our offense has been lately, we tend to put runs up in bunches,” Branock said of the third inning. “The last couple games it’s taken us a little bit to get going. On Saturday against Rochester, it took us three or four innings to get going, and then we scored eight. Against Knox on Saturday it took us a couple innings to get going. We’ve gotta come out with a little bit better approach from the start, but some of it’s baseball too, you know, after you see a kid a time or two you start to get an idea of what he’s trying to do to you, and it makes it a little easier to hit.” The Vikings pounded out nine hits in the win, all off Milam, who pitched all six innings for the Squires. Milam had Manchester’s only extra-base hit, and then gave up doubles to Jarred Littlejohn, Drake Hyden and Eric Hammer. Milam struck out five and walked two Valley batters. “I think we’re pretty close (to putting a complete game together), it’s just a matter of we have to stay in the game mentally,” said Rupley. “Sometimes we get down a little bit and we lose our focus, but if we can keep that throughout the whole ballgame we’re gonna be OK.” The Squires host Rochester Wednesday, while Valley hosts Bethany Christian today and entertains Southwood Wednesday.
TIPPECANOE VALLEY 7, MANCHESTER 2 Man 000 002 0 – 2 TV 005 002 X – 7 Manchester – Evan Milam (L, 6IP, 9H, 7R, 2BB, 5K) Valley – Luke Helton (W, 5-1/3IP, 1H, 1R, 1BB, 5K), Alec Craig (1-2/3IP, 2H, 1R, 0BB, 1K) 2B – Milam (M), Jarred Littlejohn (TV), Drake Hyden (TV), Eric Hammer (TV) Records: Manchester 2-9 (0-2 TRC), Valley 10-5 (2-0 TRC)
