Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
MENTONE - Manchester and Tippecanoe Valley squared off in a key Three Rivers Conference baseball game Monday, as both teams came in with a record of 2-1.
As expected, there was solid pitching, clutch hitting and fundamentally sound baseball. The only problem was that all of it came from the Squires.
Manchester scored seven runs in the first inning and Derek Ring threw a five-inning complete game two-hitter as the Squires beat the Vikings 11-0 and moved into second place in the TRC.
"It was a big win for them and a big loss for us," Valley head coach Pat O'Connell said after the game.
Manchester scored six of its seven first-inning runs with two outs and seven of its 11 runs overall. For the Squires that was a pleasant surprise.
Manchester head coach Ron Eberly said that his ball club hasn't played well in the clutch this year. The last time the Squires were on the field, they blew a 7-3 lead in the seventh inning by letting Fort Wayne North score six in the final frame. But that wasn't about to happen this time.
"We were pretty determined tonight," Eberly said of his squad. "(Ring) showed a little bulldog in him tonight."
Ring was the key reason that the Vikings could never get any offense going as he allowed just two singles, one to Seth Mikel with one out in the first inning and one to Mike Parker with two outs in the fifth. He walked two batters, but neither of those runners got past second base. An error allowed Matt Bose to reach, but he never got past second either.
On the offensive side, Manchester got the bats swinging quickly. Chris Good and Mitch Eads led off the game with a double and a single that scored a run.
Valley starter Jason Smith seemed to settle down then by getting a fly out to centerfield and a strikeout. It looked like he might get out of the inning with just that one run across, but it quickly changed.
Brady Burgess doubled to drive home a run and Kory Rupley followed with a single to plate another. Tom Hardy reached on a single and Nate Hippensteel walked to load the bases. Then Lee Shafer had a triple that cleared the bases and broke the Vikings' backs. He later scored on an error to account for the final run of the inning.
Valley settled down after that as Mike Parker came on to pitch 3-1/3 innings of relief, allowing just one run in the second. But Manchester sealed the game in the fifth by scoring three runs on three hits and two errors to make the score 11-0. That was all the Squires would need as Ring set down Valley in the fifth.
"My No. 1 and No. 2 pitchers, R.J. Hutchison and Orville Haney, are doing a good job," O'Connell said. "But I can't find that No. 3 guy right now. Inconsistency is the big problem."
Although Manchester had three errors, they all came at times that didn't come back to haunt the Squires. Eberly felt the defense was solid and placed an emphasis on that over the final weeks of the season to get ready for sectionals.
"Defense is always, in a big game, a key," Eberly said. "In baseball, you can't give a good team that fourth or fifth out. We'll be working on that more this week."
Manchester (12-12, 3-1) will be at Rochester Wednesday, while Valley (8-12, 2-2) will host Southwood Wednesday.
