Wabash Eliminates Manchester Baseball

WABASH - If someone would have told Ron Eberly that his Manchester Squires baseball team would only allow four hits to powerful Wabash High School, Eberly probably would have taken it. After all, North Miami got six hits against Manchester in the Wabash 2A Baseball Sectional opener, a 10-0 Squires win.

However, if someone would have also told Eberly that his Squires would commit six errors, throw four wild pitches, hit two batters and balk once, he would have been a bit worried.

All that happened as Wabash put six unearned runs on the board to finish Manchester's season Thursday by an 8-1 score. Despite the lopsided score, the Squires were within striking range for almost five innings and actually had solid pitching performances from Jason Branham and Cory Cassel.

"The defense just didn't make the plays," Eberly said. "We gave them too many fourth and fifth outs. Jason really pitched a good ball game."

Branham went 4-2/3 innings, allowing just two hits and only two earned runs. Cassel came on in the fifth and went the final 1-1/3 innings, allowing two hits and no earned runs.

One key spot where Manchester struggled was with the bats. Although Chris Good practically single-handedly scored the first run and almost had another, the Squires had just four hits on the game. Wabash senior pitcher Joel Barrus never let up an extra base hit and struck out 10 in seven innings of work.

A positive for Manchester was the play of Good. Over the first three innings, he helped his Squires hang around.

In the top of the first, he was hit by the third pitch of the game. He then stole second and scored on a two-base error by the second baseman to give Manchester a 1-0 lead.

In the bottom of the second, Good killed a rally by making a diving catch from his centerfield position that kept Wabash from doing anything more than tying the game at 1-1.

In the third, Good once again reached base, this time with a single. He then stole second and third bases, but was stranded there.

In the bottom of the fourth, Wabash began to overpower Manchester. The Apaches scored twice in the inning on two hits, one of which was a triple, as Wabash went ahead 3-1.

In the fifth, Wabash put the game away by scoring four runs without getting a hit.

After Branham struck out Kyle Howard to start the inning, Ryan Tait was walked. He ended up moving to third on a pair of wild pitches and Brad Hochendoner also reached on a walk. Two errors on shorstop Lee Shaffer and an error on Brady Burgess followed. A hit batsmen and two wild pitches later, the Apaches had put together a 7-1 advantage.

In the sixth inning, Wabash added an insurance run with a single and a double to close out the scoring.

For the Squires, the loss puts an end to one of the most improved seasons in the state. Manchester won just three games last year, but improved to 16-14 this year and was transformed into a scary team in the sectional.

With just four seniors, Manchester has a strong core group of players returning next year and could improve again.

"That core group has to keep getting better though," Eberly said. "They've got to be intent and focused on doing that. As coaches, our job is to push them to make themselves better."