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NORTH MANCHESTER - The story of Wednesday's baseball game between archrivals Manchester and Whitko was not about botched plays, key sacrifice bunts or the infield fly rule.
These things came into play, yes.
But there was, on this day, only one story. And Whitko's 3-4-5 hitters in the lineup, Dustin Patrick, A.J. Frantz and Jason Jagger, wrote it.
The three combined to hit five home runs -Êall over the fence - as Whitko bashed Manchester 10-7. The trio drove in all 10 Whitko runs.
Five homers do funny things. They make ugly mistakes go away. They make coaches who once scowled about these mistakes earlier in the game smile at the end of the game.
"We bungled a few bunts and hurt ourselves a few times," Whitko coach Randy Hart would say afterward, "but overall, we played great."
Manchester coach Ron Eberly didn't need anyone to analyze this game for him. He got down to the nuts and bolts and the nitty-gritty. He found the not-so-elusive bottom line.
"They just hit the long ball," Eberly said. "I mean, they tattooed how many, five, six? They tattooed five of them. They hit some the other way."
Patrick and Frantz went back-to-back not once, but twice. And Jagger's first home run of the season, a three-run blast over the right-field fence that broke a 7-7 tie, came in the top of the last inning.
Patrick and Frantz went back-to-back in the top of the first on consecutive pitches from burly right-hander Kory Rupley. They went yard again in the fifth inning off right-handed reliever Dusty Butterbaugh. Both now have three on the season.
Patrick's were two-run shots to center field. The home runs in the first put Whitko up 3-0, a lead the Wildcats would lose before they entered the second inning. Manchester rallied for four.
Problem for Manchester was, Patrick and Frantz still had three at-bats left. And their homers in the fifth inning put Whitko, which was then trailing 5-4, back on top at 7-5.
"I don't know that I've seen that in a long time, two back-to-backs," Hart said. "A long time. That was great."
But the pesky Squires, playing small ball - they had eight hits, all singles - struck for two runs in the bottom of the fifth to tie it at 7.
Then Jagger joined the party in the seventh. The inning started innocently enough for the Squires - one up, one down. Guess who were up with one out? You got it. Patrick, Frantz and Jagger.
Manchester kept Patrick in the park this time. So happy were the Squires they decided to give him a present. He hit a routine ground ball to first baseman Derek Ring, who let it dribble between his legs only a few feet away for an error. Frantz singled. Jagger, a right-handed hitter, made the Squires pay for the error with his shot over the opposite-field fence.
Patrick and Jagger each drove in four runs, while Frantz drove in two.
"We struggled offensively earlier in the year," Hart said. "We hit the ball extremely well tonight. You have some short alleys and short fences, which helped a few. But they weren't cheapies. They were in the power alleys, legitimate shots, deep threats anywhere.
Frantz, Whitko's left-handed starter, survived Manchester's four-run first and pitched the complete game. His record improved to 3-4, while Butterbaugh's dropped to 3-2.
Whitko, a team which scuffled before the Three Rivers Conference season started, finds itself 4-10 overall but 2-0 in the TRC.
"I don't know everyone else's schedule, but we play a heckuva tough schedule," Hart said. "It's hard on our record, and it's hard to keep the kids together and their heads in the game, but I think it helps us."
Manchester dropped to 9-11 overall and 1-1 in the TRC.
Eberly, the last man left in the Squires' dugout, was asked if five home runs were the most hit by a team this season at Manchester's field. He gazed out at the field, out at the fences.
"Oh yeah," he said. "Sure."
Then he paused.
"I wonder if they do that all the time," he mused. "Or were they just lucky?
If they were, the Wildcats will take it. As the old saying goes, it's better to be lucky than good.
