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Mounts struck down by Streaks
By TODD RUTH
Ephrata Review
Published: May 15, 2008 10:59 AM EST
EPHRATA - Manheim Township's baseball team got to be 19-1 this year doing a lot of
things right.
The Section One champion Blue Streaks normally get
solid pitching, excellent defense, timely hitting, and perhaps most of all,
they don't beat themselves.
Tuesday night vs. Ephrata in the L-L
League semifinals at War Memorial Field, Manheim Township once again put
all those skills to use against a Mountaineer team that came in sky high
after Saturday's 17-5 quarterfinals victory vs. Lancaster
Catholic.
The Blue Streaks rode the solid combined pitching of
Andrew Peiffer and Patrick Kelley. Defensively, the Streaks made the key
plays and on offense, scored all of their runs on clutch two-out
hits.
In the end, it all added up to a very impressive 7-2 win over
the Mounts and sent MT into Thursday's championship game at Clipper
Magazine Stadium vs. Hempfield, a 6-4 winner over E-town
Tuesday.
"They showed why they are the top seed in the District,"
Ephrata Coach Adrian Shelley said following Tuesday night's contest. "They
are very sound in some areas that make them difficult to beat. What they
really do is they kind of wear you down. This game was typical of the kind
of game that they play to beat you."
The Mounts weren't a push-over
by any stretch of the imagination. Ephrata, which has proven to be a very
resilient bunch through this season, stayed toe-to-toe with the Streaks for
three-and-a-half frames tied 2-2.
Ephrata broke on top 1-0 in the
top of the first as freshman Mark Lowrie reached on a one-out walk and
later scored on Matt Woolley's RBI ground out.
Township countered
with two runs in the bottom of the frame when Tyler Stoutz ripped a two-out
Steve Tretter offering into left field to score Ethan Rieker and courtesy
runner Darren Yoder.
Ephrata, though, came back to tie the game in
the top of the third to tie it at 2-2. Tretter (2-for-4) ripped a one out
single and Lowrie followed with an RBI double to the gap in right
center.
The game, however, changed for good in the bottom of the
fourth as Tretter, a late-inning reliever for most of the year, began to
tire. After striking out Stoutz to open the frame, Tretter sandwiched a
pair of walks to Andrew McVey and Carlos Medina around a fly out by
designated hitter Keith Byers.
The Medina walk especially hurt as
Tretter thought he had him struck out on a close 2-2 pitch but didn't get
the call. One batter later, he could have been out of the inning again but
a fielding error by Lowrie kept the inning alive and loaded the
bases.
Tretter (1K, 6 BBs) then gave up the lead, walking Rieker on
four pitches before Kyle Karpinski delivered a killer two-run single to
suddenly put his team up 5-2.
"Steve was starting to get fatigued,"
Shelley said of his hurler. 'We needed a play, we needed a call...He
certainly hung in there. Walking (Rieker) with the bases loaded was
certainly something we didn't want to do. It's one of those situations
where they've got runners on base and you are looking for somebody to step
up. Mark battled a tough hop and couldn't make a play and then they did a
nice job punching a ball to right field on a good pitch that Steve made.
Those pivotal points in a game, it can go either way. I just think they
showed why they are as good as they are."
Woolley relieved Tretter
in the fifth and surrendered the final two Township runs in that frame on a
two out double by Byers. Ephrata did make it somewhat interesting in the
sixth, loading the bases on a hit by Woolley, a hit batter and a walk with
two outs. However, Kelley was able to end the threat when he coaxed Austin
Landis into hitting a fly out to left.
After Woolley retired the
Streaks in the bottom of the inning, the Mounts then got two runners on in
the seventh. However, Brandon Strenko grounded out third base to first to
close things out.
Ephrata had six hits on the night as Tretter led
the way with his two safeties. Township had just four hits but drew eight
bases on balls. Rieker led the way out of the lead-off spot, walking three
times before singling in his final at bat in the sixth.
"I was
pleased with our effort. The kids deserve a lot of credit," Shelley said.
"I think they've got a lot of mileage out of this season, given the fact
that we are at a point in the season where we got to be playing some really
good baseball. Our pitching staff is a little bit worn down at this point,
we are asking the kids to do a lot at the plate. I thought we had to come
in here and outhit them, but we also had to play a game where we didn't
give them any freebies. We did that."
"Again, there is really not
that much to say except that it's clear while our kids were giving a really
gutty effort, in the end a good ballclub just wore us down."
With
the loss, the Mounts will now try to regroup for District Three play, which
begins Friday with a play-in game at Hershey, beginning at 4 p.m. The
Mounts will face South Western (10-10) in a rematch of an earlier meeting
this year. Back on April 19, the Mustangs handed Ephrata an 11-0 loss at
War Memorial, their most lopsided setback of the season.
"We know a
lot about them because I'm real good friends with their coach," Shelley
said. "Of all the teams in the tournament, for us to (meet them)...We went
down on a trip to Florida last year with a bunch of their guys, so to draw
them is a little bit ironic. They play a lot like us. I'm looking forward
to an interesting game where we'll have to execute all the thing that we
work on and see where it goes."
Ephrata advanced to Tuesday's
semifinals after pummeling Section Four champion Lancaster Catholic, 17-5
in Saturday's opening round at War Memorial.
The Mounts actually
trailed 5-3 heading to the top of the fifth before exploding for 14
unanswered runs in the final two frames of the six-inning
contest.
The visiting Mounts plated a pair of runs in the top of the
fifth on a key, two-run triple to centerfield by Anthony Rinaldi to tie the
score. Then in the sixth, Ephrata sent 17 batters to the plate in the wild
10-hit, 12-run inning that clinched the victory.
Tretter, Lowrie and
Adam Stahl all had two hits apiece in the inning off three Catholic
pitchers (starter Jeff Helm, Kevin Reagan and Stephen
Darrenkamp).
"We haven't had an inning like that in a long time,"
Shelley joked after the game. "It was a good time to do it."
Winning
pitcher Woolley pitched five strong innings for the Mounts, striking out
two and walking just one while scattering six hits before giving way to
Tretter in the sixth. Tretter closed the game out in fine fashion, striking
out all three hitters he faced.
Offensively, Tretter paced the
Mounts with three hits, including a double and two RBI. Stahl reached base
all five times with a pair of hits and was hits by three pitches. Lowrie,
Woolley, Strenko, Chris Adams, Rinaldi and Brok Martin all added two hits
each in the win.
Lancaster Catholic's Dan Long, an Ephrata resident,
flew out to left field in his lone plate appearance.
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