It was quite the Memorial Day for the Manual baseball team. The team faced off with CAL in the first round of the region 7 tournament in a game that was truly an instant classic. The winner of the game would advance to a wednesday semi-final putting them just two wins from the state tournament. Last week, when the district tournament started, most of Manual’s baseball team got mohawks for good luck/team bonding moment. The haircuts worked to win a district tournament and some might say they needed some luck to pull of the win on Monday vs. CAL.
CAL came out hot, scoring 1 run in the first, 5 runs in the second, and 3 more in the third to take a 9-1 over the Crimsons. The run from CAL included a big three-run home run by Sam Stone in the second inning. Then after an error from Manual that lead to some more CAL runs, Manual was in a deep hole. “I knew our offense would come alive sooner or later,” Ben Hachten (12) said. And that it did.
Manual came up to bat in the bottom of the third and scored five runs to make the score 9-6 heading into the fourth inning. Nathan Smith (12), Sam Harper (12), and Sam Coreyell (11), all had RBI doubles to help start the comeback for the crimsons. The ball kept flying in the fourth inning to help the Crimsons add two more runs. Harper (12) had another big RBI and Ben Hachten (12) also had a big hit to help continue the comeback. After shutting out CAL in the top of the fifth, the Crimsons stayed hot when they came up to bat. Harrison Scanlon hit in the go ahead run to put Manual ahead 10-9 heading to the sixth inning.
Manual held CAL to zero runs again in the sixth and scored one more run to take an 11-9 lead heading into the final inning. However, CAL did not go down without a fight. CAL scored one run and then had runners on first and second with the hopes of tying the game. However, the Manual defense stayed strong. CAL hit a ground ball the Manual turned into a game-winning double play to cap off an epic comeback.
“The win feels good but there’s no time to bask in it. It’s time to go get Male,” said Hachten (12). The Manual baseball team will play Male on Wednesday at the UofL baseball field at 7:15. The winner advances to the region 7 final and a chance to play in the state tournament.
