Greyhounds win big over shorthanded West Union

By Mark Carpenter

People’s Defender

Ina productive week of baseball, Coach Trey Meade and the Manchester Greyhounds took two out of three games, and more importantly the two wins were both in the Southern Hills Athletic Conference. The Hounds got the “W” in outings versus West Union and Fayetteville before dropping a non-conference decision to the Minford Falcons.

On April 16, the Greyhounds hosted a struggling West Union squad, who were down to a roster of nine players after some boys unfortunately chose to leave the team. With that issue. Dragons coach Brian Day is being forced to mix and match with players in different positions, an unwanted learning curve in the middle of the season. The Greyhounds took full advantage of the West Union inexperience in rolling to a 19-0 run-rule victory, scoring five times in the second and 12 times in the fourth.

Manchester pounded out 14 hits off of West Union pitching, getting a perfect 4 for 4 performance at the plate from Clayton Colvin and a 3 for 4 day from Leland Horner while Bryce Young tossed three no-hit innings from the mound with five strikeouts for the win with reliever Kenton Butt finishing with two innings allowing no hits. Dragons’ freshman Jase Morgan was the starter and took the loss.

The following afternoon the Greyhounds hosted the Fayetteville Rockets in a big conference match up in the small school division of the SHAC. It was another banner day for the Manchester offense as they produced 11 hits and 14 runs in a 14-5 victory. The Hounds scored three in the second, two in the third, two in the fourth and then exploded for seven runs in the fifth to blow open a close game, the big blow being a bases-clearing double to the right center field gap off the bat of shortstop Luke Applegate.

Applegate went 2 for 4 on the day and drove home four runs while scoring three times. Clayton Colvin had another solid day at the plate, going 2 for 3 and driving home a pair. First baseman Carson Inman was 2 for 3 as the Hounds claimed their fifth win of the season.

Two hurlers handled the mound duties for the winner, Traevyn Hilderbarnad going the first three and allowing the five Fayetteville runs and then an impressive relief performance from Leland Horner of four scoreless one-hit innings to get the win as the beneficiary of the big Manchester fifth inning.

After two huge offensive days, the Greyhound bats were silenced on Friday afternoon when they made a road trip to face a tough Minford nine. The Falcons’ pitching held the Hounds to just two hits, a double by Thomas Barnhart and a single from Braylon Rickett. Rickett also got the starting nod on the mound and took the loss, allowing the Falcons five runs in 2 1/3 innings of work.

At week’s end, the Hounds stood at 5-3 for the season, 3-1 and tied with Whiteoak for the top spot in the small school division of the SHAC, still along way to go in conference play.

Fayetteville

002 300 0 —5

Manchester

032 27 0 x —14

Fayetteville Hitting (AB-R-H-RBI): Fehring 4-1-1-0, Luncan 3-2-0-0, Roy 4-1-3-2, Crone 4-0-1-1, Williamson Rugenstein 2-0-0-0, Pfankuch 4-0-0-0, Galinger 1-0-0-0, Short 3-1-0-0, Team 28-5-5-3.

Extra-Base Hits:Roy 2B, Crone 2B

Manchester Hitting (AB-R-H-RBI): Hilderbrand 4-1-1-0, Applegate 4-3-2-4, Colvin 3-2-2-2, Barnhart 4-1-1-1, Inman 3-2-2-1, Young 2-1-1-0, Horner 4-0-1-0, Doyle 2-2-0-0, Rickett 1-2-1-0, Team 27-14-11-8.

Extra-Base Hits: Applegate 2B (2)

Fayetteville Pitching:

Short- 2 IP, 4 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, 55 pitches

Fehring (L)- 2 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 53 pitches

Crone- 2 IP, 5 H, 6 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 1 K, 49 pitches

Manchester Pitching:

Hilderbrand- 3 IP, 4 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 66 pitches

Horner (W)- 4 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 6 K, 69 pitches