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Home News Spring Township stops Mounts

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Township stops Mounts

18 May 2006
Written by Ed Gruver
ImageAll season long, Manheim Township believed it was the best baseball team in the Lancaster-Lebanon League.

Now the Blue Streaks have the hardware to prove it.

Sean Rigney spun a five-hitter and Chris Hartl went four-for-four at the plate with two RBIs to lead Township past Ephrata, 6-3, in the L-L title game Thursday night at Ephrata's War Memorial Field.

The league championship marks the first for the Streaks (20-2) since 1980, when Township defeated Lampeter-Strasburg 2-1. The Streaks had played in four L-L championship games since but had gone winless in each, including an 11-7 loss to Hempfield in their most recent appearance in 1997.

"We were always very close," said Rigney, a senior left-hander who improved to 9-1 on the season and avenged his only loss, a 2-1 defeat at Ephrata (15-6) in an L-L Sections One-Two crossover game on April 24.

En route to outdueling Mountaineers right-hander Derek Sipe, Rigney threw 110 pitches, 66 for strikes, while striking out six and walking two. He also singled in two runs in the fourth to highlight a decisive four-run rally, and doubled in the sixth.

"We always had the talent but we never put it together," Rigney said of the Streaks' unrealized title hopes in recent seasons. "From the first practice this season, we had confidence in this team. We knew we had what it took. We felt we had the most talent and the best team, and we put it together."

The victory not only ended Township's 26-year L-L title drought, it also gives the Section One champion Streaks a first-round bye in the District Three Class AAAA playoffs that begin Monday.

For Bill Sassaman, the league championship marks the first in his 14 seasons as Township head coach.

"You get into high school coaching for the kids, not for awards," Sassaman said as he held the coveted trophy. "But every coach wants to experience one moment of winning a league championship."

Township wasted little time taking the lead Thursday. Grant Wiest led off the bottom of the first inning with a ground single to center field, then scored on Hartl's two-out, bad-hop single over the right shoulder of third baseman Alex Weaver.Township reached Sipe for another run in the third. Austin Gallagher walked, took second when Rigney was hit by a pitch, and scored on Hartl's ground single to left.Sipe, who threw 112 pitches in the game, threw 31 in the fourth inning alone as Township scored four times for a 6-0 lead.Carlos X. Medina started the rally with a two-out double past third, and following a walk to Wiest, scored on Carlos R. Medina's single to left. Gallagher stroked an RBI single to center to make it 4-0, and Rigney ripped a first-pitch single to left to score two more runs.

"There's not a whole lot to reflect upon," Ephrata coach Adrian Shelley said. "When they had runners in scoring position, they hit the pitch they had to hit."It came down to straight-out, two-out hitting."

Getting good movement on both his fastball and curve, Rigney allowed just three hits over the six innings. Though he was behind in the count on 14 occasions, he faced just 21 batters -- three over the minimum -- in the first six innings.

"He got himself into some bad counts," Sassaman said, "but he made the big pitch with his fastball."

Rigney said he left the Streaks' bullpen following pregame warmups concerned he didn't have his good stuff.

"I wasn't as confident in my fastball," he said. "But after the first couple of innings, things started to click."

Cruising along with a three-hit shutout, Rigney ran into trouble in the seventh.

He hit two batters -- Derrick Shenk and Sipe -- and surrendered RBI singles to Alan Kliewer and Ryan Crowther. Weaver also drove in a run with an RBI groundout as the Section Two champion Mounts mounted one final rally.

"We sent the go-ahead run to the plate," said Shelley, but Rigney induced Steve Tretter to ground to second baseman Bernie Zaritzky for the final out.

"It's been a long time," Sassaman said of the Streaks' title drought.

Judging from his smile, the championship was well worth the wait.

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