Group Effort leads Streaks over Mounts

Now this was a team effort.

A committee of Manheim Township pitchers held Ephrata in check just enough for the Blue Streaks to put together a crooked-number inning and beat the Mounts 3-1 in a Lancaster-Lebanon League crossover game in Neffsville Monday.

Township (12-2) has won 10 of 11. But both losses were to L-L Section One opponents Warwick and Hemp-field. Sections One and Two play crossovers, but they don’t count in the league standings.

The Streaks played eight games in 12 days from April 11-22. The regular season-defining second run through Section One begins Wednesday.

All of which entered into Township coach Matt Kirchoff’s decision to use four pitchers, none for more than Mike Heckman’s closing stint of 2 1/3 innings.

“We want to make sure we are good to go for Wednesday,’’ Kirchoff said. “We have a staff, and we figured if we would get through 4-5 innings and get to Michael. … Sometimes you have a plan that makes you look like a smart guy. I guess they bailed me out today by getting some runs.’’

Ephrata (4-1, 9-2) came in on a six-game win streak and got a well-pitched game by righty Brody Martin.

That’s an accomplishment against Township. The Streaks are hitting .337 as a team. Heckman, in addition to playing shortstop and pitching, is hitting .447. Ryan Flury, the catcher, is at .413 with four home runs and 18 RBIs.

JT Weaver, a center fielder/ pitcher, has 28 hits in 14 games (.571), including nine extra-base hits, has scored 24 runs and stolen 19 bases, although we should point out that Coy Schwanger, Ephrata’s superb catcher, threw him out stealing Monday.

The Mounts scored first, in the sixth, when Dawson Shelley singled, was sacrificed to second and scored on an error on a ball drilled through the infield by Tanner McCracken.

Township singled three times in the first inning, but a caught-stealing spoiled that threat. The Streaks threatened again in the fourth, but Martin fought his way through it with help from shortstop Brock Crills, who turned a well-hit ball that car- omed off the third baseman’s glove into an out at third.

Township broke through in the sixth. Flury got his third single of the game, followed by a walk and an RBI double by Ryan Brader, the game’s only extra-base hit.

Ephrata intentionally walked Ben Shenosky to load the bases, and Ty Jenkins delivered an RBI single. Brader scored a third run on Tyler Muholland’s RBI grounder.

The Township pitchers, Shenosky, Weaver, Fisher Druck and Heckman, combined to allow four hits and strike out seven. Kirchoff pulled it off using only 11 players; seven Streaks played more than one position and four played three positions.

“If we scored some runs, it was going to be the right plan," Kirchoff said. “If we didn’t, it was still the right plan. I’m a hard-headed dude."

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