Mounts settle for Silver

A year ago at this time, Manheim Township’s perfect baseball season was coming apart.

But the Blue Streaks buried that memory Thursday with an emphatic 11-2 defeat of Ephrata in the championship game of the Lancaster-Lebanon League playoffs at Clipper Magazine Stadium.

Township was 20-0 through the 2021 L-L quarterfinals, and even more dominant than that record suggests. But it all ended, with stunning suddenness, in losses to Manheim Central in the league playoffs and Governor Mifflin in the first round of the District Three tournament.

“It’s hard to see high school kids cry,’’ Town-ship coach Matt Kirchoff said Thursday. “But that tells me it means something to them. “It was a driving factor to go further than last year.’’

“It’s definitely in the back of our minds,’’ said JT Weaver, Thursday’s winning pitcher. “We thought we had something special. But we knew this (year’s) group was really special.’’

It’s starting to look that way.

Ephrata (15-7) was fresh off not only an upset of powerful Warwick in Tuesday’s Wednesday’s semis, but a 5-1 defeat of Twin Valley in a rescheduled regular-season game Wednesday.

Weaver and Ephrata starter Ryan McCracken looked fresh and sharp early, and the game got to the third inning with just one baserunner. Then the Blue Streaks exploded. Eight-hole hitter Ty Jenkins singled, was sacrificed to second and scored on Mike Heckman’s sharp bouncer off an infielder’s glove.

That brought to the plate cleanup hitter Ryan Flury, who got ahead in the count 2-0.

“I’m expecting a fastball right there,’’ Flury recalled. “I sat on (fastball), it was outside corner, and I drove it out there.’’

He pointed to right-center, not the short porch in right. A shot.

“I thought it was actually hitting the wall,’’ Flury said. “When they signaled (home run), I was pumped.’’

It was 3-0. The Streaks scored single runs in the fourth and fifth, the bottom part of the order (Ty Mulholland, Jenkins, Jack Armstrong) doing much of the work.

Weaver was still working on a no-hitter at that point, and it was looking like a Township coronation.

The Mounts aren’t ceremonial types, though.

Brody Martin — the pitching hero of Ephrata’s upset of Warwick in Tuesday’s semifinals — got the first hit off Weaver, a ringing RBI double, and went to third when the ball got loose in the outfield.

Martin scored on an error, Brock Crills singled, and Ephrata suddenly had the tying run at the plate with two on and the top of the order coming up.

Weaver made some big pitches, and induced a pop-up and strikeout.

Township had a giant answer in the sixth, which came in the form of small-ball, station- to-station offense.

“That’s who we are,’’ Kirchoff said. “We probably have 25 bunt hits.’’

Armstrong, Weaver and Heckman all bunted, and all reached, as the Mounts came a bit unglued. Flury, having himself an evening, singled. Ben Shenosky and Mulholland followed with hits, and Brader and Jenkins with sac-fly RBIs.

The Streaks scored six, and led 11-2.

Now it was coronation time.

Remarkably, it was Township’s first league title since 2006.

It’s that time of year, with proms and graduations and distractions. Kirchoff has no doubt that, if it comes to that, this group would love to hang together for another month.

“Thankfully, we already had the prom,’’ he said. “This group, this senior class, they work hard. They love to practice. They love each other, mainly. And they definitely want to keep going.’’

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