Manheim Central faced a gauntlet in the final two weeks of the Lancaster-Lebanon League Section Two track ad field season, with away meets at Lampeter-Strasburg and Ephrata presenting quite a challenge.
Monday at Ephrata, it all paid off as Central won its first girls section crown since 1994 after topping the Mountaineers 79-71.
Lampeter-Strasburg starting shortstop Giovanni Malatesta had yet to pitch an inning this season before he came on in the biggest inning of the year Monday night in Ephrata.
Malatesta drove in the go-ahead runs at the plate in the top of the seventh inning, then escaped a bases-loaded jam from the mound in the bottom of the frame to help Lampeter-Strasburg top the host Mountaineers 5-2.
It wasn’t the way you’d dream of doing it, but two walks and two hit-by-pitches gave Ephrata a dramatic 6-5, eight-inning win over Hempfield in a nonleague baseball game at War Memorial Field Friday.
\The extra-inning hero was probably relief pitcher Brenden Kapczynski, who came to the plate with two on and nobody out. He tried to bunt, failed, got behind 0-2 and then fouled off some tough pitches before working a walk to load the bases.
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.
Ch- Ch- Changes!
The days may seem the same, but there’s definitely been changes for Hempfield softball over the last two weeks. Changes as reflected in the sudden turnaround of the Black Knights’ fortunes.
The Knights (6-4 Lancaster-Lebanon League Section One, 6-5 overall) won for the fourth time in five starts Friday afternoon in Landisville, walking off Ephrata by the mercy rule, 10-0, in a Section One-Section Two crossover contest.
We here at www.ephratamounts.com are proud sponsors of the Dodgeball for Diabetes tournament.