BASEBALL

With its 2-0 victory over Lampeter-Strasburg at Ephrata's War Memorial Field on May 20, Manheim Central baseball won its first Lancaster-Lebanon League title since 2000.

Great pitching and timely hitting were factors in the championship win and in the three league playoff victories.

Junior right-hander Connor Rohrer pitched like an ace, going six shutout innings, yielding just two hits. Wyatt Becker threw a perfect seventh inning, throwing, at one point, seven straight strikes.

"Connor pitched the best I've seen him this season," Barons' skipper Jason Thompson said. "He battled some control problems but was able to get the big outs when we needed them. Defensively, we made some great plays. Wyatt has been so good relieving for us. It's nice to have that at the back end of the bullpen."

Central took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on a walk, an error on a potential double-play ball and Riley McGallicher's two out RBI single. Colton Book hit a solo home run to left center to give the Barons some breathing room.

The win was also the fifth time ever that Manheim won 20 games in a season. The last three wins came against Solanco, Manheim Township (previously undefeated) and L-S, which gave the Barons their only loss on the season.

"The effort and focus of the team impressed me the most," Thompson said. "We had to beat three really good teams to win the league title. We overcame adversity."

The Barons hosted Mechanicsburg last Tuesday and held on for a 4-3 win in the first round of the District Three Class 5A tournament. Manheim got win no. 21 on the season, as the Barons, the No. 1 seed in Class 5A, jumped out to an early 4-0 lead against the 16th-seeded Wildcats to advance to the quarterfinals against Muhlenberg.

Central scored two runs in the first and second innings. Two walks and RBI singles by Brady Harbach and Malakai Zilinski led to the first inning runs and Book's RBI single highlighted the second inning.

Zilinski went 2-for-3 at the plate with two RBIs and Book knocked in the other two runs.

Book's offense helped him on the mound, as he got the win, pitching six strong innings and striking out seven, while giving up two earned runs. Becker came in the game for the seventh and earned the save.

"We battled and came out with the win when it wasn't one of our best days at the plate," Thompson said.

VOLLEYBALL

The Manheim Central volleyball team cruised into the District Class 2A semifinals after beating York Catholic 3-0 last Monday night in the quarterfinals in Manheim. Game scores were 25-23, 25-18 and 25-22. The victory qualified Manheim for the state playoffs.

Craig Dietrich's message to his team: Keep on swinging and good things will happen.

"When we get going and we're aggressive, we are pretty tough stop," said Dietrich, the Barons' coach. "When we start laying off the gas and stop being aggressive, we just start becoming complacent a bit. That's when we start making mistakes, when we lay off. We try to tell the guys to just keep being aggressive and keep swinging, man. Just keep swinging and good things will happen, eventually."

Manheim (12-4) had a 15-9 lead in the first game, but the Fighting Irish (11-5) put together an 8-1 run to take 17-16 lead. York Catholic led 22-20 before the Barons battled back.

The Barons recovered and got the momentum back in their favor.

"I think a lot of that is our senior leadership," Dietrich said. "Blake (Wagner) and Jeremiah (Zimmerman) they know that the game, ultimately, lies in their hands to get us to prevail and get us over the hump in those moments where we give up one or two (points). We really rely on them to get us through those tough times, and they've done it plenty of times this year."

Game Two had nine ties, as York Catholic, in its first varsity season, put up a great fight and contested every point. This game had some big kills by the Barons, as freshman Logan Groff (five kills) sent a spike that hit the back line judge to even the score at 5-5. Wagner soared high for a spike on the left side to put Manheim ahead 19-15. During the final points, Jeremiah Zimmerman (five aces, three kills, two blocks, 30 assists) set up Wagner twice for spikes, including the final blow to capture the game.

With the win, Central traveled to Lower Dauphin, the No. 1 seed, last Wednesday for the semifinals and lost 3-1 to the Falcons. Manheim came out on fire, taking the first game, 26-24, and it looked like the Barons were prime for an upset, as they attempted to defend their district crown from 2019.

But Lower Dauphin (17-2) took the next three games, 25-18, 25-18 and 25-20.

Central put up a great fight. Zimmerman had 40 assists and Wagner registered 28 kills.

TRACK

Several Barons took home medals from the District Three meet on May 22 at Shippensburg University. Sophomore Maddie Knier earned silver medals in the javelin (129-0) and high jump (5-5) and finished eighth in the long jump (16-9).

Junior Malea Stoner was fourth in the 300 hurdles (46.49) and sixth 100 hurdles (16.10). Sophomore Abigail Reed placed seventh in both the 100 (16.27) and 300 hurdles (47.10). Knier and Stoner both qualified for the state competition. The girls team finished with 29 points, good for eighth overall in the team standings.

On the boys' side, senior Kade Kegarise earned seventh place in the javelin (166-11).

SOFTBALL

The Lady Barons traveled to South Western last Tuesday to take on the undefeated Mustangs (17-0) and lost 15-0 in the first round of the District Three Class 5A tournament.

Manheim's fantastic junior shortstop Emma Damon had the only hit. For the season, Damon's .548 batting average was second on the team to Gabby Wettig who had a .623 average. Brianna Mylin finished with a .403 average and Mickey Lauver hit .348. Damon and Maddie Moyer had 29 and 21 RBIs, respectively.

Wettig and Damon had 38 and 34 total hits, respectively. Damon also had two home runs. Wettig led the team in on base percentage at .667. Wettig and Mylin each had four triples this season.

This wraps up the season for the Barons, who finished with an 11-10 record. When they were clicking their offense could score a lot of runs, as they often jumped out to early leads in games. As a junior pitcher, Wettig had a strong season and will only get better in the circle.

"I feel it was a great year, especially coming off of last year." Barons' coach John VanBlargan said. "This was the pitcher's (Wettig) first year and she did a great job. We will have seven returning starters so we are looking forward to great things next year. It was a great learning and building year for the girls."