John VanBlargan is in an interesting position. He must be part coach, part psychologist.

Though he would prefer to do the score book and be an assistant, coaching the outfield, VanBlargan is the fill-in head coach for Manheim Central's Janelle Haying, who is out the rest of the season for family reasons. He has been involved as a coach at Manheim since 2012 when his daughter, Katie, played catcher on the team that lost in the state semifinals. His daughter, Rachel, followed her sister as a Central catcher.

After starting the season 4-0, the Lady Barons have lost five straight games, and VanBlargan must help his team get back its confidence.

He noted that the 4-0 start came against teams that are not as strong as the teams the Lady Barons have played lately, the likes of Northern Lebanon (a section leader), Donegal (MC seems to struggle against its rival), and then some of the better teams in the league in Lancaster Catholic, Warwick and Pequea Valley.

"They faced better pitching and the bats have just dried up," he said. "At the beginning of the year, they were more aggressive and lately they've been tentative, watching too many good strikes go by. If you let pitchers get ahead you get into trouble."

Central lost 8-0 against Pequea Valley on April 19. The Barons' lone hit came from Miranda Ober. Gabby Wettig had nine strikeouts. Warwick beat MC 12-4 on April 17. Central led 4-2 after three innings, but the Warriors plated nine runs in the sixth to pull away. Wettig was the offensive star, going 3-for-4 with two doubles, a triple and two RBIs. If not for a sore knee, she would have had two triples and double, her coach said.

Lancaster Catholic beat MC 8-0. Bryn Mylin had a double in the game.

BASEBALL

Barons' coach Jason Thompson said he is not sure he has ever had a team start this well. Central is 9-0 and has received great pitching and offensively, the bats are white-hot. Central has scored 74 runs in their last six games.

Case in point: Colton Book and Logan Shull combined for a no-hitter in a four inning, 16-0 victory over Pequea Valley April 19. Cam Eberly and Brady Harbach had solo homers.

Eberly was 2-for-4 with two RBIs. Riley McGallicher was 2-for-3 with four RBIs and Malakai Zilinski was 1-for-3 with three RBIs. Book pitched three innings with eight strikeouts and two walks. Shull pitched the fourth, striking out one.

Central beat Warwick 14-0 in a five-inning game on April 17, holding the Warriors to four hits. Connor Rohrer got the win, striking out five and walking four. MC scored four runs in the first inning and eight in the fourth to blow the game open.

Collin Thompson was 1-for-3 with a bases loaded double. Zilinski was 3-for-4 with three RBIs and McGallicher went 2-for-4 with two RBIs.

"I am very proud of the teams' effort beating Lancaster Catholic (6-1 record) and then following it up beating Warwick (5-3 record)," Thompson said.

The Barons beat Catholic 7-3 on April 16. Collin Thompson had two singles and added two RBIs. Drew Mylin had three walks and an RBI single.

VOLLEYBALL

Manheim Central secured its 40th straight Section Two victory, cruising to a 3-1 victory over Ephrata on April 16.

Central won 25-13, 22-25, 25-20 and 25-15. Blake Wagner led with 24 kills, while adding three digs and two blocks. Jeremiah Zimmerman dished out 40 assists, three aces, two kills and one block.

Manheim led 7-5 when Groff began to serve during a Baron run of 11 straight points for an 18-5 lead to blow the first game open. He was also serving when the Barons rallied in second game from a 19-16 deficit to take a 21-19 lead. Manheim also scored five straight points while Logan served in the third game to help the Barons take a 12-8 advantage.

Barend Oostdam registered seven kills and one block and was a force on the front line.

"Barend has really been consistent for us in a spot where we were really hoping for somebody out of the middle to be consistent," Dietrich said. "I think Ephrata really struggled with our middle. He's been working hard, and he knows I've been hard on him. I think that means a lot when he succeeds. Somebody being hard on you and you succeed that means you are doing your job."

The Barons (4-2 overall record) section win streak came to an end on April 20 as Garden Spot defeated MC 3-1 (25-22, 25-21, 23-25 and 25-22). It is the first loss in Section Two for the Barons since May of 2016.

Zimmerman had 35 assists and Wagner added 19 kills and three digs. Oostdam registered three blocks. Groff and Jacob Moyer each had two aces.

TENNIS

The Barons beat Central York 4-1 on April 17. In singles, Andrew Rajaratnam won 6-0, 6-2; David Graff and Tyler Snavely won 6-0, 6-0 and Ben Ginder and Andrew Donmoyer won 7-6 (3), 6-1.

In a battle for the Section Two title, Ephrata beat Manheim 5-2. With the Mountaineers using Chase and Lance Wilson together at No.1 doubles, Central coach Ryan Jackel said the pressure was on his No. 2 doubles team of Groff and Snavely. The duo battled back from a 7-2 deficit to make it 7-4, but Ephrata's team of Tyler Martin and Colin Zucchi got the next point to win 8-4. This gave the Mounts a 2-1 lead going into singles action. In No. 3 doubles, Ginder and Donmoyer held on for a dramatic 9-8 (7-5) victory.

Unfortunately for the Barons (5-1 league, 11-5 overall), Snavely was the only Manheim player to win in singles.

"Ephrata came out strong and were more aggressive," Jackel said. "Ben (Ginder) got sort of gassed after two hours of (No.3) doubles and we needed wins at No. 3 and No. 4 singles."

Considering the Barons came into the match 5-0 in the section and will compete in the league team tournament, Jackel is happy with the way the season has played out.

"Only our No.1 (Rajaratnam) and No. 2 (Graff) players were on varsity before this year," said Jackel. "These guys are very coachable."

Manheim beat Cocalico 5-2 on April 16. Getting wins in singles were Snavely, Ginder and Luke Horst, who all moved up a spot in the singles rankings after Graff was absent for state band.

TRACK

The Lady Barons remain undefeated at 4-0 in Section Two after beating Garden Spot 90-60 on April 19. Maddie Knier collected 20 team points and set two school records. Her 5-foot-5 high jump broke the old mark by Brianna Barber by one inch. Knier's long jump of 17-6.5 broke Diane Jones' mark set in 1982.

Summer Bates, Chloe Enck, Brynn Trovinger and Raegan Nissley dominated the shot put and discus, capturing 15 of a possible 18 points.

The boys are also 4-0, after defeating GS 130-20. Owen Pappas won the 100m and was a member of the winning 4x100 and 4x400 relays. Double winners included Brady Knier, Mike Greenwald, Jaden Weit, Logan Burkholder, Josh Moore, Nate Reed and Zach Witmer.