The Manhattan High baseball team is now 9-2 and atop the Kansas High School Activities Association West Region after a pair of wins away from home against Junction City 13-2 and 9-2. The team poured hit after hit on the Blue Jays to ultimately put the game out of reach for the Bluejays innings before the end.

“We set the tone early in the first inning and kept the same energy the whole day throughout both games,” Sophomore second basemen P.J. Hughes said. “The energy and the way we’re playing right now will definitely carry over for the rest of our season. We’ve seen the level we can play at and we’re going to keep doing that.”

Hugues was one of the key players to grabbing more than 10 hits both games as a team, but according to him everybody in the lineup is batting well right now and that is why they’re getting many runs.

“Everyone in our lineup, top to bottom, is swinging it right now,” Hughes said. “Everyone’s been doing a really good job with their bats and hitting the ball hard. Our pitchers have been filling up the zone and have done a really good job of keeping us in games.”

Both pitchers, junior Cade Perkins and senior Dayne Aschenbrenner, only allowed two runs on Friday night.

“The pitching has really been good lately,” Perkins said. “Our defense has been really good as well and anytime the opposing team puts the ball in play we usually have the answer to get the out. It’s really a good feeling to know you’re being backed up on defense even when the batter might have a good hit on you.”

The Indians will carry this confidence into key games this week at Emporia on Monday and then the Hays Tournament this weekend.

“We all feel really confident in our team right now which is good,” Perkins said. “Right now, we’re on track for our goal of getting to state so we need to keep it that way and make sure we don’t start dropping games or anything like that.”