The Manhattan High baseball team swept Great Bend 4-3 and 15-5 to end the regular season 16-6 as they head into Regionals. Going into the game the Indians had Senior Night and needed a sweep of Great Bend for a chance at hosting Regionals.
Players, especially seniors, had to work through the emotions of Senior Night to keep their focus on the double header with a chance to host Regionals on the line.
“Great, you know, one of the last times we’ll play as a group,” senior Jake Wolcott said. “Then we all got our own things going on but definitely something I’ll miss.”
Taking the mound to start the game was junior Sam Spiegel, who pitched two straight shutout innings until Great Bend put the first few runs on the board to score two runs off three hits in the top of the third. Manhattan quickly responded in the bottom of the fourth with the help of an RBI single by junior Eric Tiede to tie the game at two. In the sixth Great Bend would take back their lead 3-2 with a solo homerun over the right field wall. Going into the bottom of the sixth MHS trailed by one but a sacrifice fly by senior Jaxon Hays tied the game up at three with an inning left to play. In the top of the seventh Spiegel did his job keeping GB scoreless giving the Indians a chance to walk it off. In the bottom of the seventh MHS loaded up the bases with Tiede coming up to the plate who already had three hits in the game. With the game in Manhattan, the GB pitcher threw a wild pitch allowing sophomore Jackson Goos to walk it off 4-3 in game one.
“The mindset coming into our last last home game, last game of the season. Really it’s the time you got to be good,” Tiede said. “Time you gotta come to the plate just thinking forward gotta be good heading into Regionals.”
As MHS looked to sweep GB Goos took the mound for the Indians to start the second game. Manhattan took an early lead in the bottom of the first with an RBI single by Tiede. GB responded the next inning with a base-clearing double to take a 3-1 lead over MHS. Manhattan quickly came back in the bottom of the second with back-to-back doubles by seniors Jackson Radi and Owen Goode cutting the lead in half. After a stolen base by Goode sophomore Sawyer Newton tied the game up at three with a sacrifice fly. Great Bend took the lead back 4-3 on a single in the top of the third. After the top of the third MHS didn’t look back with Tiede having an RBI single and Goode driving in two more on a single taking a 6-4 lead.
In the fourth Goos pitched lights out and the Indians continued to hit. MHS scored 10 runs in the fourth starting with an RBI double from Goos, three straight RBI singles from Hays, Radi and Goode, then two straight RBI doubles by junior Carter Aslin and Newton, and to finish off the inning Goos hit a sac fly as they Indinas took a demanding 14-4 lead. In the top of the fifth GB scored another run making the Indians go back on the field to hit. With the bases loaded again for Tiede and one run needed to win, GB threw another wild pitch as MHS took game two 15-5 on a walk off wild pitch.
“I think from the beginning our energy was up and we knew coming in today that we needed to get these two wins to have a chance of hosting a regional.” Wolcott said, “When we got down in that last game, we just fought back the whole time and ended up putting eight runs up in one inning.”
Manhattan will play Regionals at Maize on Thursday, May 16.
