Manhattan Indians baseball won their first two games of the season, defeating a pair of teams from South Dakota on March 28. MHS topped O’Gorman 18-3 and Brandon Valley 6-3 at the Lawrence FreeState Tournament in Lawrence. 

“[It’s] our second year doing the South Dakota thing,” senior Brayson Gnirk said. “Just seeing that like different talent, it’s always fun.”

Sophomore Asher Newton highlighted the day with a 7-for-7 hitting performance across the two games.

“My swing felt good,” Newton said. “I was using the whole field, hitting the ball hard and doing my job as leadoff hitter.”

The Indians had over a week between games going into a double-header against Topeka-Hayden on April 7. This was because the Indians’ double-header at Topeka High on April 3 got postponed due to predicted inclement weather. MHS utilized the extra practice time to better prepare themselves for the season to come.

“We’ve been doing a lot of bullpen work,” Gnirk said. “Our pitching this year has been our weak point, I would say we don’t have too much depth. And in this off time that we had, we just spent a lot of time with bullpens, getting strikes thrown and with our new facilities at CiCo Park, it’s helped a lot.”

The Indians’ first home game of the season will be Olathe Northwest on April 11, marking the first time the boys get to play at newly-remodeled CiCo Park, following years of home games at Eisenhower fields.

“It’s going to be awesome,” Gnirk said. “I mean, the setup that we had from Eisenhower last year to this is just insane. Our infield is already looking way more smooth, and we’re looking a lot better and everyone’s excited.”