Ahead of a double-header against Trinity Academy on April 27, Manhattan Indians softball has strung together five-straight dubs for a record of 10-6.
For junior outfielder Tierra Young, the success can be attributed to what the team does off the field.
“We do some team bonding and just the way we practice, I think that contributes,” Young said. “We do a lot of reflection after games. Like to say, ‘what do we think we need to work on?’”
The Indians swept Emporia at CiCo Park on April 24, winning 4-1 in the first game and 13-2 in the second game. Across the two games, the Indians hit three homers; One each from junior Gracyn Neitzel, sophomore Josi Alesana and freshman Azzy Foveaux.
Going into a double-header against the Topeka-Hayden Wildcats on April 21, MHS was 0-4 at home. The Indians, though, flipped the script and came out of the day with wins in both games against Hayden.
In the first game, the Indians coasted along with a 8-3 lead going into the top of the seventh inning, backed by a strong six-inning pitching performance from freshman Allison Heidrick. However, when pitcher Harper Bailey, junior, entered the game to close out the final inning of regulation, the Wildcats strung together three hits, a walk and a hit-by-pitch to make the score 8-5. The runs continued for Hayden; one off a sacrifice fly and two more from a messy play that included a wild pitch and an error. In a strange turn of events, the game at that point was tied 8-8 with one out. At that point, head coach Jori Bellas decided to take Bailey out of the game and put Heidrick back in at pitcher to finish off the inning.
“Didn’t necessarily go the way [Bailey] wanted it to, so we did switch. But she handled that well,” Bellas said.
Heidrick got two quick outs to finish off the grueling inning.
The Indians failed to score in the bottom of the seventh and so did Hayden in the top of the eighth.
But in the bottom of the eighth, Neitzel and Foveaux both singled, putting the winning run (Neitzel) on second base. And when junior Solveig Chase came up to bat, she ripped the 2-1 pitch through a gap in the outfield, walking off the game with a final score of 9-8.
“I knew that [the pitcher] was hittable, and I’d hit off of her, and we’d all done it,” Chase said. “I knew that I had someone on second, and I was just thinking: ‘right field.’”
The Indians’ second game against Hayden was less dramatic. MHS won 5-3, but had to lock in after falling behind 3-1 after the first inning.
The Indians split a triangular against Olathe North and Olathe South on April 18. In their first match, MHS fell to North 13-8, but rebounded to beat South 9-7.
The Indians dominated Junction City on April 14, topping them 14-2, 12-1 in a road double-header.
MHS hit a total of seven home runs across two games against Haysville Campus on April 7. The Indians split the double-header, with a 15-12 win in the second game and an 18-6 loss in the first.
