Rain has been causing issues for Manhattan High baseball all year long. From the beginning of the season, when rain forced indoor practicing, to last week, when rain forced postponements, the weather has been uncooperative with MHS.

“It’s been really weird,” senior Nick Wohler said. “We’ve had a lot of rainouts and it’s kind of putting a damper on our pitching. Like last week, we were supposed to play six games, but we ended up only playing two, and so that’s going to put us at another big week somewhere else.”

Last week, two doubleheaders were postponed for Manhattan. On Friday, rain soaked the home field enough, causing the Hayden doubleheader to be postponed until May 8. The Indians were then supposed to travel to Wichita Saturday, making up a doubleheader against Wichita East that was rained out earlier in the season. That doubleheader was rained out again, and has not yet been rescheduled.

“We’re looking to host right now,” junior Ethan Kaus said. “We’re in a good position, but not getting to play a couple games may not help us if other teams get to play. It’s all about what your record is, so two wins here or there could help.”

Manhattan was able to play one doubleheader last week, traveling to Emporia on April 25. The Indians came away with a sweep of Emporia High, their third of the season.

“The first game, we didn’t play that great,” Wohler said. “Hitting-wise, we didn’t come alive until the last inning. Our pitchers filled it up and we stayed in the game.”

It seemed as if Manhattan wasn’t going to sweep Emporia in just the first game. Heading into the top of the seventh, MHS was trailing 2-1. Wohler hit an RBI-double, scoring sophomore Zac Cox to tie the game. Wohler later scored the go-ahead run off of an error on the first baseman.

“It felt great, because my first two at-bats were pretty terrible at-bats,” Wohler said. “I struckout the at-bat before that on a curveball that was buried in the dirt two-foot in front the plate. When they came back with a fastball on the next at-bat…I just tried to do all I could do with it, and it was a double in the right-center gap, so it worked out pretty well for us.”

Junior Carson Marsh allowed two runners to reach base, but got the final out without them scoring, giving MHS the 3-2 victory.

The Indians were more dominant in the nightcap, getting six scoreless innings of pitching from junior Ethan Kaus. Kaus allowed only four hits and gave up one walk.

“It was good, just holding them to a low amount of runs,” Kaus said, “helping our offense out, you know, getting the win anyway.”

Though Emporia was kept scoreless, Manhattan didn’t have a huge lead heading into the final inning. Three runs in the top of the seventh gave MHS a bigger cushion, as it went on to win 5-0.

“I think we got going a little earlier,” Kaus said. “First game, we scored late, but it’s good getting up a little earlier.”

After a scheduled day off today, Manhattan returns to action on Friday, traveling to Topeka High.

“I know they beat us twice last year,” Wohler said. “[We’re] not going to overlook them in any way. We don’t want to do that, because that’s what we did last year. We want to sweep them this time.”