Sports
Top-Seeded Manchester Takes Down Marietta 10-5
< < Back to top-seeded-manchester-takes-down-marietta-10-5After outscoring their first two opponents of the Mideast Regional 27-2, the No. 2 Marietta Pioneers (31-13) dropped their game on Friday to the No. 1 Manchester Spartans (38-5-1), 10-5.
In its first two games, Marietta struck early and in bursts. In this game, the Pioneers got a taste of their own medicine.
The Spartans’ hitters were busy early on. They got on the board in the first inning with an RBI single from Corey Marchant. Machester’s burst of offense came in the third inning, in which they put up five runs.
With the bases loaded, Marchant struck again with a bases-clearing double down the left field line. Marchant had two hits in the game to go along with four RBIs, and they all came by the third inning.
Though Marchant’s bat was done terrorizing the Pioneers’ pitching, his teammates would carry on the clutch hitting. Corey Schell added another run via an RBI single, and the Spartans fifth run of the third inning came on an error.
Down 6-0 in the third inning, the “Etta Express” finally scored a run of its own. Jordan Grilliot drove in his team’s first run with a single to left field.
The Pioneers continued to chip away at the Spartans’ lead in the bottom of the fourth. A fielding error and a Christian Demko single cut Machester’s lead to three runs.
The Spartans responded in fifth with a run, but Tim McCoy cut their lead down more in the bottom of the fifth with a two-run single.
Up 7-5, Manchester added a run in the seventh and two runs in the eighth all driven in by Trevor Kimm. He hit an RBI double in the seventh and another double in the eighth to put away the game.
Dylan Padgett got the win for the Spartans. He pitched 5.1 innings and allowed three earned runs. Evan Brockmeier took the loss for Marietta. He pitched six innings, but allowed seven runs to score.
The Pioneers will be in action on Saturday at 12 p.m. and will take on the winner of Washington & Jefferson vs. Thomas More, which started at 9:05 p.m. Friday.