EHS loses late leads against Manhattan
Jimmy Kegin
Saturday, April 21, 2007
A long and frustrating season for the Emporia High softball team was extended with Friday evening’s pair of losses at Whittier Park to the visiting Manhattan Indians.
EHS (1-7) was defeated 6-3 in the matinee and 12-4 in the nightcap despite leading in the late innings of each game.
The Lady Spartans’ head coach, Ray Owens, talked with his exasperated team for an extended period of time after the twinbill defeats.
“Greatly disappointed,” Owens said of his team’s performance. “We’re just struggling right now trying to come together and playing, keeping our heads up and just trying to keep plugging away.”
The Spartans led the first game, 3-2, heading into the top of the seventh inning after capitalizing on several Indians miscues in the bottom of the sixth.
Senior McKenzie Cinelli first reached base on a Manhattan throwing error and advanced to second.
She tied the score after senior Tiffany Chalupa’s grounder to second base was booted for an error, allowing the run to score.
EHS gained the go-ahead run on a wild play at the plate with sophomore Katie Weaver pinch-hitting and senior Brendy Muninger on third base. Weaver’s missed bunt attempt on a squeeze play set up a successful steal home by Muninger.
“It was a squeeze play and the batter missed the ball,” Owens said. “The catcher didn’t even know she was coming and threw it back to the pitcher. My runner hadn’t even slowed down and stole home.”
Earlier in the game, EHS was stifled by Manhattan’s pitcher, sophomore Megan Schaffer. Schaffer retired the first nine EHS batters and worked a no-hitter through five-plus innings.
Manhattan led off the top of the seventh with two consecutive bunt attempts, leading to three errors from EHS in the field and the go-ahead runs from the Indians, pushing the final to 6-3.
“We get up and then we get down,” Cinelli said. “That’s our main problem right now is we get up and then keep making mistakes and let our heads get down. We just can’t do that.”
In Game Two, the Lady Indians struck with a single run in the first inning only to see the Spartans answer with three in the bottom of the second.
EHS hammered back again with a double from Muninger and a Chalupa triple that brought Muninger home in the bottom of the third to push Emporia’s lead to 4-2.
Manhattan knotted the contest at 4 in the fifth before breaking the game open in the sixth frame.
Five straight hits from Manhattan opened a seven-run inning in the sixth that sent EHS reeling.
“We had a couple of big innings in each game, late, that was obviously a big difference,” Manhattan coach Scott Mall said. “We just had them at the right time.”
Manhattan added an insurance run in the seventh to pad its lead, making the final score 12-4.
“It’s always one or two innings,” Owens said. “We play good ball and then something happens. The rest of the time, we’re really sharp. We talked about coming in on Monday and seeing what we can do to stay in the game, all seven innings.”
Still, the Spartans are not ready to give in to what has been a trying year on the diamond.
“These girls like the game and they will not quit on me,” Owens said. “If any one of them quit on me at any time, I would be shocked. They’re good kids, they play hard and they’ll do anything you ask of them. We’ve just got to stay focused.”
Friday at Emporia
Game One
Manhattan 6, Emporia 3
Manhattan 001 001 4 — 6 7 2
Emporia 000 120 0 — 3 1 4
WP — MHS: Schaeffer. LP — EHS: McAlister. 2B — EHS: Muninger. MHS: Fahrny 2, Auten, Martin.
Game Two
Emporia 4, Manhattan 12
Manhattan 101 027 1 — 12 8 3
Emporia 031 000 0 — 4 12 2
WP — MHS: Megan Wolters. LP — EHS: Tia McAliste. 2B — EHS: Muninger. MHS: Klick, Doan, Fahrny, Schnee. 3B — EHS: Chalupa. MHS: Fahrny.