Strobel, Defense Lead Squires Past VikingsAKRON – Manchester High School sophomore Grant Strobel isn’t a flame-throwing pitcher, but he threw strikes Monday evening and his defense took care of the rest.
In a 4-0 Three Rivers Conference baseball victory at Tippecanoe Valley, Strobel was in command as he pitched seven innings and gave up just four hits. He struck out five and didn’t issue a walk.
Behind Strobel, the Squires’ defense was perfect in the field. Manchester head coach Jack Rupley said it’s the fifth game this season that his team hasn’t committed an error.
“He had really good command today, and part of that is poise,” Rupley said of Strobel, who faced just 25 Valley batters in getting the 21 outs. “I give our catcher (junior Trey McNall) a lot of credit, too. I don’t call very many pitches. We talk a little bit about what we want to do going into the game, and we also have to adjust to what the umpire’s calling.
“Great command today, and I gotta give Trey McNall credit for that, too, for calling pitches and great location. Grant was doing real good at locating the ball.”
With the win, Manchester improved to 10-6 overall and 4-2 in the TRC standings. Valley fell to 6-8 and 2-4.
“We’ve just gotta get better,” said Valley coach Justin Branock. “It’s gonna be an everyday battle within ourselves of getting better in practice, getting better when we’re at the field for the game, and continuing to improve. Hopefully going into the sectional we’re gonna be playing well.
“There’s not really a whole lot for us to do right now, except we just gotta go back to the drawing board a little bit, continue to play hard and get better.”
Manchester led off the game with back-to-back singles from senior David McAtee and Strobel. McAtee stole home later in the first inning to score the Squires’ first run.
Manchester added two more runs in the second inning and another in the third to account for the final score.
Rupley said it was key for his team to get on the scoreboard early against Valley senior pitcher Alec Craig.
“We got a couple breaks with little nub hits, and they didn’t quite get guys covering first base, and we had a couple hits there,” said Rupley. “I think that was huge, because I know the Craig kid can throw the ball pretty darn well. We were hoping to get ahead of him a little bit, because we knew Grant would throw the ball well for us. So, getting ahead early was big.”
Manchester pounded out 11 hits in the win, nine off Craig and two off reliever Lucas Walters in the seventh inning.
Craig was charged with the loss after giving up the nine hits and four runs in six innings of work. He struck out eight and walked two.
McAtee led Manchester with three hits, while senior Hunter Boughman and junior Noah Beck had two hits each.
McNall and Boughman both hit a double in the win.
Craig had two of Valley’s four hits, pounding out a double and a single.
Junior Jack Utter and Walters, a sophomore, had one single each for the Vikings.
“The last couple weeks we’ve had really bad plate approaches,” said Branock. “We worked hard this past Thursday inside, and I felt like we got a lot better. On Friday, we put up 21 runs (against Argos) and we had a really good mentality at the plate. For whatever reason, we came back out today kind of with the old mentality.
“We’ve just gotta be a little less picky and less selective, and just get in there and swing the bat. Instead of watching a pitch two inches outside, because it’s probably not on the corner and it’s probably not a strike, but it’s a pitch we can hit. We’ve just gotta be a little more aggressive at the plate overall. Offensively, we’re just not very good right now.”
The Vikings are in action again Wednesday when they host conference foe Wabash, while Manchester travels to Wabash the same day to play league rival Southwood.
MANCHESTER 4, TIPPECANOE VALLEY 0
M 121 000 0 – 4 11 0
TV 000 000 0 – 0 4 1
Manchester – Grant Strobel (W, 7IP, 4H, 0R, 5K, 0BB).
Valley – Alec Craig (L, 6IP, 9H, 4R, 8K, 2BB), Lucas Walters (1IP, 2H, 0R, 0K, 0BB).
