LAWRENCE — Manhattan High baseball chose an inopportune occasion to have a clunker.
The top-seeded Indians played with uncharacteristic fallibility Thursday in a 10-4 loss to No. 8 Blue Valley North in the quarterfinals of the 6A state tournament, bringing their season to an abrupt and somewhat surprising conclusion.
Manhattan (18-2) committed four costly fielding errors, which gifted seven unearned runs to the Mustangs. Another run scored on a balk.
On the offensive side, the Indians managed just seven hits while striking out 11 times. They struggled to capitalize fully on their opportunities, leaving the bases loaded in the third and seventh innings.
Head coach Don Hess said he was surprised to see his team fall flat in such a crucial game.
“Some of the errors, we just haven’t committed all year,” he said. “It’s just a bad combination when you get to this point in the season, and it backfired on us today.”
Blue Valley North starting pitcher Griffin Allen kept the Manhattan bats under control, limiting the Indians to three runs (two earned) on four hits with nine strikeouts. Hess said Allen was “pitching backward,” meaning he tended to surprise Indians hitters with breaking balls or off-speed pitches in situations in which they expected fastballs.
Opposite Allen, Kyler Horsman went 6 2/3 innings in his final appearance in a Manhattan uniform. He surrendered nine runs (three earned) on nine hits while striking out six.
“Kyler gave us what he had,” Hess said. “It’s tough to maintain composure when we’re making mental and physical mistakes around him. It just added up, unfortunately, for a loss.”
The most painful frames for Horsman and the Indians were the top of the sixth and seventh, when the Mustangs (12-11) scored three runs each, turning what had been a close game throughout into a tall mountain to climb.
Blue Valley North notched their first unearned run in the top of the first, when Dylan Sarna reached base and advanced to second after a fielding error by first baseman Tate Hoover. Sarna later came home on Carson Wasinger’s RBI groundout.
But Manhattan responded in the bottom of the second. Horsman led off the inning with a double, and Braxton Frey — pinch-running for Horsman — tied the game at 1-1 on Hoover’s RBI groundout.
A two-out throwing error by Indians third baseman Colin Burmeier allowed Blue Valley North to take a 2-1 advantage in the top of the third, and then Burmeier scored to knot it again when he came home on a dropped third strike in the bottom of the frame. Afterward, Manhattan had the bases loaded with a chance to take the lead, but Jaxon Vikander struck out to end the Indians’ threat.
Noah Barber put the Mustangs on top for good with a bloop single to right field to drive in William Groebl in the fourth. In the fifth, Jaxon Goldberg hit a one-out double and then stole third with two outs. He came home when he lured Horsman into a balk, making it 4-2 Blue Valley North.
Manhattan pulled back a run in the bottom of the fifth when Keenan Schartz worked a leadoff walk and scored on a double by Ian Luce.
But the Mustangs loaded the bases in the sixth and scored a run when Horsman mishandled a ball hit softly in front of the plate. Horsman then plunked a batter to push in another run, and a sacrifice fly brought in one more.
Trailing 7-3, the Indians put two on with walks in the bottom of the sixth, but stranded them both.
Blue Valley North added three unearned insurance runs in the seventh to build its lead to 10-3.
Manhattan filled the bases with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, and PJ Hughes singled to drive in Ian Luce. But Jaxon Bowles grounded into a fielder’s choice in the next at-bat, dropping the curtain on the Indians’ season.
“When you come to the state tournament, you obviously have to be playing your best game,” Hess said. “We just didn’t have our best today. … The other team was well prepared. They were well coached. They came at us, and we just, unfortunately, today, picked a bad time to not be on top of our game.”
There wasn’t much time for a postgame speech or to sit in the dugout, reflecting on the year that was and the gut-wrenching defeat. Moments after the contest ended, the public address announcer reported that incoming inclement weather meant the team needed to clear the field and find shelter immediately.
But Hess said when he finally had the chance to speak with his squad, his message wouldn’t be all that different from what it usually is.
“We went out and competed hard to give ourselves a chance at the end,” he said. “We’ve had a great year. I’m real proud of these guys. They’ve had a great senior year all across the board. It was just not our day.”
