Jackets lose a pitchers duel and hitting frenzy in Friday’s DH vs. Manchester

DEFIANCE, Ohio – The Defiance Yellow Jackets were swept in doubleheader action against the Manchester Spartans that saw their opponent's starting pitchers combined for 17.2 innings at Defiance High School on Friday. The Spartans claimed wins of 2-0 and 10-5 to improve to 12-11, 3-4 in the HCAC while the Yellow Jackets dropped their ninth in a row to 3-17, 0-7 in the conference.

Game 1
Final: Manchester 2, Defiance 0
Box Score: Click here

Zach White (Win, 3-1) blanked the Yellow Jackets with a complete-game shutout on just 93 pitches, including 72 strikes. White retired 15 straight following two first-inning singles by Defiance, a strand broken up by a two-out infield single by Mitchell Roever (Cincinnati, Ohio/Elder) during the sixth. Roever recorded two of DC's three hits against White, who struck out seven batters without issuing a walk to the Yellow Jackets.

Manchester pushed their first run of the game across without a hit in the fifth inning. Cohen Nies (Loss, 2-3) worked ahead of Aidan Knowles before he hit him and followed that up with a full-count walk to Cole Filson. Mitchell Baker pulled back a bunt on the first pitch he saw and Knowles drew a pickoff throw to second base from catcher Dylan King (Las Vegas, Nev./Ed W. Clark) but his toss drifted into center field to move Knowles up one station to third. Baker got the next pitch down for a sacrifice bunt and it brought in the game's first run.

Knowles was also in the middle of the Spartans' score in the seventh. He led off with a double, moved up on a sacrifice bunt by Filson and scored when Stevens beat out an infield hit with two outs.

Despite the tough-luck loss, Nies (Logansport, Ind./Lewis Cass) turned in a second consecutive quality start by letting up just two runs over seven frames of work. Johnny Hammerstein (Canton, Mich./Father Gabriel Richard) closed out the final two innings with scoreless relief, his third shutout appearance in his last four games He was perfect aside from a hit batter in the eighth.

Defiance's defense wowed early in the contest on the carpet. Tyler Dehan (St. Henry, Ohio/St. Henry) ran down a fly ball in the right-center field alley for the first out of the game and made a sliding catch in shallow right during the second. Infielders Gunner Gregg (Grayton, Ohio/Oak Harbor) in the hole at short and Trent Murdock (Liberty Center, Ohio/Liberty Center) at the third base line each made diving stops for outs over the first two frames.

Game 2
Final: Manchester 10, Defiance 5
Box Score: Click here

Two home runs and more stellar starting pitching led Manchester toward victory in the second game. 

While DC claimed the first score of the game during the second inning, the Spartans took the lead back on a two-run blast by Joel Kennedy, his third of the year, that cleared the right-center fence. Fast forward to the sixth with Manchester up 5-2, another homer put the game a bit more out of reach as Harrison Pittsford mashed his seventh of the campaign after Kennedy walked to start the inning.

The second homer occurred right after a Defiance pitching change. Starter Joseph O'Neil (Perrysburg, Ohio/Toledo Christian) muscled his way into the sixth despite a rocky fifth frame in which Manchester pushed three runs across on two hits and a DC error. O'Neil (Loss, 0-4) came back out for the sixth and walked the leadoff hitter before giving way to Hammerstein, working in consecutive games after just 22 pitches in two innings of game one. His first delivery in relief was punched over the wall by Pittsford to close the book on O'Neil's day after six runs allowed.

Ty Layson nearly gave the Spartans back-to-back complete games as he tip-toed around 10 hits over the first eight innings, holding Defiance to just three runs in that span. However, the Yellow Jackets' pesky top of the order chased him from the contest with two outs.

Defiance posted more hits on the board than Manchester, 12 to 10, led on four hits and four RBIs by Murdock. He knocked in a run on a single in the fifth, tripled in another during the seventh and socked a two-run, two-out double in the ninth. Roever also got in on the hit parade with a three-hit game in the second contest joined by Gregg with a two-hit nightcap. Murdock and Roever each recorded five hits for the Yellow Jackets in the twinbill.

Jeffrey Varga (Rockford, Mich./Rockford) blanked the black and gold over two frames after Hammerstein closed the sixth. Varga needed just 18 pitches to sail through the seventh and eighth. The Spartans tacked on three in the ninth during Tyler Dehan's second pitching appearance of the year. Dehan walked a batter and hit another to start the final frame before a double, sacrifice fly and a wild pitch brought in scores.

The Yellow Jackets and Spartans conclude their three-game series on Saturday with a single game played at 1 p.m. at Craig Rutter Field.

-JACKETS-