MARIETTA, Ohio - Manchester notched its sixth win in its last seven games with a 13-7 victory over Adrian in the winners' bracket of he NCAA Mideast Regional Championship Thursday (May 17) night at Don Schaly Stadium.
Manchester's win advances it into the final of the winner's bracket and sets the Spartans up with a date against St. John Fisher College Friday at 4:30 p.m. The winner will move to the Championship to face off against whatever team can climb their way out of the loser's bracket.
The Spartans improve their record to 27-19 with the win. But the only game that Manchester has lost in two weeks was in the Championship Round of their conference tournament a loss that they avenged later that same day.
Adrian's loss drops it to the loser's bracket where the Bulldogs will meet LaRoche at 1 p.m. Friday in Marietta. The loss puts the Bulldogs' mark at 36-9 on the year.
Kyle Konarski was credited with the win, on the bump, for Manchester. Konarski went 7 1/3 innings allowing seven runs on 13 hits. Konarski gave up only one walk and fanned six Bulldog hitters.
Rylie Robinson was tagged with the loss. Robinson pitched 5 1/3 innings of six hit, seven run baseball. Robinson's biggest trouble was his control. He allowed just two walks, but hit five Manchester batters.
Manchester trailed by one run heading into the home half of the sixth inning. After knotting the game in the in the bottom of the fifth inning, the Spartans again relinquished the lead to Adrian in the top half of the sixth.
Austin Rieke, who was hit by a pitch, scored the first run of what would turn into a four-run sixth inning. Brad Murphy singled in Rieke. Two more runs scored on fielding miscues by the Bulldogs. Corey Marchant scored the final run of the sixth on a Kyle Norris base hit.
Manchester tacked four more runs in the seventh frame. Rieke picked up two RBI, in the inning, and Jordan picked up one.
"We have been doing that pretty regularly the last couple weeks, " Manchester coach Rick Espeset said.
Adrian scored two runs in the 8th inning but it would be too little to late as Manchester went on to victory.
For Manchester offensively, Austin Rieke went 1-for-2 with 2 RBI and scored twice. Brad Murphy had a 2-for-4 night at plate with a pair of runs batted in and a scored three times.