Manchester Series

This past weekend was definitely something to talk about. We had to travel four hours to North Manchester, Indiana for a three game series. This was a very important series for us because we were in second place in our conference going into these games. If we played bad, then our chances of making the conference tournament would be slim. Manchester always has a descent team, so we knew we had to play well. We went into the series shorthanded on pitching, so we knew we had to hit the ball and put runs up on the board.

The first game was completely offensive. We pounded out 25 hits and 15 runs. It seemed like everyone was hot at the plate. Even though we scored 15, it was still a very close game. They started to make a comeback in the final inning, but we were able to shut them down. We ended the game winning 15-13. It's always important to win the first game because every team throws their ace.

The double header on Saturday was crazy. We maintained the lead in the first game the whole time and came out with our second victory of the series, winning 8-3. There really is not much to talk about for the second game of the twin-bill. It was all Manchester because they kicked our butts. I think they had like eight or nine home runs in the game, with two of them being grand slams. It was like watching home run derby. Long story short, we lost 28-8. It was like looking at a football score. It's nearly impossible to come back from 20 runs down, but at least we won the series 2-1. This improved our overall record to 23-12 overall and 13-5 in the conference.

We found out that after this series, we clinched a spot in the conference tournament. This is a huge relief for us because that is every team's goal going into the season. You must make the tournament if you have any desires to make it to the regionals or college world series. We have a conference game tomorrow versus Hanover and a final three game series this weekend against Anderson. As long as we do fairly good, we will get a high ranking in the tournament, probably a 2 seed. We won't be able to win it unless Franklin completely bombs the rest of the season, which is not likely to happen. All we an do is play our game and see where the chips fall.