Manchester Baseball Wins 1st Regional Championship
Manchester Lancers Baseball has always been known for having strong teams year in and year out. But never before in school history has the team ever hoisted the trophy as Regional Champions. Until now.
In a drama filled, rain-postponed, extra inning battle with Cosby High School, Head Coach Ricky Saunders and the Manchester Lancers reached that goal Friday evening with an 11-8 victory over the Titans.
Not to sound too coach-speak, but it took a complete game for Manchester to win. The game started on Thursday before rain postponed the contest tied at one in the 3rd inning. “Because of the pitching rules we must follow, I told our coaches, if we can get through the first two innings and be in this game, I really think we can play with these guys,” stated head coach Ricky Saunders.
Tasked with the opening on the mound was Freshman, Donavan Jeffrey, who is not the average 9th grader. School are already looking at the hurler, even from conferences such as the SEC have reached out for initial information. “He’s raw but confident and he knew he needed to give us a good couple of innings,” said Saunders.
Walking out and loading the bus after the match was suspended till Friday the Lancer baseball team felt ecstatic, the game was tied 1-1 in the 3rd inning.
Fast-forward 24 hours later, the Lancers used that momentum to bring in two runs right out the gate to take a 3-1 lead. “You cannot stop those guys (Cosby) and we knew they were not going to go many innings scoreless, so to get two runs right away was huge for us,” added Saunders.
Manchester took advantage of the perfect situation. Between aggressive baserunning by the Lancers, the intensity, pressure and level of the game and both teams in the back of their head knowing the winning team would most-likely avoid arguably the best team in the state, Colgan High School; Cosby committed a combined total of 11 wild pitches, passed balls and over throws throughout the game.
With a 3-run lead heading to the bottom of the 7th inning (high school only plays 7 innings), Manchester experienced just dumb luck as the Titans rallied. In what could have been a possible double play for Manchester to turn, turned out to be just a force out with the ball sticking in the glove. Combine that with just missing a line drive ball and then all of the sudden Cosby scored three runs on the Lancers, retying the game and sending it to extra innings.
In the eight inning, Manchester continued to rally. The Lancers used more aggressive base running to help keep the pressure on Cosby pitching, putting in three runs to seal the 11-8 victory and 6-A Regional Championship.
In doing so, Manchester defeated three schools with a combined record of 54-9-1. On May 26, Manchester knocked off the Western Division’s #1 seed, Thomas Dale, 3-2, in the Regional Quarterfinals. Then on May 31, the Lancers took to the road and in almost in the cover of darkness upset Ocean Lakes, 6-4 in the Regional Semifinals. Thus qualifying and defeating Cosby in the Regional Championships.
Coach Saunders comes from a family of baseball coaching. His father coached former Auburn University Head Baseball Coach, Hal Baird (War Eagle!), so baseball and winning has always been in his blood. Now you can add a Regional Championship as well.
In a drama filled, rain-postponed, extra inning battle with Cosby High School, Head Coach Ricky Saunders and the Manchester Lancers reached that goal Friday evening with an 11-8 victory over the Titans.
Not to sound too coach-speak, but it took a complete game for Manchester to win. The game started on Thursday before rain postponed the contest tied at one in the 3rd inning. “Because of the pitching rules we must follow, I told our coaches, if we can get through the first two innings and be in this game, I really think we can play with these guys,” stated head coach Ricky Saunders.
Tasked with the opening on the mound was Freshman, Donavan Jeffrey, who is not the average 9th grader. School are already looking at the hurler, even from conferences such as the SEC have reached out for initial information. “He’s raw but confident and he knew he needed to give us a good couple of innings,” said Saunders.
Walking out and loading the bus after the match was suspended till Friday the Lancer baseball team felt ecstatic, the game was tied 1-1 in the 3rd inning.
Fast-forward 24 hours later, the Lancers used that momentum to bring in two runs right out the gate to take a 3-1 lead. “You cannot stop those guys (Cosby) and we knew they were not going to go many innings scoreless, so to get two runs right away was huge for us,” added Saunders.
Manchester took advantage of the perfect situation. Between aggressive baserunning by the Lancers, the intensity, pressure and level of the game and both teams in the back of their head knowing the winning team would most-likely avoid arguably the best team in the state, Colgan High School; Cosby committed a combined total of 11 wild pitches, passed balls and over throws throughout the game.
With a 3-run lead heading to the bottom of the 7th inning (high school only plays 7 innings), Manchester experienced just dumb luck as the Titans rallied. In what could have been a possible double play for Manchester to turn, turned out to be just a force out with the ball sticking in the glove. Combine that with just missing a line drive ball and then all of the sudden Cosby scored three runs on the Lancers, retying the game and sending it to extra innings.
In the eight inning, Manchester continued to rally. The Lancers used more aggressive base running to help keep the pressure on Cosby pitching, putting in three runs to seal the 11-8 victory and 6-A Regional Championship.
In doing so, Manchester defeated three schools with a combined record of 54-9-1. On May 26, Manchester knocked off the Western Division’s #1 seed, Thomas Dale, 3-2, in the Regional Quarterfinals. Then on May 31, the Lancers took to the road and in almost in the cover of darkness upset Ocean Lakes, 6-4 in the Regional Semifinals. Thus qualifying and defeating Cosby in the Regional Championships.
Coach Saunders comes from a family of baseball coaching. His father coached former Auburn University Head Baseball Coach, Hal Baird (War Eagle!), so baseball and winning has always been in his blood. Now you can add a Regional Championship as well.
picture courtesy of Manchester Athletics