Manhattan High baseball had its final tuneup ahead of postseason play, sweeping Great Bend 8-3 and 6-5 in the regular-season finale at CiCo Park on Wednesday.
“We’re getting better every day,” head coach Don Hess said. “We just have to understand that now that we’re at the playoffs, you have to get after it. You have to be locked in, and you have to be ready for your opportunity when it arises.”
Coming off a Hays tournament title over the weekend, the Indians (19-4) had already clinched the No. 3 seed in 6A West entering the contest. With the top-four finish, Manhattan will host playoff regionals, with Wednesday expected to be gameday at CiCo Park.
“Playing at home is always good,” Hess said. “Our fans deserve it. Our players have earned it. It’s just an opportunity. Hopefully we get that home cooking and we can be comfortable, but you still have to win two games.
“I consider these as the two toughest games of a season,” Hess continued. “If you’re fortunate enough to make the second game, it’s do or die, and you have to be ready to go when it happens.”
Great Bend (15-10) battled against Manhattan throughout the night, including leading for a majority of the nightcap before the Indians rallied for a walk-off in the bottom of the seventh.
After a quiet start to the opener, the Newton brothers got Manhattan on the board with two outs in the third after a walk from Asher and a triple by Sawyer into deep center field.
Goos followed with his own RBI triple before Mclain Aslin and Brayson Gnirk kept the rally going with RBI singles into right field. Manhattan took a 4-0 lead, with all of the damage coming with two outs.
Gnirk put the finishing touches on a dominant regular season on the mound. The senior tossed six innings, allowing five hits and one unearned run with five strikeouts and one walk. Gnirk finished the regular season with an 8-1 record and a 1.19 ERA.
“It couldn’t happen to a better guy,” Hess said of Gnirk’s success. “He’s a guy that always puts in extra work. He’s at the fitness center lifting in the offseason. He’s as coachable as it gets. For him to enjoy the success he’s had this year is a really special thing for us as coaches and for him and his family.”
Manhattan added insurance runs and kept its offensive momentum going in the fourth, plating three runs on a fielder’s choice and a pair of passed balls after loading the bases with no outs. The Indians led 7-0.
The Panthers scored their first run in the sixth before Manhattan answered in the bottom half on an Asher Newton RBI double. Newton led the Indians offensively, going 2-for-3 with two RBI and a walk. Aslin and Liam Nider each added two hits.
Brock Kelly pitched the seventh as the Panthers mounted a short rally with a pair of runs before a bases-loaded double play secured the 8-3 win.
Great Bend flipped the script immediately in the nightcap, plating three runs off Easton Duff despite the southpaw recording three strikeouts in the opening inning. Manhattan got one back on an error in the second, cutting the deficit to 3-1.
Duff settled in after the first, allowing Manhattan’s offense to even the score at 3-3 in the bottom of the fourth. The first run came across on a wild pitch before Asher Newton singled home the tying run.
Great Bend regained the lead in the top of the fifth, tagging Duff for one more run. The junior finished after five innings of five-hit baseball, allowing four runs and three walks with seven strikeouts.
“Unfortunately, that first inning took his pitch count up so high he wasn’t able to recover from it,” Hess said. “Our pitching tonight, we’ve been better than we were tonight, and we talked about that. But you’re going to have those days where you just don’t have it and you just have to keep grinding. We’re going to have to count on all of our pitchers in the playoffs.”
It was a brief lead for the Panthers as Greyson Wassenberg hit a sacrifice fly for Manhattan in the bottom of the fifth, tying the game at 4-4.
Jack Keogh entered in relief of Duff and finished with two innings of two-hit baseball with one strikeout and one run allowed. That run gave Great Bend a 5-4 advantage entering the bottom of the seventh.
But Manhattan had one more response left as a single and a pair of walks loaded the bases with one out, allowing Liam Nider to pinch-hit and walk in the tying run before Maddox Hodges took one for the team with a walk-off hit-by-pitch.
“That was a frustrating night,” Hess said. “We had opportunities and we just couldn’t take advantage of them, but when the time came, we had some guys step up, have good at-bats, make some good decisions on the bases, and Jack Keogh came in and gave us a good chance on the mound.”
Should Manhattan make the regional championship and defend its home turf, state quarterfinals will take place at one of three host sites for all classifications — Salina, Emporia and Overland Park — with higher seeds earning bids closer to home.
The 6A state semifinals are hosted by Wichita State at Eck Stadium.