Despite Loss, Manchester Still Grabs Share of Division Title

With the outcome of Tuesday's game between the Brick Dragons and the Manchester Hawks deciding whether Manchester would claim to be sole champions of Shore B South, or share the title of "co-champions," the Hawks' offense struggled to produce and ultimately fell to Brick 5-0.

Making the start for the Hawks was Tim Rogers. The junior pitched six innings, striking out seven and allowing five runs -- three of which were unearned.

Manchester head coach John Musolf was disappointed with the outcome.

"Absolutely, we would like to perform better than this," Musolf said. "The team we saw out here today was not us, we have not played like that all season. We ran into a kid who came after us on the mound."

Brick's Tim Carney shut down the Manchester bats all night, however, Manchester had their share of opportunities. The Hawks saw their lead-off men reach base in five of the seven innings, and with the score 4-0 Brick in the top of the fifth, the Hawks loaded the bases with two outs.

Carney got Jon Roszel to strike out, ending the best Manchester opportunity to score. When the Hawks did manage to put balls in play, the Dragons defense was strong.

Errors proved to be costly in the bottom of the third inning as the Dragons scored three unearned runs off Hawk miscues.

"They are young kids, mistakes happen, we try to keep them up and not let them get too down," Musolf said.

Manchester fell into a 1-0 hole early after a bottom of the second inning solo home run.

Rogers and Dan Tuma were the only Hawks to reach base more than once, both going 1-for-2 with a single and a walk.  Manchester was unable to muster an extra base hit all day.

Despite the sour outcome, Manchester tied for the division lead with Brick, as they both are "Co-Champions."

"We need to put this behind us quickly," Musolf said. "We are 9-5 now, with a few more games coming up this week, time to look forward and do some damage in the state playoffs."

Musolf may not have been pleased with how today went, but overall he was happy with the way the season has been going.

"We finished in a tie for first and preseason the highest we were picked to finish was third," Musolf said.

Manchester will be back in action on Wednesday, when they take on Monsignor Donovan at home, at 3:45 p.m.