Township slips by Mounts

But it wasn't mean to be as Township's Keith Bires threw a two-hitter and Carlos R Medina homered, tripled, singled, and scored two of the Streaks three runs as Manheim Township narrowly defeated Ephrata, 3-1, Wednesday afternoon at Westfield Park.

Improving to 4-0 on the season, Bires allowed only seven Mounts to reach base on the afternoon and effectively pitched out of a second and third, one out situation in the fourth inning to pace the Streaks. Ephrata starter Curt Kolp (0-1) was making his first start of the 2007 season on the hill and baffled the normally potent Streak line-up with an array of fastballs and breaking balls, limiting the Streaks to only six hits on the afternoon. It seemed the only one who was able to figure him out was Medina, who totaled half of the Streaks hit total for the day.

The Streaks opened the scoring in the home half of the first inning when Austin Gallagher and R Medina lined consecutive two-out singles with Gallagher scoring on an overthrow at 3rd base during his successful steal of third.

The Mounts (3-5, 4-6) mounted their best threat of the day in the top of the 4th inning when Bires surrendered a one-out walk to Adam Stahl. Stahl reached third base when Gallagher misfired at first base on a groundball by Joel Hertzog. Bires escaped unscathed though as he induced Anthony Rinaldi into a pop-out and caught Chris Adams looking to end the frame.

The Streaks added a single run in their half of the fourth when R Medina towered a 2-0 fastball to the deepest part of the ball yard for a triple and scored when Bernie Zaritzky launched a deep fly to left.

Meanwhile Bires retired seven straight until he walked Stahl with two outs in the sixth inning. Hertzog followed with a line drive double to the gap in left-center to plate Stahl but Township catcher Pete Fisher alertly erased Hertzog attempting to advance the potential tying run to third.

R Medina provided his teammates with some breathing room in the sixth when he launched his first homerun of the season to deep left.

Bires took care of the rest, retiring the Mounts 1-2-3 on only five pitches to end the contest.