MANTI—With the season over halfway finished, things aren’t looking great for the Templars.
The Manti baseball team put themselves on the wrong side of a streak last week with a fourth straight loss and the fifth in their last six games.
Templar Kade Cherry swings for the ball during a 9-7 loss to North Sanpete last week.
The Templars first fell apart in the final innings of a 9-7 loss to North Sanpete at home, then they again let too much happen on defense as they fell short against North Sevier, 10-8, last Thursday.
Manti, once looking strong at 5-3, slipped down to 5-7 overall with a 1-3 record in Region 14 and broke a three game winning streak against North Sanpete. In each of their last four games, the Templars have allowed nine or more runs while shuffling through several pitchers. They also lost their second game this year in which they held a lead in the last two innings.
It was North Sanpete that got off running first when North Sanpete scored a double that put them up, 3-0 after the first inning.
After a few scoreless innings, Manti got back to tie the game with a string of scoring singles. Manti continued the hot hitting with a 6-3 lead after the fourth inning.
At the top of the sixth, North Sanpete’s bats came alive and angry as the Hawks were hitting just about everything. In just the top of the inning, the Hawks scored on four singles and a long double for a six-run inning and a 9-6 lead that North Sanpete would not give up.
While it wasn’t a terrible day for Manti on offense, the Templars struck out seven times. Freshman Braxton Henningson notched 4 RBIs with a single hit, a double. Junior Brayden Olson led the way for North Sanpete with 3 RBIs.
Manti went on to struggle against North Sevier. While the Templars continued to perform solid at the plate with 12 hits, North Sevier’s 10 hits had far more impact. As a team, North Sevier hit four doubles and a triple.
The Templars have six games left on the schedule and are sitting at No. 15 of the 19 teams in the 3A RPI rankings. They’ll be dealing with a tall order this week as they take on a two-game series with Juab, the No. 1 RPI team, this Tuesday and Friday.
