Manchester baseball’s postseason run ends with district semifinal loss

Manchester’s postseason ended in one inning. A tight district semifinal at VA Memorial Stadium in Chillicothe turned sharply in the bottom of the fifth, when Southeastern broke open a one-run game with five runs and sent the Greyhounds home with a 6-1 loss.

For four innings, the matchup between the Division VI’s No. 5 seed Manchester and No. 4 seed Southeastern looked like it could swing either way. Luke Applegate kept the Greyhounds in front early, working through four scoreless innings despite some control trouble. Manchester also struck first in the second inning with the kind of small-ball sequence that defined much of its season: Carson Inman walked, Parker Hayslip laid down a bunt single, Braylon Rickett moved the runners over with another bunt, and James Hackathorn grounded out to bring Hayslip home.

Manchester threatened again in the third, loading the bases with two outs, but could not add to the lead. Applegate nearly sparked another rally himself in the top of the fifth with a triple, but Southeastern answered in the bottom half and took control on the way to the district final set for May 26.

The loss closed the book on a season that pushed Manchester farther than many teams from Adams County get to go. The Greyhounds had moved up from Division VII to Division VI because of competitive balance numbers, then handled Eastern Brown 5-1 in the district quarterfinal on May 19 to reach Chillicothe. That quarterfinal also carried extra weight in the bracket, because Manchester had already beaten Eastern Brown 15-5 in conference play on April 17.

Even with the abrupt ending, the season left a strong record behind it. Manchester finished 9-4 in the Southern Hills Athletic Conference small school division and won its second straight league title, the first back-to-back baseball championship in program history. Trey Meade, now in his second year as head coach, has built a program that has learned how to win in pressure games and now has to absorb the departures of seniors such as Applegate and Hayslip.

Applegate’s final numbers underline how much Manchester leaned on him. MaxPreps listed him at .579 on-base percentage, one home run, a 2.33 ERA and 92 strikeouts. Clayton Colvin provided the other end of the lineup’s punch, leading the Greyhounds with a .444 batting average, 16 stolen bases and 32 RBIs. That balance, along with meaningful innings from Applegate and leadership from the senior class, is the standard Meade will try to replace.

Manchester’s exit was a setback in the bracket, but not a step backward for the program. The Greyhounds have now won consecutive conference crowns, competed in Division VI after the move up, and proved they could still play deep into May. Next spring will reveal how much of that core remains, but the program’s ceiling in Adams County is higher than it was a year ago.