MIKE GROSS | Sports WriterIt was the kind of high-stakes baseball game when tension mounts with every pitch.
The kind that induces white knuckles in most people, and the kind that, Hempfield’s Brody Gebhard insists, bring out his best.
“I feel like I’m going to want it more than the other guy,’’ Gebhard said after he pitched a shutout, drilled a seventh-inning triple and scored the winning run in the Black Knights’ 1-0 defeat of Penn Manor Monday.
With the win, Hempfield (12-3, 15-5) is the Lancaster-Lebanon League Section One champion. The result, coupled with Manheim Township’s 17-5 defeat of McCaskey Monday, gives the Blue Streaks second place in the section, and with it a spot in the league playoffs, which begin Thursday.
Penn Manor (10-5, 13-7) finishes third, and gets a week to rest and prepare for the District Three tournament.
Had the Comets won Monday, Section One would have ended in a three-way tie, with Penn Manor getting the section’s top L-L playoff seed.
“That’s three really deserving teams,’’ said Hempfield coach Jeremy Morrison. “Unfortunately, one of them is going to be home (Thursday).’’
Monday’s game was tight, tense and brilliantly pitched by Gebhard and Penn Manor’s Bradyn Eckert.
Eckert, locating his fastball and missing bats with a slider and curve, took a no-hitter into the sixth and went into the seventh having allowed only an infield single.
That infield single, by Logan Dougherty, led off the Hempfield sixth. He was sacrificed to second, with big Black Knight bats Josh Toole and Brayden Hostetter due up, but Penn Manor gloves doused the threat.
Toole sent a sharp grounder up the middle, but Penn Manor shortstop Bryce Avery made a scrambling stop and threw Toole out.
Hostetter was intentionally walked. Drew Benchich followed with a sharp grounder to third, where Billy Riggs made a tumbling grab and then dove to the bag at third for the force out.
Gebhard had yielded two singles in the second inning, and the Comets had men on in the third and fourth, but then he settled in.
“I thought my command was a lot better than it usually is,’’ he said.
He retired the last 12 he faced, and got a clean, efficient top of the seventh to finish with 98 pitches. Had the game gone extra innings, Gebhard probably could have, too.
He helped make the point moot in the bottom of the inning, getting an Eckert fastball out over the plate and blasting it to left-center for a leadoff triple.
Penn Manor coach Tom Fish then made his second mound visit in as many innings, but stayed with his guy.
Logan Harelson followed with a clutch, and clean, single up the middle to end it.
The L-L regular season ended Monday and Thursday’s first round of the playoffs are now set.
In Section Two, champion Ephrata dropped a 5-4 decision to Elizabethtown, which finished third in the section but kept its district playoff hopes alive. Evan Hassinger homered for the Bears and Luis Perez-Alfaro went 2-for-3 with a double and a homer.
The Bears went into Monday ranked 15th in District Three Class 5A, and 16 teams qualify.
Lampeter-Strasburg has locked up second place in Section Two.
In Section Three, Manheim Central beat Cocalico 7-2. That result coupled with section champ Donegal’s 9-1 defeat of Garden Spot, gave the section’s runner-up playoff berth to the Barons, who got a huge game from Cam Thompson, 3-for-3 with five RBI.
In Section Four, Lancaster Catholic and Pequea Valley played for the runner-up/playoff berth Monday, the Crusaders winning 10-6. Section Four champion Northern Lebanon kept rolling with a 4-2 defeat of Annville-Cleona.
Thursday’s matchups: Manheim Central (Section III runner-up) at Hempfield (Section I champ).
Lancaster Catholic (IV-2) at Ephrata (II-1).
Manheim Township (I-2) at Donegal (III-1).
Lampeter-Strasburg (II-2) at Northern Lebanon (IV-1).
