Jim Mashek

BOWLING GREEN REMAINS UNBEATEN IN SEVEN GAMES

Dillon Maners wanted to finish it.

Bad.

The Bowling Green High School junior left-hander had battled through six innings and change, recording eight strikeouts and limiting the Apollo Eagles to two runs on four hits.

Maners wanted that complete game.

“Yeah, I did,” Maners said with a grin after teammate Luke Harston recorded the final out, sealing the Purples’ 5-3 victory over Apollo on a chilly Monday night at BGHS.

The bottom line, though, is Bowling Green remained unbeaten in seven games. The Purples play host to Glasgow High School on Wednesday night, while Mason Head’s Apollo squad fell to 5-2 on the season.

The 5-foot-7 Maners earned his third victory in as many decisions, working quickly on the mound while scattering five hits over 6 2/3 innings.

BGHS coach Nathan Izenberg was impressed with the effort.

“Dillon Maners pitched really well,” Izenberg said. “Apollo’s a good team. They’ve got some good arms. They pitched us ‘backward’ a lot, throwing curveballs on fastball counts. Patrick (Forbes) had a nice game at the plate, and we made some plays when we needed to.”

Forbes, the Purples’ star pitcher/shortstop who has signed with the University of Louisville, hit second in the batting order and went 3-for-4, with an RBI, while scoring three runs.

Apollo trailed for the entire game but had a chance to make things interesting in the top of the seventh.

The Eagles’ Cayden Crabtree drew a walk with one out from Maners, who was beginning to tire on the mound. Maners retired Apollo’s leadoff man, Harrison Bowman, on a soft line drive to right field, but he isused a walk to Joshua Mayes, before Nick Judd’s infield single scored Crabtree from third.

That also left the tying run on base, against the heart of the Apollo batting order, so Izenberg wasted no time in making the pitching change.

Harston induced a two-hopper from the Eagles’ Sam Holder, and the Purples made the play to complete the task at hand.

It was Maners, however, who set the tone on a cold night for baseball, even more so after Apollo arrived late for pre-game warmups.

“I really just tried to throw strikes,” Maners said. “Stay ahead in the count. I just tried to emphasize that over everything else.”

Bowling Green struck for three runs in the first inning off Apollo right-hander Will Strode, who put up some impressive numbers in his first two starts for the Eagles. Leadoff man Blake Ginter drew a walk and took second base on a wild pitch, and Forbes delivered a sharp single up the middle, scoring Ginter and putting the Purples up 1-0.

Bowling Green used the bunt game to put runners at second and third with one out, and Turner Nottmeier put it in play to the left side. Nottmeier reached safely on the error and Forbes scored to make it 2-0.

The Purples’ Spencer Newman, who started the game at third base before finishing behind the plate, drew a bases-loaded walk for the final run of the inning.

Bowling Green added another run off Strode in the bottom of the second. Forbes reached on an error and stole second base for the second time of the night. Then Nathaniel Roof singled up the middle, scoring Forbes and extending the Purples’ lead to 4-0.

Apollo struck for single runs in both the third and fourth innings, some misadventures in the field contributing to the Eagles’ second run of the game. Head used four pitchers — Strode, Crabtree, Noah Cook and finally Xavier Wells — to stay in contention.

Maners was one of the BGHS players on the field for the dramatic 5-4 loss to McCracken County in first-round play of the KHSAA state tournament last June at WKU’s Nick Denes Field. Izenberg lost plenty of talent from that team, which finished a spectacular season with a 34-6 record, but the Purples seem capable of putting another strong team on the field over the next 2.5 months.

“Yeah, we did lose of lot of guys from last year,” Maners said. “But we’re punching through it, when it matters. We put in the work. Minimize mistakes. It’s part of the grind.”