NEEDED 86 PITCHES FOR HIS COMPLETE GAME.
NEWMAN, DAVIS KEEP PURPLES OFFENSE ON THE ATTACK
Bowling Green High School’s Dillon Maners likes to keep it simple.
“Pound the strike zone, first-pitch strikes, get ahead in the count,” he said Monday night.
That’s what the Purples senior left-hander did in Bowling Green’s KHSAA 14th District opening game at South Warren Ballpark.
In style.
Maners limited South Warren to four hits while pitching a complete game in the Purples’ 5-0 victory over the Spartans on Monday night. At the plate, he also reached safely in all four of his plate appearances — an RBI single, two walks and a South Warren error — before yielding to courtesy base runner Joseph Meyer.
It’s been an uphill battle for the Purples for much of the first month of the season, but Maners guided them to an impressive victory when they needed it most. Bowling Green improved to 7-8 overall while winning for the first time since an 18-2 rout of Carroll County High School in the Taylor County/Kentucky Farm Bureau Classic on April 4 in Campbellsville.
IS FLANKED BY PURPLES TEAMMATES
DILLON MANERS (LEFT) AND DOM DAVIS.
“Dillon Maners was outstanding on the mound,” BGHS coach Nathan Isenberg said. “I thought we played well. Until Friday night (a 7-1 home loss to Louisville’s Manual High School), we’d been either ahead, or tied, in the fifth inning of every game we’d lost this season.
“It was probably time for things to go our way.”
All of which lends even more intrigue to Game Two of the KHSAA 14th District series, scheduled for this evening at BGHS. South Warren dropped to 11-6 overall, including a 6-3 mark against KHSAA 4th Region competition.
South Warren coach Chris Gage and his staff were discussing their options about the Spartans’ pitching plans for Game Two, 15 or 20 minutes after the game came to an end, while the South players were tending to field maintenance. With only six district games, you’ve got to roll with the punches.
“Our pitching was solid tonight,” Gage said. “Our defense didn’t do its job. We’ve got a good group of pitchers. Maners did a good job. He throws strikes.
“In a game like this, whoever scores first has a good chance of winning.”
KEEPS A RUNNER CLOSE AT SECOND BASE.
NINE HITS AGAINST SOUTH PITCHING.
The Purples did just that in the top of the third inning.
Maners drew a one-out walk from South’s starting pitcher, Bradley Lewis, before BGHS catcher Dom Davis was hit by a pitch. A wild pitch and a poor pickoff throw brought home the game’s first two runs, as Bowling Green managed just one hit in the third, Evan Schallert’s line-drive single to left field.
Gage went to his bullpen in the third, and South right-hander Thomas Lambert avoided further damage.
But Bowling Green’s offense went back to work in the fourth inning, with leadoff man Grayson Newman reaching on an infield hit with two outs before taking second base on a wild pitch. On cue, it seemed, BGHS senior Dillon Maners slapped a single up the middle, bringing Newman across the plate for a 3-0 Purples lead.
Maners gestured toward the Bowling Green dugout, as he is wont to do, but it was a sign of the Purples’ sense of purpose.
PONDER THEIR PITCHING OPTIONS
FOR GAME TWO ON TUESDAY.
Maners generally exudes such confidence. After playing a strong second fiddle to former BGHS star Patrick Forbes last season — Forbes, Kentucky’s “Mr. Baseball” in 2022, is an everyday starter these days for the University of Louisville — Maners understands he has a different role in his final season with the Purples.
“We came in with a bunch of confidence,” BGHS catcher Dom Davis said. “We wanted to get that first (district game). You know (South) is definitely gonna come back and play hard in the second game.”
“We’ve been in the batting cages, putting in the work,” Maners said.
Turns out, even before school.
“We’re in the batting cages at 6:30 in the morning, two or three times a week,” Newman said. “I think that paid off in this game.”
Maners allowed four hits and just one sixth-inning walk while striking out six South batters. He’ll be back in left field for Game Two on Tuesday evening. Like South’s Chris Gage, BGHS coach Nate Isenberg has yet to announce a starting pitcher.
“We’ve played a lot of Top 25 teams this season,” Isenberg said. “I’ve told the guys, ‘Keep grinding, it’s a long season.’ Dillon was ahead in the count all night. We probably haven’t given him the run support he deserves this season, so it was nice to see that in this game.”
YIELDS TO RELIEVER THOMAS LAMBERT IN THE THIRD.
South Warren was done in by two errors in the top of the sixth inning, when Gage went to the bullpen again, bringing in senior right-hander Jackson Joiner. BGHS catcher Dom Davis chased the Spartans’ Thomas Lambert with an RBI single to left field in that frame.
In the bottom of the seventh, South’s Tucker Bishop ripped a Maners pitch for a line drive into right-center field, and Bishop tried to extend it into a double, only to be thrown out at second base by the Purples’ Drew Isenberg. BGHS shortstop Ben Davenport, taking over where Patrick Forbes once patrolled the infield, applied the tag for the out.
“There’s a lot of young guys in bigger roles this year,” Davis said. “A game like this should help our confidence.”
Bowling Green had an exceptional regular season last year, winning 13 of 16 games against KHSAA 4th Region opponents while going 7-1 against the 14th District. Warren East, however, would take the district championship, but the Raiders have moved over to the Glasgow-based 15th District.
The landscape has changed in the 14th.
Greenwood, which is 15-2 overall, opened district play with an 18-1 rout of Warren Central on Monday night. The Gators will square off with South Warren in a two-game series next week, followed by a home-and-home matchup with Bowling Green in the first week of May.
“It’s a new season, almost,” BGHS outfielder Grayson Newman said.
The Purples made the most of it Monday night.
AT BOWLING GREEN ON TUESDAY EVENING.
WITH A BUM RIGHT KNEE, SO I’VE TOLD PIPER …
RIGHT IF SHE WANTS TO GO TO THE GAME.