ERIE — Coming off a tough loss to Cathedral Prep one day prior, the Warren Dragon baseball had a nice bounce-back Tuesday as it traveled to Erie High and came home with an 8-4 win. The first inning featured the visiting Dragons turning up the heat as they crossed the plate two times, but the Royals answered nicely, scoring two of their own to tie the game. The second inning was scoreless from both teams, but the Dragons found a groove in the third as they scored five times to take a commanding 7-2 lead.

“The work we put into our at-bats in the first and second innings is what allowed us to keep our momentum and bat around in the third,” said Warren head coach Johnny White. “We forced their starter to throw 42 pitches in the first two innings. That’s incredibly frustrating and exhausting for a pitcher, so we were able to capitalize on the mistakes that come from that in the third. That was an example of everything we’ve been working hard to improve in coming together. Hard-nosed, blue collar baseball. Grinding out at-bats, getting on base any way we can, and putting the ball in play with runners on base just gave us more and more momentum.”

The Royals responded with two runs of their own, and the Dragons scored one more in the top of the sixth, and held on for the win.

Senior pitcher David Manning was lights-out on the mound as he struck out 12 in 6.2 innings. “David’s been our workhorse this year and it’s been evident in his last two starts, with his combined no-hitter with Duncan (McGarry) where he went 6 2/3 and his outing today against Erie,” White said. “He’s put together an incredible high school career and he’s actually eight strikeouts shy of 200 for his career, so he’s showing that his hard work to be the best pitcher he can be is paying off. We’re hoping he can put that exclamation point on his career in his next start for us.”

The Dragons managed seven hits in the win, with Broc Bryan (two hits, three RBIs) leading the charge. Also contributing hits were Eli Snyder, Manning, Duncan McGarry (RBI), Tage Wyman (two RBIs), and Colin Zdarko each contributing one hit. Zane Carlson also added an RBI.

“We’ve had a ton of guys who have really taken doing anything to get on base to heart,” White said. “Of the 11 hitters we had come to the plate, six of them were on base more than once. Bradey Chase was huge for us as a leadoff hitter, getting on base four times in five plate appearances and wreaking havoc on the basepaths to let guys such as Eli (Snyder), David (Manning), and Broc (Bryan) hit him around and drive in runs. Duncan (McGarry) and Zane (Carlson) were also on base multiple times throughout the game and we got huge production from Tage Wyman by driving in two runs for us. Colin Zdarko also came into the game when we needed to move people around and had a big hit for us, too. Our entire lineup, top to bottom, produced in some way throughout the game and it’s really fun to see.”