Manheim Central Baseball
Lancaster–Lebanon League Champions

1983 Lancaster–Lebanon Championship Game May 20, 1983 · Manheim Central 5, Lebanon 4

Manheim Central broke a 4–4 tie with the deciding run crossing the plate in the bottom of the fifth inning. The 5–4 lead would hold up to give the Barons their first Lancaster–Lebanon League Baseball title.

Junior starting pitcher Bruce Hershey went all seven innings for the Barons, working out of jams in the sixth and seventh innings to preserve the precarious one-run lead. Hershey stranded a Cedar runner at second base in the sixth inning and in the seventh, pitched around runners on first and second and one out. A sacrifice fly moved the lead runner to third base. With two outs and runners at the corners, Hershey coaxed a ground ball force-out to end the game.

Manheim climbed out of a 2–0 deficit in the second inning, tying the game 2–2 with a bases-loaded single off the bat of sophomore Jon Weaver. In the bottom of the third, senior Tim Becker hit a solo home run to left, and Chris Hackman added an RBI single to give Manheim a 4–2 lead. After Lebanon tied the game 4–4 in the fourth, Manheim scored the game’s final run in the home half of the fifth. Tim Becker walked to lead off the inning and scored from first base on a base hit to center field—a bobble by the center fielder allowed Becker to score. The run held up as the deciding run in the 5–4 victory for Manheim Central.

1984 Lancaster–Lebanon Championship Game May 20, 1984 · Manheim Central 6, Manheim Township 5

Manheim Central rallied from a two-run deficit in the first inning, and trailed 3–1 after three innings, to defeat Manheim Township by a score of 6–5 and claim the Barons’ second Lancaster–Lebanon League title. The game was a back-and-forth affair with multiple lead changes. Manheim’s Jon Weaver pitched a complete game to earn the win, striking out nine and walking one. Weaver allowed seven hits—four of which were from Manheim Township’s first four batters of the game.

The Barons were facing a 2–0 hole with two runners on and no one out in the first. Weaver was able to limit the damage and escape the inning with only two runs allowed. Manheim Central answered with a run in the second inning before Manheim Township scored their third run after a Central error, wild pitch and a single. The Barons tied the game in the fourth inning when Bob Recher’s ground-rule double scored Bob Resch and Dave Bruckhart. Recher scored later in the inning on Jeff Mummau’s sacrifice fly. The Blue Streaks answered with two runs of their own to take a 5–4 lead in the fifth inning. Manheim Township took advantage of a leadoff walk, following the gift with a double, a squeeze bunt that turned into a single, and a sacrifice fly.

The Barons answered in the top of the sixth. Bob Resch drew his third walk of the game, and Dave Bruckhart connected for his third single of the contest. Jeff Flanagan singled to score Resch, and Bruckhart scored Central’s sixth run on Jeff Mummau’s fielder’s-choice groundout.

Equipped with the lead, Jon Weaver struck out the side in the sixth inning and struck out two more in the seventh. He retired the last nine batters of the game in order.

One further note of heroism from Central’s 1984 Championship Team deserves mentioning here—Barons catcher Bob Little. A senior, Little caught the entire game with a broken throwing hand.

1991 Lancaster–Lebanon Championship Game May 16, 1991 · Manheim Central 2, Ephrata 0

Behind the right arm of pitcher Chad Ginder, Manheim Central defeated the Ephrata Mountaineers, 2–0, en route to the program’s third Lancaster–Lebanon League Title. Ginder was superb, shutting out Ephrata and allowing only two hits. He struck out eight and walked one. The Manheim hurler held Ephrata without a hit through 5⅔ innings.

The Barons scored both of their runs in the 2nd inning. With one out, Dean Hiestand waited out a walk and then stole second base. Hiestand advanced to third when Chad Ginder’s fly ball was dropped by Ephrata’s left fielder, giving the Barons runners on second and third with one out. Matt Burkholder doubled to center, plating Hiestand and advancing Ginder to third. Bryan Faust then grounded out to short, plating Ginder and giving Manheim its second and final run of the game. The Barons had many other chances—putting runners in scoring position in every offensive inning other than the 4th and 5th—but were unable to capitalize.

Prior to 1993, the League Tournament consisted of only the Section Winners in a four-team, single-elimination tournament. Manheim Central got through Manheim Township in the first round by a 1–0 score. The ’91 Barons were the first (and only) team, in this iteration of the League Tournament, to not allow a run.

1993 Lancaster–Lebanon Championship Game May 20, 1993 · Manheim Central 11, Hempfield 1

Manheim Central broke open a 2–1 lead in the bottom of the 4th inning, scoring six runs and then put the game away in the bottom of the 5th inning with three more runs to end the game via the ten-run rule, 11–1, and securing the fourth Lancaster–Lebanon League Championship for the Barons.

The Barons’ fourth inning was accentuated with a grand slam off the bat of catcher Bob Smoker. Manheim connected for 11 hits over the game’s 5 innings and took advantage of four Hempfield errors.

Winning pitcher Dave Hoffman scattered six hits—three of which were to the first three Black Knight batters of the game. He allowed one 1st-inning run and pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the 1st. In the 2nd inning, with Hempfield runners on the corners, Hoffman started a triple play on a ball hit back to him. Scored 1–2–5–1–3–6, the Barons tagged out Hempfield’s runner who started on third base, then caught the runner who started at first between second and third, and secured the third out when the batter was caught between first and second.

The win over the Black Knights marked Coach Hen Bell’s 300th career victory as the Barons’ head coach.

2000 Lancaster–Lebanon Championship Game May 18, 2000 · Manheim Central 6, Warwick 4

Manheim Central scored two runs in the top of the 7th inning, breaking a 4–4 tie, to get past the Warwick Warriors in the 2000 Lancaster–Lebanon League Championship Game.

Jeff Smoker led off the 7th inning with a single to center field and advanced to second base on a wild pitch. After a strikeout, Brad Barnett reached on an infield error to put Barons on the corners. With the Warwick infield up, a ground ball to shortstop advanced Barnett to second, but Smoker held at third. The next pitch got past Warwick’s catcher, scoring Smoker from third. The errant throw from the catcher to pitcher allowed Barnett to score from second, giving the Barons a 6–4 lead.

The Barons trailed Warwick 4–0 after three innings. Central chipped away at the lead with three runs in the 4th inning and a run in the 5th inning to tie the contest. Rob Ocasio was the winning pitcher for Manheim Central, striking out eight, walking one, and allowing five hits—all coming from the first 11 batters of the game. Ocasio retired 15 of the last 17 Warwick batters of the game, including the last 10 in a row.

The Barons’ path to the title was a remarkable feat. They finished the regular season tied with Warwick in Section Two. Warwick defeated Manheim in the Section Two playoff game, giving the Warriors the Section Title and the Section Two first seed in the playoff bracket. Manheim Central played the Section Four champion, Lancaster Catholic, in the first round. The Barons defeated the Crusaders 13–2 and faced Hempfield in the Semi-Finals. Hempfield was the four-time defending League Champion, having earned L-L Gold in 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999, and was two wins away from their 5th straight League title. Manheim Central defeated Hempfield, ending their unprecedented run of Championships, with a 7–1 semi-final victory behind an outstanding pitching performance by senior John Lentz.

The Championship was Manheim Central’s fifth title. It was the Barons’ first Championship Game appearance since 1995, when they fell to Solanco 2–0.

2021 Lancaster–Lebanon Championship Game May 20, 2021 · Manheim Central 2, Lampeter–Strasburg 0

Manheim Central won its sixth Lancaster–Lebanon League title behind Connor Rohrer and closer Wyatt Becker. Manheim Central’s junior went six innings, allowing no runs while allowing two hits. Rohrer walked six while striking out six.

After a walk and an infield error, Riley McGallicher’s RBI single with two outs plated the Barons’ first run in the first inning. Rohrer kept Lampeter–Strasburg off the scoreboard and took a 1–0 lead into the later part of the game.

Rohrer pitched around damage most of the game. The Pioneers had two runners on base in the second, third and fourth innings. After back-to-back Pioneer walks to start the bottom of the fourth, catcher Mason Weaver picked a runner off second base for the inning’s first out. Rohrer struck out the next two batters to quell the potential rally.

In the sixth inning, Central expanded its lead to 2–0 when Colton Book homered to left field. Book’s solo shot gave Manheim Central an insurance run over the last two frames.

Closer Wyatt Becker slammed the door shut in the seventh inning. He needed 10 pitches to secure the game’s final three outs and bring the League Championship trophy back to Manheim for the first time in 21 years.