Senior Meredith Michel scored a season-high five goals and the Warwick girls lacrosse team edged Lampeter-Strasburg 11-8 in non-league action in Lampeter on Monday.

Michel, who now has 15 goals for the season, helped the Lady Warriors build a 6-4 lead at the half. Jamie Martin and Marleise Emrhein scored two goals apiece as well in a Warwick attack which held a 23-17 advantage in shots.

In the second half, the Warwick girls (1-3 league, 2-5 overall) denied the Lady Pioneers any thoughts of a comeback, outscoring the hosts 5-4 to finish off the win. Maddie Long paced L-S with three goals and four assists in the losing cause.

Alex White chipped in with a goal and assist for Warwick, Jovonna Jewell also found the back of the net, and Courtney Weaver added an assist. Kelsea Hershey and Jess Cochis stood tall with six and three saves, respectively, in goal for the Warwick girls.

Last Friday, Manheim Township’s Molly Hendrick finished with a game-high six goals and the Lady Blue Streaks earned a 19-7 Section One win over Warwick in Neffsville.

Leading 10-4 at the half, the Township girls scored Warwick 9-3 in the second to seal it.

By: BRUCE MORGAN Record Express Sports Editor, Staff Writer

Vanessa Strohm and Shannon Grodzicki each had three hits and scored three runs to lead the Warwick softball team’s offensive attack in a 15-0 three-inning whitewashing of McCaskey in a Section One game in Lititz on Monday afternoon.

Winning pitcher Tessa Eckman extended her scoreless innings streak to 15, including a 4-0 shutout of Manheim Township last Friday. The junior right-hander whiffed six, walked none and tossed a three-inning no-hitter.

The win for Warwick (4-0 L-L, 5-3 overall), combined with Hempfield’s 5-4 come-from-behind win over Township on Monday, set up a first-place showdown of unbeatens on Wednesday after deadline.

Although the Lady Warriors had no problems earning their fourth Section win of the season Monday against the Red Tornado, coach Don Miller said his squad still has areas in which they need to improve.

By: BRUCE MORGAN Record Express Sports Editor, Staff Writer

Manheim Central closer Trey Eberly was put on alert in the fifth inning on Monday.

"I pretty much told Trey about the fifth inning, ‘Just make sure you’re loose and ready to go,’" Manheim Central skipper Jason Thompson said, "and that I had no problem throwing him three innings if I had to."

The senior right-hander ended up getting the call to the mound with one out in the top of the sixth. With the bases loaded, no less.

His job was to protect a two-run lead in a first-place showdown against fellow Section Three contender Lampeter-Strasburg.

Mission accomplished.

Eberly left the bases loaded and went on to earn a five-out save in relief of winning pitcher Andrew Bucher, as the Barons grabbed sole possession of first place with a 3-1 victory in Manheim.

"It was a boost to our guys confidence-wise," Thompson said of Eberly’s sixth-inning hold. "But I don’t think they even blinked an eye knowing that Trey was coming into the game. That’s his role and he’s thriving on it right now. They’re definitely confident in him, as I am as well."

By: BRUCE MORGAN Record Express Sports Editor, Staff Writer

Record Express file photoWarwick senior pitcher Zach Hurst pitched seven solid innings on Monday to earn the decision in an 8-2 win over McCaskey.

Legendary Baltimore Orioles’ manager Earl Weaver once said that, "The key to winning baseball games is pitching, fundamentals, and three-run homers."

With that philosophy, he certainly would have enjoyed the power display from Warwick’s baseball team last week.

In four games, the Warriors scored 47 runs.

That included two home runs and nine extra-base hits last Friday, as the Warriors won their fourth game in five days in an 18-13 Section One slugfest against cross-town rival Manheim Township in Neffsville.

"We’re not a small ball team and we’re not going to steal a ton of bases," Warwick coach Bob Locker said. "But we hit well. I think our balance, right-handed and left-handed hitting, makes it tough for some teams. And I think that’s the potential we have is to be a good hitting baseball team."

Their fourth-straight win enabled them to take a two-game lead on Manheim Township atop the Section One standings.

Record Express file photoWarwick's Ethan Quinn won 8-4 at third singles on Monday.

The Warwick boys tennis team collected its first win of the season on Monday, defeating Garden Spot 6-1 in a non-league match in Lititz.

The Warriors (1-5 overall, 0-4 Section One) took three of four singles and then put it in the books by sweeping doubles play.

Tony Deimler improved to 4-2 at No. 1 singles with an 8-0 shutout of Adam Wojcik. Luke Newberry (3-3) also made it look easy with an 8-0 conquest in the No. 2 match, and then Ethan Quinn (1-4) prevailed 8-4 at three. Brian Dieterle nearly completed a singles sweep, but fell just short to the Spartans’ Chris Hare, 8-7, 8-6 at four.

The duo of Deimler and Newberry then clinched the team win with an 8-1 decision in the first doubles match. Quinn teamed up with Dieterle to cruise 8-0 at two, and then Caleb Setlock paired up with Chase Henry to complete the scoring with an 8-4 victory.

Last Friday, the Manheim Central boys tennis team went 3-for-4 in tiebreakers and knocked off ELCO by a 6-1 decision in a Section Two match in Myerstown.

By: BRUCE MORGAN Record Express Sports Editor, Staff Writer

The way Monday’s third inning started for Warwick, it had disaster written all over it.

It certainly didn’t end that way.

Warriors’ junior lefty Travis Reapsome got out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the top half of the frame, and then he and his teammates reached Penn Manor ace Zac Burke for five hits and six runs in the bottom half.

That was all Reapsome and senior reliever Ryan Braundmeier needed, as Warwick knocked off the Comets 6-0 in Lititz in the Section One opener for both teams.

The fact that Warwick (1-0 L-L, 2-2 overall) earned the win against Burke, a pre-season All-State selection, should be a big confidence booster.

"(Penn Manor’s Jim) Zander is a great coach — they’re always very well coached and fundamentally sound," Warwick skipper Bob Locker said. "And their pitcher was an All-Star pitcher last year. It’s like your ace against their ace, and to get the win was really important. Reapsome pitched a great game."

Wearing short sleeves in cold, windy conditions, Reapsome proved to be tough on Penn Manor’s hitters, striking out 12, walking two and combining with Braundmeier on a four-hitter.

By: BRUCE MORGAN Record Express Sports Editor, Staff Writer

Photo by Preston WhitcraftWarwick's Gavin Schaffer tries to spike the ball between Manheim Central's Josiah Hershberger (11) and Brayden Fahnestock (15) during Tuesday's clash between back-yard rivals.

To say that the early-season schedule for the Warwick boys volleyball team has been a challenging one would be an understatement.

Last week, the Warriors faced the State Triple-A third-ranked team in Hempfield and suffered a 3-0 loss.

Then this past Tuesday, they were back on the court against the State Double-A fifth-ranked team in Manheim Central. The Warriors ended up suffering a 3-0 loss (25-20, 27-25, 26-24) to Josiah Hershberger and the Barons, but only a combined eight points separated the two teams.

"The boys are right there," Warwick coach Nate Gajecki said. "Even though we’re losing games 3-0, the funny thing about volleyball is … games two and three, if you change one of those plays, instead of them getting the point and us getting the point, we end up winning those games."

Hershberger was a big reason that the Barons (2-0 Section Two, 3-0 overall) prevailed in the end. The senior middle hitter recorded a match-high 26 kills and seven blocks to lead the way.

By: BRUCE MORGAN Record Express Sports Editor, Staff Writer

Time wasn’t on the Warwick girls’ side.

After falling behind 7-0 early against Central Dauphin last Saturday, the Lady Warriors put together a furious comeback.

In the end, though, they couldn’t completely erase the deficit and the Lady Rams held on for an 11-9 non-league win in Harrisburg.

"I was very proud of the way the girls fought back," Warwick coach Eric Jeanes said.

That game continued a trend for Warwick (1-1 L-L, 1-3 overall) in which it has struggled to play a complete game. In the Lady Warriors’ 11-6 league loss to Hempfield last Wednesday, March 27, they trailed by just one goal at the break before the Lady Knights broke things open in the second half.

"That has been a problem for us," Jeanes acknowledged. "We finished poorly against Hempfield and started slowly against CD. If we can figure out how to put full games together, I think we will be a good team."

Seniors Alex White finished with four goals against Central Dauphin (3-0) and Jess Talbot added two, as the Lady Warriors closed their deficit to 7-3 at the half. White and Talbot are currently 1-2 on the team in goal-scoring this season with 13 and 11 goals, respectively.

Most days as I’m driving home from work, I’ve got the radio blaring and I’m not really paying attention to cars in front of me. At stop lights, that is. But on one particular day earlier this week, I happened to notice a bumper sticker on the car in front of me. One of them had the message of, "Eye Contact is Over-Rated," with a picture of a little boy with both hands over his eyes.

I’m not really sure what that meant, but I made a connection with it on a couple different levels. One of those was just how much my kids would probably agree with that quote on days that they’ve got their noses sunk so deep into their iPads, Ipods, Minis, Kindles, Kindle-Fires or what-evers that they don’t look up to say hello.

That leads to my next connection that on some days, I wonder if I’m alone when I feel at times that technology is a little bit over-rated. Don’t roll your eyes … I say that mostly kiddingly.

By: BRUCE MORGAN Record Express Sports Editor, Staff Writer

Photo by Preston WhitcraftWarwick base runner Kyle Maguire scampers back to the bag as Manheim Central first baseman Trey Eberly waits for the throw on a pickoff attempt by pitcher Andrew Bucher last Thursday.

In baseball, if there’s a good place to have depth, the pitching staff is definitely that.

The Barons believe they do this spring.

And with three games in five days this week, it will certainly get tested.

So far, so good.

Coming off a solid outing by junior Andrew Bucher in a 7-3 non-league win over Warwick last Thursday, Manheim Central got another strong effort from Colin Fry on Monday as the Barons defeated ELCO 4-3 in the Section Three opener for both teams in Manheim.

Fry scattered five hits over six innings, while whiffing four and walking one.

Although the Barons (1-0 L-L, 1-1 overall) left numerous runners on base against Raiders’ pitchers Grant Fisher and Chris Kreider, Fry and Trey Eberly preserved the one-run win with error-free baseball behind them.