Indians Fall at State

LAWRENCE — The Indians just couldn’t keep up with Blue Valley Friday afternoon at Hoglund Ballpark on the campus of the University of Kansas.

More so, they couldn’t keep up with the likes of starting pitcher Ryan Stanek.

The tall, lanky senior right-handed pitcher from Blue Valley consistently blew pitches past the Indians all afternoon, sending Manhattan home early from the 6A state tournament with a 6-0 loss.

With shutout the Indians’ season came to a close with a final overall record of 19-4.

Following the loss head coach Don Hess held an extensive meeting with his team, discussing the fact that what they saw that afternoon was something even he was impressed by.

“We just came across a very good team with a pitcher that throws harder than any of us have ever seen.” coach Hess said. “I played division one [college] baseball and I never saw anyone throw that hard, and I know I haven’t seen it in the high school ranks.”

Staneck, who tossed a complete game shutout against the Indians, consistently threw in the mid-90s throughout all seven innings of the game, toping out at 97 mph in the first inning.

“I was just trying to go out and do my job,” Stanek, who has committed to the University of Arkansas and has been in contact with all 30 Major League Baseball organizations, said. “It’s kind of what I have done all year, just try and throw strikes, get hitters out and let our offense do the work.”

In fact, he did a lot of the work on the offensive end. Stanek went 2-3 at the plate, hitting two doubles off the center field wall, just out of the reach of a leaping Kyle Speer both times. He also drove in two of the six Tiger runs.

Despite the seemingly dominating performance on the mound and at the plate by Stanek, the Indians put themselves in position several times to make a run at the Tigers.

Beginning with the first inning, with junior Ryan Wilkinson on second and senior Garrett Hess on first base, sophomore Derek Francis came to the plate, giving the Indians a chance to take an early lead on Blue Valley. But as he did throughout the afternoon, Stanek mixed his dominating fastball in with off-speed pitches, and struck out on a curveball that registered at 83 mph.

It was a blown opportunity that seemed to be replicated time and time again throughout the game.

“It thought we were in the game the whole time,” Wilkinson said. “We got runners on the corners every once in a while, and I figured we would score. I don’t think we were ever completely out of it. I think we were always in it.”

The Indians were able to stay in the game with the effort of starting pitcher Alec Giambrone. In the final game of his career at Manhattan, the senior tossed 4 2/3 innings allowing just six hits and two earned runs.

“He threw well,” Wilkinson said. “I was expecting that though, he’s our ace.”
In the bottom of the third inning, the Indians again had an opportunity to crawl back into the game. With two outs, and down 1-0, Wilkinson singled with a line drive over short stop Derek Hackney’s head. Junior outfielder Kyle Speer followed the single with a walk, and suddenly Manhattan had an opportunity to push a run across and tie the ballgame.

However Stanek blew that opportunity away in the form of a 95 mph fastball striking out Garrett Hess and ending the inning.

“I thought that there were times that we competed really hard at the plate,” coach Hess said. “We just couldn’t get the one extra hit or the two hits back-to-back that would propel us, and keep the inning alive.”

Despite the loss, Hess said he was extremely happy with the effort he saw out his program throughout the course of the season. The senior class, he said, returned the program to a state that he expected it to be.

And the future looks bright, as the Indians only graduate five seniors from the 2010 regional championship squad.

“[A] 19-4 [record] is an incredible season,” coach Hess said. “I don’t care what sport, I don’t care what era it is, 19-4 and being in the state tournament is something that I hope the seniors know they were responsible for, and laid the groundwork for us to maybe come back in the future.”