MANHATTAN — The Great Bend American Legion Chiefs opened the Tournament of Champions on a positive note.
The Chiefs dropped host Manhattan 9-2 to improve to 2-1 on the young season.
“Really, we started off with a positive attitude,” Chiefs had coach Michael Stettinger said. “We had a good approach at the plate. We were very aggressive with fastballs. When we had a pitch to hit, we hit it.”
Great Bend pulled ahead early, scoring three runs in the top of the second.
Manhattan had scored all they could muster against starting pitcher Bryce Beck by the bottom of the fifth innings.
Beck threw a complete game, giving up 10 hits and two runs — one earned — while striking out two batters.
“Beck pitched a great game,” Stettinger said. “He really beared down with runners in scoring position.
“He gave up a lot of hits, but he scattered them pretty well.”
The Chiefs also had three errors, but weren’t overly costly.
“We had three errors, but they were all on really tough plays, so they weren’t all that costly,” Stettinger said.
Great Bend had 13 hits.
Brady  Michel was 3-for-4 with a triple and an RBI.
Beck went 3-for-5 with two RBIs and a stolen base.
“They both hit the ball well with runners in scoring position,” Stettinger said.
Jared Maneth, Jack Westhoff and Dillon Reiser each had an RBI each as well.
Great Bend challenges St. Joseph at 12:15 p.m. and Hays at 4:45 today.
On Saturday, Great Bend faces the Salina Falcons at 2:30 p.m.
The top 4 teams compete on Sunday.
 
                                              — Kevin Price