Penn Manor/Dallastown baseball game suspended

MILLERSVILLE — A quick start is one thing.

Trying to fit a high school baseball game into a 26-minute window is something else altogether. It’s something that just does not fit — or work.

Up 2-0 and nearly through two innings, Dallastown’s lead will be on indefinite hold since the weather system that wheeled into Comet Field on Friday afternoon caused the Wildcats’ scrap with unbeaten Penn Manor to be suspended.

Penn Manor skipper Jim Zander said no make-up date has been determined.

Starter Avery Strayer was perfect through five hitters for Greg Kinneman’s Wildcats (2-1) and was ahead of Penn Manor’s Jeremy Burkholder 1-2 when a lightning strike sent everyone scurrying for cover. A downpour followed moments later.

After waiting some 25 minutes — and obviously checking out the forecast — the umpiring crew decided to call a halt to Friday’s nonleague festivities.

Strayer had struck out one.

Dallastown opened the game by collecting two runs off the Comets’ Matt Tulli — Penn Manor (3-0) blanked its first three opponents — as Bryant Holtzapple chased home Eric Morrison and Nick Parker with a two-out single to left.

Morrison was nicked by Tulli’s third offering and was awarded first base, while Parker launched a double to right that found the crosswind and whistled over Grant Gale’s head. Tulli retired the next two hitters, but Holtzapple delivered.

Tulli finished his two-inning stint by conceding two hits, a walk, a hit batsman and fanning three. A few minutes later, the storm arrived.