It was about as bad as Manhattan High’s baseball team could have imagined.

In the seventh inning, the Indians defense couldn’t figure out what hit them. And at the plate in Saturday’s Class 6A state-championship game, well, they just couldn’t hit.

Maize broke the offensive seal after six scoreless innings, and senior left-hander Justin Mohr pitched a complete-game two-hitter, helping the Eagles win their second state title in three years in a 3-0 victory at Hoglund Ballpark.

“I had no doubt I could do that,” Mohr said of his gem. “Coach (Rocky Helm) has had confidence in me all year, and so have all the players, I’ve played with them my whole life, so they knew I could do it. But I couldn’t have done it without them, that’s for sure.”

Quite the understatement.

Both teams had scoring chances after loading the bases – Manhattan in the third and Maize in the fifth – but both teams also played immaculate defense in the early innings despite steady rain.

Mohr had a no-hitter through 52â3 innings before it was broken up by, oddly enough, Indians pitcher Jordan Henricks.

But Henricks’ defense faltered in the top of the seventh when two errors by third baseman Zack Wisdom helped Maize put runners on second and third and set the stage for eight-spot hitter Luis Lopez.

Lopez had been the Eagles’ hottest hitter after a game-tying hit in the seventh inning of their semifinal victory over Shawnee Mission Northwest and dominating offensively at regionals.

True to form, Lopez roped a two-run single through the middle of a pulled-in infield.

“I saw the curveball, and I connected,” Lopez said with a mile-wide grin. “I knew it was coming.”

Members of the Maize High baseball squad hoist the Class 6A state-championship trophy. The Eagles beat Manhattan, 3-0, to capture the title Saturday at Hoglund Ballpark.

“It got me that much more excited,” Mohr said. “He’s the one who came up to me and said if he could get up to the plate, he’d come through if I’d do the rest.”

And Mohr did just that.

He had used devastating off-speed stuff all day to stymie the Indians, but his pitches went faster and faster in the late innings. He was hitting 80 mph on the radar as he worked out of a jam in Manhattan’s last at-bat, and a popout to shortstop Jordan Jakubov was the final out, giving the green light for an Eagles pile on top of Mohr on the first-base line.

“You just throw as hard as you can, and it seems like you don’t wear out,” Mohr said of his endurance. “I could tell the adrenaline was picking up the closer we got and the more confidence I had.

“Your adrenaline takes over there, you don’t really feel anything.”