ORLANDO, Fla.

Its been an up and down couple of days for the T.C. Williams baseball team, as the Titans split their first two games at the Orlando National Baseball Classic.

T.C. Williams fell into the consolation bracket when it lost its tournament opener 10-7 to David Lipscomb High School of Nashville Tennessee on Monday.

The Titans rebounded on Tuesday by erasing a 3-1 sixth inning deficit to come back and defeat The Salisbury School (Conn.) 4-3 in an eight inning thriller.

Senior pitcher Tim Mannel went all eight innings for Titans, something Head Coach Scott Grossi said was necessary in such a tight contest.

Tim Mannel threw one hell of a game today, Grossi said. Going all eight innings, what a workhorse.  We showed some resiliency today and we needed Tim to step up and help us stay in the game.

The Titans clinched the win over Salisbury despite not getting a hit in the bottom of the eighth inning. Freshman Darwin Alcantara led off the inning with a walk, and moved to second on a fielders choice. The Crimson Knights then intentionally walked senior Pike Brynildsen to put runners of first and second. When senior Mike Baber stepped to the plate he was hit by a pitch to load the bases, which brought up Mannel with a chance to win the game.

The pitcher only swung his bat once, and that was to foul off a pitch, and drew a walk on five pitches to bring in Alcantara and clinch the victory.

We know how it feels to win, finally, Grossi said. Now we can play the rest of the tournament loose and hopefully take home the consolation championship.

The Titans played again on Wednesday but results were unavailable at press time. Should the Titans win, they will advance to the Consolation Championship, Friday at 1 p.m. A loss would send T.C. Williams to the 11th place game Wednesday at 4 p.m.