Griffins’ Postseason Run Comes to a Halt

Fairfield’s Jarvis Kennedy takes the throw from catcher Brandon Adams for the out at third Tuesday.

The Fairfield Central Griffins baseball team saw their 2013 playoff run come to an end Tuesday night as they came out on the short end of a back-and-forth affair to the Eagles of Central, 5-2 at Griffin field.

It was a taste of payback for the Eagles, who earned the dubious honor of being the first victim of Griffin postseason baseball in Fairfield Central history last Thursday (April 25), 9-6 in Pageland.

Compton Walker, whose grand slam lifted the Griffins to victory in last meeting between these two Class 2A teams, struggled early on the mound, using 30 pitches to get out of the first inning. Walker gave up a hit, a walk, hit one batter and allowed one to score on a passed ball. Walker settled down somewhat in the middle innings, but labored with 25 pitches in the seventh to run his total to 130 on the night.

The Griffins tied the game at 1-all in the bottom of the third when Walker sacrificed home Javarius Cook, who led off the inning with a single. In the fourth, the Griffins took a 2-1 lead after Chris Boyd doubled with two outs and scored on a dropped fly ball in deep center off the bat of Chris Raley.

But in the top of the fifth, Central’s Dante Blakeny reached first with one out on a bunt single and went to second on an errant throw by Jarvis Kennedy. Robin Burch, the Eagles’ three-hole hitter, then doubled Blakeny home to tie the game.

Sam Caldwell, the Eagles’ right-handed starter, was touchable, with the Griffins reaching base in each of his six innings of work, but limited the damage, stranding runners in scoring position in three critical innings.

The Eagles took the 3-2 lead in the sixth on an RBI single by Joseph Rollings and tacked on a pair of insurance runs in the seventh.

Tuesday’s loss eliminates the Griffins from the Class 2A playoffs, coming on the heels of Friday’s 9-1 loss to Andrew Jackson.

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