PAGELAND – Fairfield Central’s history making postseason came to a less-than historic end Wednesday as the Griffins felt the full force of the Central Eagles, falling in Pageland 15-0 in five innings.
Central’s Joseph Rollings, the number 2 starter for the Eagles, weaved a masterpiece on the mound. The elusive left-hander bamboozled the Griffins, carrying a perfect game into the third and a no-hitter into the fourth. Rollings breezed through four complete innings allowing but three base-runners on 48 pitches. Dalton Trusedale drew a walk with 2 outs in the third, Compton Walker reached on an infield error in the fourth and Chris Boyd broke up the no-no with a single in the fourth. All three were stranded on the bags. Sam Caldwell wrapped up the affair with a 1-2-3, 11-pitch fifth.
“Baseball’s a weird game,” Griffins’ head coach Scotty Dean said. “That’s a really good baseball team (Central). We had one hit. We had (13) hits Monday. We had eight hits off their number 1 guy (Friday). They pitch their number 2 guy, and we get one hit.”
Walker was touched up early and often by the Eagles, and helped Central along by issuing four free passes in just a little over an inning of work. With no one out in the bottom of the second and already trialing 4-0, Dean brought out the hook. Brandon Adams came on with the bases loaded to get out of the jam allowing just 2 more runs to cross. Both of those runs were charged to Walker.
“We got up there and struggled to get outs,” Dean said. “Their guy got up there and gets a little fly ball to the pitcher or a weak little ground ball to second and they get out of the inning with six pitches.”
Adams retired just one Eagle in the third before losing command and giving way to Stanley McManus. With well over 200 pitches hanging on his arm in the last week of play, McManus struggled mightily. He closed out the inning, but it was a 7-run bat-around for the Eagles who now held an impervious 13-0 lead.
Boyd faced seven batters in the fourth, giving up 2 runs and retiring two Eagles. Jesse Broome then came on with the bases loaded and threw one pitch, which Trey Sowell lined right back up the middle and into Broome’s glove to retire the side.
The Griffins finish the season as District IV runners up, setting the tone for the future of the Fairfield Central baseball program.
“Am I disappointed we didn’t play better and give ourselves a chance to win this baseball game? Yes I am,” Dean said. “But this is the best baseball team that’s ever been assembled in the history of this school. We’ve taken a huge step toward doing what we want to do. We return 10 guys next year, and they know what we’re working for from day one.”
FC – 0 0 0 0 0 x x – 0 1 3
CP – 2 4 7 2 x x x – 15 11 1
Pitching: FC—C. Walker (L), 1IP, 5H, 6R, 4ER, 4BB, 2K, 12TBF, 45P, 25B, 20S; B. Adams, 1.1IP, 3H, 5R, 3ER, 2BB, 0K, 9TBF, 36P, 17B, 19S; S. McManus, 0.2IP, 2H, 2R, 1ER, 2BB, 2K, 6TBF, 28P, 13B, 15S; C. Boyd, 0.2IP, 1H, 2R, 0ER, 2BB, 0K, 2HB, 7TBF, 21P, 15B, 6S; J. Broome, 0.1IP, 0H, 0R, 0ER, 0BB, 0K, 1TBF, 1P, 0B, 1S. CP—J. Rollings (W), 4IP, 1H, 0R, 0ER, 0BB, 2K, 15TBF, 48P, 19B, 29S; S. Caldwell, 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0ER, 0BB, 2K, 3TBF, 11P, 2B, 9S.
Hitting: HR, D. Blakney (CP); 2B, D. Blakney, C. Hall, S. Caldwell (CP).
