Griffins’ ace Stanley McManus gave it his all on the mound, but it was not enough to keep Camden from picking up their second win over Fairfield this season.
CAMDEN- Camden baseball got the better of the Griffins in their second regional match-up on of the season. The Bulldogs stepped out an 8-2 victor in the first contest, and this time they prevailed by the final of 7-2.
Despite the five-run win, this remained a neck and neck game until the sixth inning. Camden’s starting pitcher, Devin Beckley, had his devastating stuff ready, and silenced the Griffins’ bats for most of the night. He allowed just two hits in his complete game performance, did not give up any earned runs and put up 12 K’s.
“We don’t play well on defense,” Griffins’ head coach Scotty Dean said. “We don’t hit the ball very well. How many hits did they have before the sixth inning? Two. That tells me our guys is as good as theirs. We just don’t put it together well. It’s frustrating as all get out, because I know what our players capable of.”
Stanley McManus had a good start on the other side of the mound, giving up just one hit before Camden’s big final inning. McManus struck-out seven in the game.
“When that guy pitches for us, we got a chance to be pretty good,” Dean said. “The score was 3-2 in the bottom of the sixth, that’s the same story that happened in Indian Land. It’s 2-0 in the bottom of the sixth and we find some way to give the game away.”
Neither team could find the scoreboard until Camden put up a run after Nick Butler came around to score on a wild pitch, a problem that plagued the Griffins in the following inning. Errors and wild pitches cost Fairfield two more runs in the fourth, and it also led to a 3-0 hole.
Travious Williams reached first in the top of the fifth, and Tracy Williamson came onto to pinch-run for him. Harvey Smith stepped up the plate and attempted to bring in the runner, but instead took a scary pitch to the head and had to leave the game.
Williamson would come in to score after a Camden error allowed him to touch home and Smith’s pinch-runner reached third, but Beckley rung up two consecutive Griffin batters to end any further threat. Beckley started the sixth off with two-more strikeouts, but Rodric Woodard singled to keep the inning alive.
Beckley walked McManus and Williams to jam the bases up, and after another pitch slipped past the catcher, Woodard came in to score. Beckley got another pivotal strikeout to end the inning and keep the Bulldogs’ 3-2 lead in tact.
Then, in the bottom of the sixth, Camden exploded. They picked-up four runs on three hits after having only one hit in the previous five innings. Tate Abbott and Nick Butler both knocked in RBIs.
Beckley stayed in during the final inning to finish the game, and with a pair of strikeouts and a ground ball he did just that. Fairfield’s next chance at a regional win will be Thursday at home against Indian Land.
“We are capable of being pretty good,” Dean said. “That’s the number two or three ranked team in 3-A baseball. We played baseball with them for about six innings. That don’t mean nothing to nobody unless you pull out a win, and I keep saying we’ll get it together one day then you look up and we only got seven games left.”
FCHS:0-0-0-0-1-1-0-2 CHS:0-0-1-2-0-4-7
Pitching: FCHS – Stanley McManus (L) 5.2 IP, 3H, 7R, 3 ER, 3BB, 7K. Antonio Jackson, .1 IP, 1H, 0R, 0ER, 0BB, 1K. CHS – Devin Beckley (W), CG, 2H, 2R, 0ER, 2BB, 12K.
Hitting: 1B- Rodric Woodard (2), (FCHS); Nick Butler (2), Tyler Maxwell, Tate Abbott, (CHS).
