Griffins senior night

Stanley McManus (10), Tracy Williamson (4), Rodric Woodard (2), Jeff Russell (3), Tydarius Young (7), and Travious Williams (31) take one last photo on senior night. Photo/ Ross Burton

WINNSBORO – The Griffins notched a 9-7 victory over Newberry High on their senior night, their last game before the start of the playoffs. Fairfield jumped ahead 9-2 early, and it was looking like a route in the making, but Newberry battled back to make it a much closer game.

“Good way to finish up the season,” Griffins’ head coach Scotty Dean said. “We got a good baseball team when we throw strikes and put the ball in play, and when we don’t throw strikes and kick it around we’re bad. Today I thought we played pretty good on defense, I think we only had one or two errors, maybe, I think we had a few hits, put up nine runs.”

Newberry actually jumped out to the early lead in the top of the first. Trey Kinard reached on a walk, then swiped second and, after a pick-off attempt went over the third baseman’s head, Kinard crossed the plate easily.

Fairfield wasted no time in re-grouping, putting up two runs in the bottom half of the first frame. Montavious Thompson led off with a single, then stole a base and Rodric Woodard was walked by Bulldogs’ pitcher and former Griffin Ivan Ruff.

Stanley McManus brought both Thompson and Woodard in to score with one swing of the bat for two of his four RBI’s on the night. McManus collected a double, but was tagged out in a close play as he tried to stretch the double into a triple.

An error for the Griffins at shortstop allowed Adam Kessler to score from second and knotted the game back up at 2-2. Fairfield did not answer back in the second, but their bats erupted in the bottom of the third.

Jacob McManus kicked off the third with a fly ball to right that should have been an easy out, but the rightfielder had trouble handling the ball, and McManus reached first. Newberry recorded a strikeout next, but then gave up a walk, an RBI-single, a double, an RBI Double, two hit batters and five-runs before they collected another out.

The 7-2 Griffins lead continued to grow with two more runs in the bottom of the fourth. Montavious Thompson, who was hit by a pitch, score after a couple of errors opened the plate up for him, and Rodric Woodard scored on a Stanley McManus grounder, that left Woodard just enough time to squeak across home.

The 9-2 lead seemed like it would be far too much for the Bulldogs to overcome, but they were not done rallying. A couple of singles and a couple of walks given up by the Griffins, allowed Newberry to put two runs in the top of the fifth.

Newberry followed their two-run fifth with two more in the sixth. A pair of sack flies, along with a walk and hit batter set the stage for the two-run sixth inning.

Fairfield could not plate anymore runs in their half of the sixth, meaning Newberry had three outs remaining to score three-runs and tie up the ball game, and they managed to score one of those but a double-play off the bat of the former Griffin Ivan Ruff put a bow on the game for Fairfield.

“It was 9-2 in the fourth and we wind up making it interesting,” Dean said. “When you got young pitchers and they’re struggling to throw strikes, that kind of thing happens. But I got a lot of confidence in our guys. We start the playoffs on Tuesday. They did a good job making the playoffs.”

Dean took a moment to remember the seniors that would be leaving the team.

“This senior class right here has won a lot of ball games. This is probably the winningest class of seniors other than that 2014 group. Monk’s been playing varsity baseball since seventh grade. Rodric’s been playing a lot of baseball for us. Trey’s a four year starter. Jeff Russell just came out and he’s seemed to be pretty good. I’m gonna miss this group of guys , you can’t replace people like that.”

 

FCHS:2-0-5-2-0-0-X-9

NHS: 1-1-0-0-2-2-1-7

Hitting: 1B- Montavious Thompson, Stanley McManus (FCHS) Adam Kesler, Alec Blackmon (2), Tramas Ruff (2), Bentrez Douglas, Riley Summer (NHS). 2B- Stanley McManus, Travious Williams, Antonio Jackson

Pitching: WP-Jacob McManus, LP- Ivan Ruff

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