WINNSBORO- Fairfield Central pulled off the hat trick on Friday night, by picking up their third win of the year against in town foe Richard Winn. Once again, it took the Griffins just five innings to claim an 11-1 victory over the Eagles.
“Yesterday we started the game off with about seven errors,” Fairfield head coach Scotty Dean said. “Today it felt good to come out and play good solid clean baseball.”
Jacob McManus, the younger of the two McManus brothers, toed the rubber for the Griffins, and delivered a doozy of a performance. The freshman struck out seven in his five innings of work, allowed only two hits and the sole Richard Winn run was unearned.
“He walked more than I would have liked him too,” Dean said. “But the young guys up there are going to throw some balls and walk some people. One inning he threw about six pitches and made two of the outs his self. Out of the 15 outs we had I bet you he made about five of them. I think he is going to be really good. He’s a tall long guy. When he decides to cut one loose he has a little pop, he has a curveball, and I like his changeup. So we’re really looking forward to him growing up.”
His brother Stanley McManus delivered with the bat. He went 3-4 on the night, with three RBI’s and also accounted for three Griffin runs.
One of McManus’s RBI’s and his runs came in the first inning of play. Montavious Thompson and Chris Simmons also delivered a pair of RBI’s in the first frame, to give Fairfield the early 3-0 advantage.
The only snag the Griffins pitching hit came in the second inning. McManus led off with a walk, gave up his only two hits of the night and Richard Winn scored their sole run, when Ethan McManus rounded third and scored, on an error.
Richard Winn’s second inning run trimmed the deficit to two, but that would not last long because in the bottom half of the inning Fairfield unleashed seven runs on three hits. Stanley McManus delivered two more of his RBI’s, Antonio Jackson came up with a big RBI-single, Jacob McManus gave himself some run support with a RBI-double and the Eagles walked six additional Griffin batters.
“It’s a non-region game, we’re trying to get some of our less experienced guys a little bit more experience,” Richard Winn head coach Paul Brigman said. “We just couldn’t find the strike-zone, we walked too many batters but it definitely felt like we were in the ball game up until that point.”
Fairfield padded their lead with an additional run in the bottom of the third when Tydarius Young brought Stanley McManus home with an RBI-single. This gave Fairfield the 11-1 lead.
Meanwhile, after a rough second inning, Jacob McManus found his groove. He sat down the side with just six pitches in the bottom of third, then faced very little opposition in the fourth and finally closed things down with two strikeouts in the last inning.
“We want to win them all,” Brigman said. “But we realize that, you know to develop some of the players we gotta take our lumps in games like this. We’re young, and we’re going to get better but right now it’s just important to get some guys experience.”
This game marked both team’s final contest until after the Spring Break holiday. Fairfield will head to Chester after the break, and Richard Winn will take on PAC.
FCHS: 3-7-1-0-x-11
RWA: 0-1-0-0-0-1
Hitting: 1B- Montavious Thompson, Stanley McManus (3), Antonio Jackson, Chris Simmons, Tydarius Young (FCHS); Peyton Gilbert, Will Carvalho (RWA). 2B- Jacob McManus (FCHS).
Pitching: WP- Jacob McManus. LP- Will Carvalho
