Larry Hewett/Clarendon Citizen
Cheraw tames Manning-Santee, drops to 3-7
Post 68 saw its overall record drop to 3-7 after a 14-6 loss to Cheraw Post 23 Tuesday night at Monarch Field. The visitors from the upstate brought a potent offense to town as all nine starters registered at least one base hit, nineteen overall as a team.
Gunner Freeman got things started with a one out triple in the top of the first and scored on Johnathan Stokes’ sacrifice fly. Juju Steen and Taylor King collected two out hits as did pitcher Dakota Croxton, enabling two more runs to score.
Mike Keels lead off the bottom of the first with a double to left and, one out later, scored on Trevor Morris’ sacrifice fly to center.
Post 23 built their lead to 5-1 until Manning-Santee scored twice in the sixth. Again, Keels got on board with a lead-off triple and crossed home plate via Ericson Coker’s sac fly, Morris reached on an error on the third baseman, then scored on Heath Smith’s RBI double.
But Cheraw put their bats in high gear over the final three innings, putting nine runs on the scoreboard, highlighted by a 5-run eighth.
Manning-Santee was only able to tack on three more runs to the home side of the scoreboard, however. Keels, who went 4 for 5 on the night, rapped an RBI single in the seventh, then drove in two more with his second triple of the evening in the eighth.
Freeman paced Post 23, going 5 for 5 and was hit by a pitch.
Post 68 falls to Sumter
A two-run first inning provided Manning-Santee with an early lead but the boys in blue stalled after that, dropping an 18-2 decision to the P-15’s Thursday evening in Manning.
After Sumter scored once in the first without benefit of a base hit, Manning-Santee tagged P-15 starting pitcher Taylor A. Smith with four consecutive one-out hits. Ericson Coker doubled and Trevor Morris followed with a single. Heath Smith then drove Coker home with a base hit and Morris came around on Aubrey McFadden’s RBI single.
But the Sumter left hander put the handcuffs on the Post 68 bats for the remainder of the contest. At one stretch, Smith retired nineteen straight Manning-Santee batters before surrendering a pair of two-out walks in the seventh.
The loss was Manning-Santee’s fourth straight and eighth on the season against three victories.
