Manning-Santee drops 15-6 decision to Dalzell

It was a game where they took a big lead but failed to finish hammering the nails in the coffin.

The Manning-Santee Post 68 American Legion baseball team suffered its eighth loss of the season following a 15-6 decision to the Dalzell Jets Monday evening at Monarch field.

Manning-Santee’s Mike Keels opened the game with a triple.

He sent the 1-1 pitch to deep center field ... mere feet short of going over for a homerun.

Jack Martin, Jamal Keels and Heath Smith all followed with singles and runs.

Before they blinked, Manning was standing with a 4-0 lead with no outs.

However, that is the best baseball they played all night.

Post 68 allowed Dalzell to creep back in and ultimately take complete control of the game.

“We jumped ahead and we seemed to get into a lull,” said Head Coach G.G. Cutter. “You can’t let them back in. They’ve got a good enough team where you can’t do that. Once you get them down, you’ve got to continue and we didn’t do it.”

Dalzell pitcher Jeremy Buckner threw a complete game allowing six runs, one walk, 13 hits and five strikeouts.

“Their pitcher wasn’t anything special but he worked on us,” Cutter said.

Jamal Keels was Manning’s leading batter going four-for-five with three singles and a run.

Shuler Ward followed going three-for-five with two singles and an RBI.

Mike Keels, Jack Martin, Heath Smith, Douglas Ard, Rashad Murphy and Zach Graham all had hits.

Manning was trailing 8-6 in the eighth inning but what put the game away was a three-run shot by Buckner.

That put them ahead 11-6 and Manning did not answer.

The loss drops Manning-Santee to 9-8 overall.

Their next game will be tonight (Tuesday) in Camden at 7 p.m.