Manning-Santee ends regular season with 12-8 record; begins playoffs

Playing with a chip on their shoulders gave the Manning-Santee Post 68 American Legion baseball team a way to peak at the right time.

Manning ended its 2011 regular season schedule with a 3-1 record last week and 12-8 overall.

They began the week with a 15-6 loss to Dalzell on June 27, but rebounded with three wins over Camden, Hartsville and Cheraw.

On June 28, Manning defeated Camden 7-3.

Pitcher Zan Beasley pitched a complete game giving up one earned run, four hits, three walks and gathered six strikeouts.

Camden threw one of their ace pitchers in Will Dorton and Manning still had a good night at the plate accumulating 11 hits.

Heath Smith went three-for-four with two doubles and three RBIs. Michael Keels followed as he went two-for-four and everyone else had singles.

The win improved Manning-Santee’s record to 10-8.

On June 30, Manning-Santee hosted Hartsville and won a decisive 14-4 battle.

Matt Mays got the start on the mound and threw four innings.

He allowed four runs, four hits, two strikeouts and four walks.

Corey Brown came in after four and closed the game allowing two hits, five strikeouts and two walks.

Heath Smith led in batting going two-for-four.

Smith, Michael Keels and Chris Kellahan all had homeruns.

Corey Brown went two-for-three and Manning-Santee accumulated 12 hits in the game.

The 10-run victory improved Manning’s record to 11-8 overall.

On July 1, Manning-Santee traveled to Cheraw to play their final regular season game.

The result was a 19-8 blowout win for Manning-Santee.

Jamal Keels started on the mound and threw six innings allowing eight ruins, four hits and three strikeouts.

Kevin Cox relieved Keels after six and did not allow any hits or runs and had three strikeouts.

Keels went four-for-six, Michael Keels went three-for-five, Heath Smith went four-for-five with two homeruns, Chris Kellahan went two-for-four, Shuler Ward went three-for-four, Zach Graham went three-for-six including two doubles and Will McNair got his first homerun of the season.

The victory gave Manning the 12-8 record to close the regular season. They finished in third place … just a game behind Camden at 13-7.

“We hit the ball better,” said Head Coach G.G. Cutter. “We played pretty good defense. We had clutch hits. I’m proud of the way we focused. We’ve got a good bunch of boys who pulled together.”

Manning-Santee opened the state playoffs Monday evening against Conway and the result was a loss in a 16-14 slugfest.

“It was probably the worst defensive game we’ve played all year long,” said Cutter. “It was just one of those game where we hit the ball well, but defensively we gave them too many easy scores.”

Pitcher Zan Beasley started on the mound and threw four innings while giving up eight runs and eight hits.

Zach Graham came in to relieve and did not fare much better.

He finished the game giving up eight runs and six hits.

Manning walked seven total batters, committed six errors and left 13 men on base and Cutter said those were culprits in the loss.

“That just added to the misery,” he said.  

Mike Keels was the leading batter going five-for-five with a double, four singles and three RBIs.

Chris Kellahan was the other batter with multiple hits with two; he also had two RBIs.

Everyone else had just one hit on the night.

“We just didn’t make routine plays,” Cutter said. “We need to focus. This is not a do or die situation right now.”

The loss drops Manning-Santee’s record to 12-9 overall.

They will play Conway again tonight at home at 7:30 p.m. in the second game of the best-of-five series.

If Manning wins the series, they will play the winner of the Sumter-Summerville series next week, also a best-of-five series.