Jeffery Truesdale slides into a bang-bang play at second base. | DeAnna Robinson
WINNSBORO – The Fairfield Central Griffins were routed 17-4 on Friday night by the home-fielded Chester Cyclones, but on Tuesday the Griffins had a shot for retribution when they hosted Chester. Despite falling behind 3-0 after the top half of the first inning, Fairfield got their redemption with a tough fought 7-5 victory.
“I’m speechless,” Griffins’ head coach Scotty Dean said. “We hit the ball, we competed, we played the game the way it was supposed to be played. We ran, we was on the bases, we put the ball in pay with runners in scoring position.”
Cyclone’s designated hitter Anthony McCullough started the game off with a walk, and JD Carter followed him up with a single. Both McCullough and Walker came around to score on fielding errors. Jordan Price bumped Chester’s early lead to 3-0 with a grounder that plated Danny Vess.
Fairfield did not take long to cut into the Chester lead. Chazzi Jones led off the Griffin’s half of the inning with a single, and the next batter, Montavious Thompson, followed suit. Antonio Jackson scored Jones with a ground-ball RBI.
After Jackson’s at bat trimmed the lead to two, Harvey Smith delivered a hard-hit single to score Thompson from second. Smith would later be tagged going for home on a Taylor Truesdale single.
Griffins’ starting pitcher Jacob McManus rebounded well after a tough first inning, and Chester did not score again until the fourth. McManus delivered another solid outing for Fairfield. He tossed a complete game, only allowing one earned run and striking out six.
“Number 10 is going to be pretty special,” Dean said of McManus. “He throws all three pitches for strikes, he throws his fastball, his changeup, his curveball all for strikes and he’s not afraid of the moment.”
Jalen Jackson’s base-hit started the second inning off on a positive note, and Montavious Thompson brought Jackson home with an RBI-double. Later in the second, an error at first base cost Chester two more runs and the lead.
Jefferey Truesdale put the cherry on top of a brilliant Fairfield second with an RBI-single that drove in the Griffins’ fourth run of the inning. Errors cost the Griffins again in the fourth when one allowed Preston Kirby to score.
The Griffins pushed the lead to 7-4 on yet another Cyclone fielding error, but Kirby scored again in the sixth due to a Griffin error.
Chester threatened the lead in the sixth after they loaded bases with just one out, down by just two. McManus shut the door on the threat after he popped up Luke Wright and struck-out Vess.
McManus fished the Cyclones off with a pair of strikeouts in the top of the seventh.
“We’ve got a lot of young baseball guys that’s still learning how to play, but I think we got a chance to be pretty good,” Dean said. “Chester beat us 17-4 last week and we just took all the stuff that gets you pressing in baseball out of it and we just played hard. It just feels good to come out and compete.”
FCHS:2-4-0-0-1-0-X-7
CHS:3-0-0-1-0-1-0-5
PITCHING: FCHS – Jacob McManus (W) CG, 5H, 5R, 1ER, 5BB, 6K. CHS – Cody Harris (L), 2IP, 8H, 6R, 4ER. Kendrick Macabee, 4IP, 0H, 1R, 0ER, 4BB, 2K.
HITTING: 1B – Chazzi Jones, Montavious Thompson, Harvey Smith, Taylor Truesdale, Chris Simmons, Jalen Jackson., Jeffery Truesdale (FCHS). JD Carter, Ant McCullough, Preston Kirby, Danny Vess (CHS).2B – Montavious Thompson (FCHS). Preston Kirby (CHS).