Swampcats take down First Baptist as teams celebrate Senior Night - just in case

MANNING -- The varsity baseball teams from Laurence Manning Academy and First Baptist School of Charleston met on Friday at Tucker Belangia Diamond for what would normally have been an early-season SCISA 3A matchup.

On this night, however, it represented so much more.

On a day when President Donald Trump declared the coronavirus a national emergency and in a time when many national sports leagues and governing bodies have suspended play or issued cancellations or postponements of seasons and/or major sporting events, this game represented an opportunity for players on both teams to take the field for one last time before what could be at least a 3-week stoppage of play or, in a worst case scenario, the end of their seasons.

The night began with what could be called a "just in case" Senior Night recognition ceremony for LMA's six seniors as well as the 10 seniors on the FBS roster. It was truly a surreal moment for the Swampcat seniors, who came out on the winning side of a 13-3 6-inning contest.

"I know, speaking for all of us, I'm pretty sure, we hate that we have to skip out on almost a whole month of baseball," said Aaron Carlton, a 7-year LMA baseball veteran, dating back to his years in the school's B team program.

"I'm kind of at a loss right now, honestly," said third-year Swampcat infielder Burgess Jordan. "I don't know what's going to happen. We come out here every day and get better and try to do what we can do, but it's something that we can't help so it's out of our control. We just take it day by day and see how things go."

"It's crazy," designated hitter J.T. Stanley said of going through a senior recognition ceremony before the season's fourth game, "because I remember when I was still in the seventh grade playing with the B team, and I'm out here walking out for my so-called Senior Night and not knowing if I'm going to get another game. But we're going to let God work everything out and hopefully we'll be back out here in three weeks."

SCISA executive director and former LMA headmaster Spencer Jordan was in attendance on Friday. While the situation surrounding the coronavirus pandemic is still very fluid, Jordan said SCISA officials will monitor developments every seven to 10 days. The suspension of interscholastic sporting events began on Sunday and will last until at least April 3.

Spencer Jordan said that the senior recognition ceremony was more of a goodwill gesture in an uncertain situation, and he fully expects all SCISA schools to be able to conduct their own Senior Night ceremonies at a later date.

"We actually got word today that some other SCISA schools were doing this, just in case," LMA head coach Barry Hatfield said of the senior recognition. "So we called First Baptist and said we would like to do this for both teams. Me and their coach (Alex Snider) both agreed that we're hoping this is not the situation, but they had 10 seniors and we had ours. They've put too much into this program to possibly lose, you know, some recognition."

While the game itself seemingly took a back seat to all the speculation of what happens next, the Swampcats opened as if it would be a fairly short night. LMA sent 10 batters to the plate in a first inning that saw seven runs plated on four hits, three bases on balls and two Hurricane errors. Austin Geddings dropped a single into right field to open the rally, with the other run-producing hits coming in the form of a Stanley single to center, a Gabe Harris double into the left field corner and a Jackson Brown single up the middle.

LMA would not score again until a 5-run fifth, after FBS had put up one in the second and two in the third. The Swampcats came up just short of ending it in five innings as Harris, who bunted his way on to open the inning and scored on a Keaton Wilds single, hit into an inning-ending fielder's choice with LMA holding a 12-3 lead and the potential game-ending run in scoring position. Geddings added a 2-RBI double while Britton Morris chipped in with an RBI single up the middle.

McKay Wilson toed the rubber as the Hurricanes' third pitcher of the night to open the bottom of the sixth. Hunter Reed drew a walk to open the frame before being retired at second base on a Brandon Rogers fielder's choice. Dalton Brown then lifted a ball into center field that would bring Reed around with the run that would end the game.

While pleased with his team's first-inning success at the plate, Hatfield was disappointed in the offensive lull over the middle innings.

"Unfortunately, that's been our trend this year," said Hatfield, whose team improved to 3-1 overall along with a 1-0 Region III-3A mark. "We kind of lose focus or we change our at-bats, too many pop-ups or not getting the ball into play. Later on tonight, we were basically trying to get base runners and score runs any way we could. We got a couple of hits and it kind of spreads. I'm happy with the way it ended, but we've still got to improve offensively."

After being staked to the early 7-0 lead, LMA starter Buddy Gales surrendered a run in the second after Cody Crawford reached on a passed ball third strike and crossed home plate on a Will Mercer double to right-center field. Gales then walked two with one out in the third, with both coming around to score.

"Buddy has thrown better," Hatfield said. "I got on him a little bit about when you've got a 7-0 or 7-1 lead, you know, you've got to throw strikes. He had that inning where he walked the two guys and they ended up scoring. That changed the 7-1 into 7-3 and there's some light at the end of the tunnel (for First Baptist) after that. But we'll work on that."

Gales pitched five complete innings, striking out five while walking those two and surrendering five hits. Cam Branham pitched a perfect sixth for LMA, striking out the side.

Hatfield said his plan for the coming days and weeks is to keep the team active for as long as possible.

"As long as we are in school, we can practice," Hatfield said. "If we have the option, we will play intrasquad and do things within our group, try to keep things a little bit lighter. At this point in the season, after you've prepared for the season and started, you can't just (stop). It gets very boring very quick, so we'll work on some things that we need to get batter at and do a little inter-squading, get some pitchers in better physical shape, just kind of go that route."

Hatfield's seniors still feel there is a lot on the line and are looking forward to a potential season restart.

"I've been in the baseball program for about seven years now and I have a lot of hope for this year," Stanley said. "Last year we came up short and this year we can do the same thing (make it to the championship series) and come out on top. The way the season has gone so far, we've just got to keep battling this little stop right here an we've just got to work during this hiatus. Keep working to get better and be firing on all cylinders when we get back out here.

"We're going to be out here working our butts off. Just because the games stop for a few weeks doesn't mean that we stop. So we're just going to get better while we can."