By Mark Carpenter
It was an all-county Southern Hills Athletic Conference baseball match up at Manchester High School on Wednesday afternoon as the host Greyhounds welcomed the Peebles Indians to town. Both teams were coming off conference wins the previous night, Peebles 16-3 at Ripley, and Manchester 8-4 at Eastern Brown. Though it’s early, neither team had lost a conference game, making this contest an important small school battle.
With Dawson Mills on the mound for the Tribe and Jackson Poole getting the starting nod for the Hounds, the game shaped up to be a low-scoring pitcher’s duel and that it turned out to be. On this day, Poole would get the best of the two as the Manchester righty fired a complete game two-hitter, allowing no earned runs and fanning eight as the Greyhounds picked up their third win of the spring, getting two late runs to pull of the 4-2 victory.
“We played hard today, put the ball in play, and Jackson did a great job on the mound,” said Manchester head coach Josh Reaves. “Jackson had one rule today, keep the ball where they can put it in play and he did an outstanding job of that.”
“We’ve got a game plan and this week has gone well for us so far. We didn’t knock in a lot of runs today but we were heads up on the basepaths. That’s my coaching philosophy- let’s make the other team make mistakes, let’s see who has the arms, who has the catcher, etc.”
The Hounds got on the board first on Wednesday, getting to Mills for a single run in the bottom of the second. With one away, Daulton McDonald reached safely on a Peebles throwing error and later raced home on a passed ball to give the home team the early 1-0 lead.
In the bottom of the third, the Hounds added another run when catcher Kyle Reaves knocked a one-out single and he also scored on a passed ball to make it 2-0. The Indians finally got to Poole for a run in the top of the fourth. With one out, Brock Johnson singled to center Johnson advanced to third when Zane Porter reached on an error and scored on a sacrifice fly to center off the bat of Mills.
The Greyhounds added two important insurance runs in their half of the fifth. After the first batter was retired, Cade Colvin singled to right and came around to score when Kyle Reaves blasted a long double off the glove of Peebles center fielder Elijah Jones. Reaves moved to third on the throw to the plate. That turned out to be a key advance as Reaves was able to come home on a ground out to second base by Poole that made it 4-1 Manchester.
The final gasp for the Peebles offense came in the top of the seventh. Porter grounded to third to start the frame, but Mills went all on a throwing error to keep Indian hopes alive. Mills made his way to third and then scored on a steal of home, but Poole struck out Easton Wesley swinging on a 2-2 pitch to finish off his gem and seal the deal for the Hounds.
Poole got the win with his complete game effort, while Mills was the tough luck loser, also throwing a complete game. Kyle Reaves went 3 for 4 and scored two runs to pace the Manchester offense.
The win improved the Greyhounds to 3-3 on the season, still unbeaten at 3-0 in conference play. Peebles dropped to 3-4 on the spring, 2-1 in conference action.
After a Thursday cancellation, the Hounds were slated to host Fayetteville on Friday in SHAC play, then a home doubleheader on Saturday with Sciotoville East.
Peebles will also be in action, weather permitting, on Friday, hosting North Adams in an all-county SHAC affair.
