Man's Jace Adkins (10) steals second base as Logan's Cole Blankenship's (4) awaits the throw from catcher Jake Ramey during the third inning of Logan's 9-5 win over Man Thursday night at William Tootie Carter Field (Photo by Boothe Davis/Captured by the Moment Photography).
Bill Lusk | WVOW Sports
MAN Garrett Williamson allowed one hit across four innings and drove in two runs to help Class AA No. 1 Logan to a 9-5 win over county rival and Class A No. 4 Man Thursday night at William Tootie Carter Field.
Williamson walked one, struck out seven and didn’t allow a hit until Jace Adkins singled with two outs in the third inning. Williamson also had two hits at the plate for Logan.
Dawson Maynard had two hits and two RBIs and Konner Lowe had a key two-run single in a four-run fourth inning.
Logan led 1-0 on Maynard’s sacrifice fly in the top of the first. The Wildcats broke the game open with a four-run fourth inning off Man starting pitcher Braxton Messer.
Maynard singled and Williamson was hit by a pitch to start the inning. A wild pitch moved Maynard to third and courtesy runner Conner Mullins to second. Lowe followed with a two-run single to plate Maynard and Mullins for a 3-0 lead.
A bases loaded walk to Ryan Roberts scored Lowe to make it 4-0 and Aiden Slack scored on a throwing error to give Logan a 5-0 lead.
Messer allowed four runs on three hits in 4 1/3 innings but struggled with command throughout the contest. He struck out seven, walked six and hit two batters.
Logan scored three runs in the sixth inning to take an 8-0 lead. Maynard started the scoring with a two-out single to score Mullins and Williamson followed with a two-run single scoring Adam Baisden and Maynard.
Man got on the board with three runs in the bottom of the sixth to cut the deficit to 8-3. Adkins singled and came around to score on a fielding error for Man’s first run of the contest. Messer’s single scored Cam Gerace to make it 8-2 and Messer scored on John McCoy’s single to round out the scoring.
Logan tacked on one additional run in the seventh inning on Baisden’s sacrifice fly to increase its lead to 9-3.
Man wouldn’t go away quietly and plated two runs in the seventh inning. Bo Thompson narrowly missed a grand slam and had to settle for a single to score Adkins making it 9-4 and Gerace scored on Kaden Dickerson’s RBI groundout to make it 9-5.
Man would get no closer as Cross Conn got McCoy to fly out to right to end the game.
Messer had two hits and one RBI and Adkins had two hits and scored two runs for Man. Dickerson, McCoy and Thompson each had one hit and one RBI and Gerace had a double and scored two runs.
Baisden had one hit and one RBI and Jake Ramey had one hit for Logan.
Slack pitched a scoreless inning of relief allowing no hits, striking out one and walking two. Luke Blankenship allowed three runs on five hits in 1/3 inning and Conn allowed two runs on two hits, struck out one and walked one in 1 2/3 innings for Logan.
Gerace tossed 2 2/3 innings of relief for Man allowing four runs on four hits with two strikeouts and three walks.
Logan improved to 6-2 with the win while Man fell to 6-2 with the loss. Both teams will be back in action starting Monday at the Mingo Bay Classic at Myrtle Beach, SC.
Logan will face Heritage (Leesburg, VA) Monday afternoon at 2 p.m. at St. James High School. The Wildcats will see action Tuesday afternoon at 2 pm against the Riverside (Leesburg, VA) at Socastee High School and close poll play on Wednesday afternoon at 2 p.m. against the Robinson (Fairfax, VA) at Socastee High School.
Man will face Class AAA Buckhannon-Upshur at 9 a.m. Monday morning at Myrtle Beach High School. The Hillbillies will face Class AA Lewis County at 11:30 Tuesday morning at Loris High School and will close out play Wednesday morning against Chester (SC) at 9 a.m. at Myrtle Beach High School.