Dillon sets up showdown with Loris with 15-0, 3-inning win over Manning

            Manning – The Dillon High School softball team knew it had a game against Loris, its Region 7-AAA foe that it knocked out of last year’s state playoffs in the lower state tournament, waiting for it on Friday. However, for that game to have any real significance, the Wildcats had to dispatch of Manning on Tuesday.

           DHS made sure a victory was never in doubt, scoring six runs in the first inning on the way to a 15-0, 3-inning mercy rule win at the MHS field.

           “They took care of business,” said Dillon head coach Stevie Grice, whose team improved to 13-4 on the season. “We hit the ball well. We had to give Paige Sherman a break on the mound. We pitched our No. 2, Cierra Grice, and she did a good job. She gave up just one hit. 

 “We play Loris at home Friday. It’s for second place in the region. and a home game in the playoffs (in the first round of the district tournament). We'll either be at home or going to the Lowcountry (for a road game as a No. 3 seed.”

 Dillon and Loris, which is 19-6 overall, are both 6-3 in region play. Both lost their two region games against defending state champion Aynor, and Loris beat Dillon 3-1 in the first meeting between the teams. However, the Lions lost to Georgetown to set this up as a straight-up showdown for second, no tiebreakers involved.

The Wildcats only had two hits in the first inning on Tuesday, but four Monarch errors, three walks, several wild pitches and a passed ball helped them post the six runs.

 Junior Cierra Grice led off the game with a double. The other hit of the inning was a run-scoring single by sophomore Alyssa Lee.

 Grice led off the 3-run second with an inside-the-park home run. Sophomore Makenna Meekins followed with a double, and she scored on a 1-out single by Sherman, a senior who has signed with Lander. Sherman eventually came home on a wild pitch.

 DHS put up another 6-spot in the third, but it appeared Manning would get out of the inning with minimal damage. Seventh-grader Kanyla Tanksley struck out to lead off the inning but reached base on a passed ball. Manning eighth-grade pitcher Shay Epps retired Grice and Meekins – with Tanksley scoring on Meekins’ groundout – to make it 10-0 with two outs.

 Junior MaKayla Huggins and Sherman both reached on an error and that opened the floodgate for five more quick runs. Lee had an RBI double, junior Mariah Campbell had a triple and eighth-grader Cecilia Grider and freshman pinch hitter Tristan Dove had RBI singles.

 Grice, a Presbyterian commitment and the daughter of Coach Grice, and Lee both had two hits. Sherman scored three runs while Grice, Meekins, Huggins, Lee and Campbell all scored twice. Lee had two runs batted in while Grice, Meekins, Sherman, Grider, eighth-grader Wanaysia Hughes and Dove each had one.

 Grice allowed two runners to reach base in her three innings of work against MHS, which finished winless in its 10 region games. Monarch junior Imari Fulton led off the second with a base hit. She was forced out at second on a fielder’s choice by sophomore Tara Billups. She reached second on a passed ball before Grice struck out the next two batters.

MHS senior Hope Dingle drew a 1-out walk in the third. However, she was forced out on a game-ending double play involving Grice, Sherman at shortstop and freshman first baseman Haiden Eller.

 Coach Grice said his team has played above his expectations this year because of its youth. The Wildcats lost three starters, including catcher Logan Grice, also Coach Grice's daughter who is now playing at PC. She was the Region Player of the Year last season.

“We lost some key pieces last year,” the head coach said. “We've got a lot of seventh- and eighth-graders out there. Our youngsters have come along. We've done a little better than I thought, but not as good as I would like. Our expectations are to win a state championship.”

And Grice believes that's a distinct possibility because of having Sherman in the circle.

“We've got a lot of bumps and bruises this year, but Paige Sherman has kept us in the games on the mound,” he said.

Sherman has a 10-4 win-loss record and has worked 97 innings. She has 129 strikeouts, a 1.52 earned run average and opponents are batting .206 against her.

“She's going to pound the zone, she's going to keep you off balance, she's going to give you a chance to win every game. She's been that for five years,” Coach Grice said of Sherman, who has 634 strikeouts in her career.

Grice and Sherman both have batting averages in the high .400s. Third baseman Lee, catcher Huggins and centerfielder Meekins have all been hitting the ball well, according to Grice. He calls Lee the team’s most improved player this season.

 While Manning went winless in the region, it has won its four non-region contests. The Monarchs have two road games left this week, playing at Lake Marion on Wednesday and at Crestwood on Thursday to close out the season.

 MHS head coach Catherine Mahoney has not been surprised by the team’s region struggles this year.

“This season has been pretty much what I expected,” said Mahoney, who is in her second year as head coach after a long tenure as an assistant coach. “We're in a very tough region, and at any time I had five to six seventh- and eighth-graders out there. We're a very young team We're losing four seniors, but only one of them is a starter, so the future is looking bright. The region we play in -- Dillon Aynor, Loris -- we're just out of the league with them.”

 The lone senior starter is third baseman Marti Leigh Jones. Sharing time on the mound with Epps is seventh-grader Ameera Conyers, who played first on Tuesday. Billups is the shortstop while eighth-grader Summer York starts in left.

With Manning’s junior varsity team having lost just once this season – and many of these girls floating between varsity and JV – Mahoney is anxious to see what the future holds.

Overall, the team itself is a great team,” she said. “This is probably the best team that has the most potent8ial from any team I've ever coached. The future is bright.

“It definitely makes us excited for the future. We're definitely excited moving regions too, getting something a little more manageable, we think. We’re going down to going down to AA, and we feel like that’s more where we should be.”

 Manning will be part of Region 7-AA beginning next school year with East Clarendon, Lake City, Marion, Mullins, Kingstree and Atlantic Collegiate.

Mahoney is proud of the way her team has handled itself throughout the season.

“Our strength is our attitude,” she said. “We’ve stayed positive for the entire season. This is a great group of girls, the best I've coached. They didn't get down on each other. We took some butt kickings and they stayed with it.”