“New” Manning baseball head coach Raymond Gibbs trying to rebuild program

            Manning – Raymond Gibbs is in his first season as the baseball head coach for Manning High School. However, Gibbs is far from new to the Monarchs program.

           Gibbs has been an assistant coach with the program. He also played for Manning in the late 1980s when the program was in its prime.

           Gibbs was a slick fielding third baseman who was teammates with no less than five players who would go on to play professional baseball. They were Glenn Murray, who played Major League Baseball with the Philadelphia Phillies, Ned Darley, Anthony Briggs, Freddie Gamble and Ronald York.

           So the Monarchs baseball program means something to Gibbs. His goal is to make it a consistent winning program.

           “We're trying to build a program,” said Gibbs, whose team won two of its first nine games and was 0-4 in Region 7-AAA. “This is my first year as the head of the program, and we’re having to build from the ground up.”

          Gibbs took over a program that went 5-16 last season The Monarchs didn’t finish in the top four in the 6-team Region 7 and missed out on the state playoffs.

          While Manning returns six starters from last year’s squad, Gibbs said he and his coaching staff of Greg King, Rashad Hilton and Jaron Butler are having to do more than coach.

           “We've got to teach them how to play,” Gibbs said. “What we’re trying to do is recruit athletes and help them learn the game. They don't play enough baseball to really have a feel for the game.”

           The returning starters are seniors RJ Cantey, Eli Batten and Miles Farmer and juniors Lucas Peters, CJ Joye and Brandin Scott. The newcomers to the starting lineup are junior Ja’Rae Mitchell, freshman Courtney Robinson and junior Chandler Avant.

           Mitchell is not only a newcomer to the starting lineup, but a newcomer to the program as well. He is in his first year at Manning and was the starting quarterback on the football team. He is the leadoff hitter and is playing both shortstop and second base.

           Cantey bats second and pitches and plays in the middle infield. Joye and Peters fill the 3 hole and cleanup spot in the order. Both pitch, catch and play first base. Farmer bats fifth and splits time between right field and first base and also pitches.

           Farmer led Manning in hitting last year, finishing with a .333 batting average. Cantey batted .313 with eight runs batted in, while Peters batted .211 with eight runs batted in. Joye only batted .100 but had six runs batted in and a .313 on-base percentage by drawing 15 walks. Batten had a .176 batting average, while Scott batted .121.

           Cantey is a threat when he reaches base as he had 15 stolen bases last year.

           The remainder of the batting order has Scott batting sixth followed by Batten, Robinson and Avant. Scott plays third base and does some catching, Batten plays center field and pitches, Robinson plays outfield, and Avant sees time both on the infield and in the outfield.

           Cantey and Peters were the top two starting pitchers last year. Both are right-handers. Cantey worked 32 innings and finished with a 2-3 win-loss record and a 3.94 earned run average. Peters accumulated 33 2/3 innings and finished 1-2 with a 3.95 ERA. Joye is being used in relief after going 1-2 with a 2.44 ERA in 23 innings last year.

           Farmer, a lefty, worked 15 innings last year and had an 8.24 earned run average. He is getting some starts. Senior Carter Miller saw some mound time as well. Senior lefty Damion Martinez, Batten and freshman Johnathan White are getting innings as well.

           Martinez and White are two of five players who were part of Manning’s junior varsity team last year. The others are junior outfielder Ky’lik Montgomery, junior third baseman/first baseman Evan Burgess and junior outfielder Mark Locklear. Junior outfielder Ashtyn Palmer is in his first season at Manning.

           Gibbs is hoping having a steady junior varsity program will be a reliable developer of talent and become a solid feeder program

           The Monarchs’ region losses have come in 2-game series against Dillon and Georgetown. The rest of the region schedule includes Aynor, Loris and Waccamaw, each of which represented the region in the state playoffs last year along with Georgetown.

           In one of the games against Georgetown, the Monarchs took a 3-2 lead into the bottom of the fifth inning. However, a bases-clearing double by Georgetown made it 5-3 in what turned out to be a 12-4 loss for Manning.

           “We've got to learn how to finish,” Gibbs said. “We're playing better baseball. We're having some good innings. We’ve just got to be able to close out games.

           “We do a pretty good job in practice,” Gibbs added. “We’ve got to translate what we do in practice on to the field in a game.”

           Gibbs said the emphasis he and his coaching staff had for the players prior to the season was trying to grab a spot from the region in the state playoffs.

           “We're starting to get into the flow of baseball,” Gibbs said. “We're almost there. We’re just very inconsistent. We've still got a little ways to go. We had to make some adjustments. If we’re going to make the playoffs, we’ve got to beat some of them that we’ve got left.”