Never let them see you sweat. Those are words to live by if you are an underarm manufacturer. The phrase comes in pretty handy if you are a pitcher who is protecting a one-run lead in a game which determined the conference championship.
Going about his business in a relaxed, unfazed manner, Camden Byer Ware did not nurse his 2-1 advantage in last Friday’s game with visiting Marlboro County as much as he seemed to embrace the tight quarters.
Ware, a senior right-hander, protected that slim one-run cushion as he weaved his way through the MC offense for 6.1 innings before handing the baton to Zechariah Haney, who got the final two outs of the evening as the Bulldogs won their first region title in seven years with a 2-1 win in a twice-delayed game played at American Legion Park.
The win, which came after a lightning threat in the area forced the game to be delayed for 45 minutes before the contest was interrupted for 19 minutes by a rainstorm in the top of the third, gave Denny Beckley’s troops a 9-0 mark in Region 6-AAA play and a 16-5-1 overall record with one league lefty to be played on Wednesday against Lakewood.
Ware, a senior right-hander, improved to 6-1 on the season in a 109-pitch effort in which he allowed five hits with a dozen strikeouts before being lifted due to pitch count regulations. Throughout the long night, Ware was a picture of composure and coolness.
“He’s one of most poised people I’ve ever been around,” Beckley said of Ware and his mound demeanor. “A lot of people call it lackadaisical, but he’s one of baseball-smartest people I’ve ever coached. He has tremendous poise and he doesn’t get rattled.
“I’m just super-proud of his performance. I’m glad he’s on our side.”
In a pairing between the top two teams and the only ones in 6-AAA to have a shot at the conference crown, Camden entered Friday’s encounter with a 12-run cushion should it and MC split the season series. Beckley and company closed Tuesday’s game in Bennettsville by scoring 13 runs in the final two innings to come away with a 19-7 victory.
This game had little semblance to that one as the two sides collected five hits each while Ware found himself hooked up in a pitcher’s duel with MC righty Triston Quick, who blanked the hosts over the final four frames.
On a back end of a two-game set which opened with a Camden blowout three nights earlier, Beckley was wary that his troops may have come into the game a bit overconfident.
“As a coach, you always worry about the mindset of teenagers, but I believe in our guys. I told them that I believed in them,” he said. “We warned them about being overlooking Marlboro County. I told that that was from being a coach and being, maybe, paranoid or, just being a coach.
“I believed in our guys having the right mindset and I believe that they did tonight.”
Ware, who lowered his earned run average to 1.33 on the season, was touched up for a run in the top of the first when Ty Kickery reached on a one-out fielders’ choice and later scored from third when Cam Hunt legged out a two-out infield single.
The hosts got the run back for Ware in their first go-through as Kade Bell led off the home half of the first by working Quick for a walk before stealing second. Bell evened things, two batters later, when Haney sent a one-out single through the box.
After Ware struck out the side in the second, the Dogs gave him another run in the bottom half of that inning.
Mac Mellichamp led off with a single to left before advancing to second and then third on consecutive ground outs off the bats of Campbell Denton and Chandler Johnson, respectively. Shiver Huggins then sent a two-out single to center which plated Mellichamp with the go-ahead and, eventual, game-winning run.
From there, Quick matched Ware inning-for-inning and pitch-by-pitch.
“He did exactly what we thought was going to happen tonight,” Beckley said of Quick’s performance. “He’s a guy who competed and threw it in there.”
Ware had two more adventurous innings to manage through. The first came in the third after W.J. Allen reached on an error before Kickery reached on a bunt single in an inning halted by rain. Allen would later be gunned down trying to steal third on Haney’s throw to Thomas Bishop before leaving runners hanging on second and third by fanning Jackson James to end the inning.
Meanwhile, Camden’s bid to up the ante to two runs failed in the fourth and fifth inning as two CHS base runners were gunned down on the base paths.
Ware got into a groove in the middle innings as he set down six batters on strikes between the fourth and sixth innings while fanning the side, in order, in the fourth and ending the sixth with back-to-back punch outs.
Carrying a 2-1 edge into the seventh, Ware got Alex Keras to fly out to Denton in left for the first out. Things got interesting when Nycere Smith sent a comebacker to Ware, which glanced off the pitcher’s glove and fell to the ground for an infield single. Brevin Locklear, the ninth batter in the MC order, then hit a dribbler toward short on which no play could be made as the guests found themselves with runners on first and second with one gone.
Ware’s pitch count forced Beckley’s hand as he came to the mound to change pitchers with Haney shedding the catcher’s gear to take over on the mound. The junior made quick work of things as he got Allen to fly out to Denton in left on the first pitch for the second out before Kickery grounded to Ware at third who, appropriately, ended the game by stepping on the bag for the third and final out of the inning and game.
The save was the second for Haney who also has a pair of wins to his credit.
A veteran of many close battles with MC in the past, Beckley said he knew his team would be in for a fight in what, for the time being, will be the final league meeting between the rivals.
“I just believe that Marlboro County is a really tough bunch,” he said. “Coach (Ryan) Pierce does a tremendous job with their players. They are a group of competitive kids over there; they always have been and always will be. I just knew that it was going to be a dog fight tonight. I’m just glad we were able to come through early on and then, hang on there at the end.”
