Laurence Manning Defeats Orangeburg Prep 8-2 In SCISA Baseball Action
By Billy G. Baker
Publisher
Manning—Two of the better teams in SCISA baseball, for the 2025 season, Laurence Manning (10-1) and Orangeburg Prep (11-2) faced each other in a non-region game on March, 27th and the Swampcats took advantage of five errors to claim a 8-2 win.
Both teams will be in action 24 hours later. LMA travels to play at Hilton Head Chrisitan while O-P will host Colleton Prep.
After the game, veteran LMA head coach Tom Hatfield shared his thoughts with the HSSR, “We are starting to get some kids back who have been dealing with injuries, our pitching staff is solid and out hitting coach Rodney Mooneyham works every day with our hitters and he does a good job.
“We just need to be more consistent and I thought we took too many fastballs tonight,” said Coach Hatfield. “Orangeburg Prep is a fine ball club and they came into the game tonight at 10-1. We like challenges in mid-week games.
“We used three pitchers tonight, and had them all on pitch counts so we can use them, if needed against Hilton Head Christian tomorrow,” said Coach Hatfield. “I thought they all performed well tonight.
“The potential of this team, with the depth we have in our pitching staff, I feel like we can make a serious run in the play-offs,” said Coach Hatfield. “One of our main pitchers (Braydon Barnhill) is not back yet but we expect to have him back soon and he was one of our main pitchers last year. I think we can make a run at it (state championship) if we can keep everybody healthy.”
Orangeburg Prep head coach Tate Jameson also talked with the HSSR after the game. “We have a packed schedule this season (26 games) and I always like to play more then we practice,” said Coach Jameson. “We have a group of veteran guys whop just love to come to the ball park and play baseball and that is what we are about.”
Coach Jameson was complimentary of pitcher Hunter Judy going all seven innings for the Indians giving up 8 hits with five strike-outs and no walks. “We could have brought someone in later in the game but I wanted to give Hunter the peace of mind that I was not giving up on him. I just wish we could have hit better behind him and scratched out a run or two every inning but it didn’t happen.
“We talked about not letting errors get the best of you before the game,” said Coach Jameson. “Unfortunately, errors early in the game hurt our chances for a win tonight.”
The Indians have seven senior starters, including one junior (T Riley) and one 9th grader (Landon Kuck) along with Charlie McCutchen who pitches and catches for us. Bryon Williams is a pitcher, catcher, middle infielder, Judy is a pitcher, catcher, middle infielder, and Riley is in center with Tadd Jameson in left, and Mo Burroughs is at first, and Eli Pantaleon is at short and pitches also. Kuck is our third baseman.
“Tonight was a half-way night because we have now played 13 games with 13 more to go in the regular season,” said Coach Jameson. “Hopefully, we can bounce back from this game. Coach Hatfield has an excellent squad and I am glad we were able to compete against them, even though we did not quite measure up to them. I hope we learn something from this game and move on.”

LMA was led at the plate against O-P by Brenston Rembert who had two hits, three RBI’s, including a triple. Starting pitcher Ray Weston had two hits and two RBI’s while working 3.2 innings on the mound. First baseman DJ Balls had one hit and one RBI, Center fielder ZY Dennis had one hit and one RBI and catcher Cade Mooneyham had one hit in the win.
The other two LMA pitchers in this game were Seth Witherspoon and Grayson Thornton who had four K’s in two innings of work. Other LMA starters against O-P included shortstop Grainger Powell, second baseman Payton Brown, right fielder Rory Carter, and left fielder Pierson Gamble.
O-P was led on offense by Mason Tyler who had two hits, one RBI and two stolen bases. Riley, a gold glove center fielder who has 9 major college football offers to date, contributed one hit, while Jameson had a hit and one RBI. McCutchen, who hopes to play baseball at The Citadel, had one hit, while Williams also had one hit.
