Post 1 finishes off Manning

FLORENCE — There are pluses and minuses to winning a best-of-5 series in three games.

The upside is a team has a few days before it has to play again.

A downside is a coach has to worry about how his players take care of themselves during the layoff.

After Florence Post 1 defeated Manning Post 68 9-3 on Wednesday night for a sweep in the first round of the Legion state playoffs, Post 1 coach Derick Urquhart was already dealing with those issues.

He said Post 1 will work out Friday and Sunday before opening its second-round series against either Goose Creek or Lake City at Legion Field on Monday at 7 p.m.

“The sweep helps. It’s a long season in the summer heat, and it’s good for these guys to get a couple days away from it,” Urquhart said. “The days we do come out, it will be light practices — swing the bats, take ground balls and try to stay sharp.

“The bad thing about winning a series in three games is a lot of your bullpen guys don’t get a lot of work that they need. We’re not going to complain, though. We got the three wins and we’re going to get ready for the next series.”

Post 1 showed both sides of its potent offense Wednesday night.

In the second inning, they blasted their way to a 3-0 lead on a two-run home run from Charlie Abbott and a solo shot from Philip Herring.

And after Manning tied things 3-3 with three runs in the third, Post 1 manufactured runs in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings to wrap up the series.

“We started (manufacturing runs) in the second game of the series (Tuesday) night,” Urquhart said. “We got some runners on, started playing a little small ball, bunting and kind of carried that into tonight.”

With the game tied 3-3, Cody Ritch singled to lead off the sixth inning and was bunted to second by Philip Herring.

After Keaton Lutcken walked, Kyle Johnson singled to center to score Ritch and give Florence a 4-3 lead.

Keith Branco added an RBI single and Michael Wilson had an RBI groundout in the inning to push Post 1’s lead to 6-3.

Florence made it 7-3 in the seventh when Tyler Boyd reached on an infield single, stole second, took third off a throwing error on the play and scored on a single to left by Herring.

Post 1 pushed across two runs in the eighth for the game’s final margin.

A lead-off walk from Wilson, a bunt single from Chandler Smetana and a sacrifice bunt from Boyd put runners at second and third.

Abbott followed with a sac fly to center before Ritch ripped an RBI single to right to make it 9-3.

Robbie Brown pitched 8 1/3 innings for the win. The left-hander gave up seven hits, three runs, walked two and struck out nine.

Hunter Gregg got the last two outs in the ninth, striking out one.

“Robbie was at 120 pitches. That’s the max we let guys go,” Urquhart said. “Hunter needed to get some work. He was going to be our Game 4 starter, if there would have been a Game 4.

“We got him a couple batters there at the end, so that will hopefully help get him ready for next week.”

Cameron Boswell took the loss. In six innings, he gave up nine hits, six runs, walked three and struck out three.

Raleigh Lowder went 2-for-4 with an RBI and Aubrey McFadden was 2-for-4 to lead Post 68 at the plate.