Winning the deciding game in the best-of-three SCISAA Class 3-A opening round playoff series would require plenty of sacrifice from the Orangeburg Prep baseball team on Monday.

To a man, the Indians were more than willing to ’take one for the team’ as exemplified by starting pitcher Brad Felder. Staked out to a six-run lead built mostly on sacrifice RBIs, the crafty lefthander suffered a bloodied nose after getting tagged out at homeplate by Panthers’ catcher Brian Monk while attempting to score from second base on a single.

With no other available arms and a taped up left nostril, Felder left the dugout and needed just nine pitches to put the finishing touches on a 6-0 victory over Pinewood Prep. The win advanced OPS (9-13) to the second-round where it will start a best-of-three series Friday with a double-header at Hammond School, while the Panthers end the season with a 13-11 mark.

“The kids don’t quit,” OPS head coach Todd Layton said. “That’s one thing about this whole group. It’s been a rollercoaster year — up and down. Every time it seems like we hit a valley, we climb up to the pick. We’re hanging in there.”

After two offensive outbursts in Monday’s double-header split with the Panthers, the Indians were less explosive but nevertheless effective in jumping out to an early advantage. OPS got three runs off sacrifice flies, one on a fielder’s choice groundout and two on Pinewood Prep miscues.

It was more than enough for Felder, who despite not having his best stuff according to Layton, kept the Panthers off-balance all evening. He finished with five strikeouts and allowed just two hits and two walks in a complete game performance.

When a Panther did reach base, Felder made sure he did not stay on for long. He managed to pick off three Panthers and only allowed two baserunners to advance past second base once the entire game.

“He’s a competitor,” Layton said about Felder. “That’s all I can say about him. He’s just a tough competitor. If he can throw strikes and not walk people and we make plays behind him, he’s okay. We didn’t make the errors, we didn’t boot it around. That helps.”

It was OPS who capitalized on Pinewood Prep errors for a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the second. The Indians loaded the bases on losing pitcher Andy Bryan when Chuck Noll grounded out to score Zack Huggins who hit a leadoff single.

Felder proceeded to help his cause with a fly out to rightfield. On the play, Matthew Cocke raced from third base and managed to beat the cutoff throw by first baseman Jack Nobles to Monk at homeplate.

The third run was scored with two outs when Nobles misplayed a grounder by Dillon Way with two outs.

OPS loaded the bases again in the bottom of the third and got two runs on a wild pitch by Bryan and Noll’s second RBI sacrifice, this time on a flyout.

The Indians would another RBI sacrifice fly in the fourth from Mason Toole. A half-inning later, Felder shut down Pinewood Prep’s best scoring chance when he picked off Hunter Smith at first base and got Monk to leave a runner stranded at third base with a pop out.

Felder would retire the last five batters he faced and finished the game with back-to-back strikeouts.

OPS now looks to avenge last year’s play-off sweep to the Skyhawks. Should the Indians gain a split on Friday, they would host the deciding game on Saturday.

“They’re a good team, well-coached,” he said. “They won a region with Augusta Christian, which were the state champions last year. They had one of the favorites in the region, Ben Lippen, and all three schools in that region are still in it. Out of eight teams, all three are in it and that’s a tough region. The last place team in that region (Cardinal Newman) beat us twice this year...so we’ve got our work cut out for us.

“But like I said, these guys compete. I get the best every night...and I’m proud of them for that. They’re going to give us the best Friday night and maybe Saturday.”

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