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Photo | Steven Browning

Man High School’s Braden Griffin slides safely into second base in the Billies’ win at home over Van on Tuesday night.

The Man High School baseball team mercied the Van Bulldogs, 16-6, in just five innings in Class A action on Tuesday night at Man’s Dr. Juan Nordelo Field.

Andrew Merritt picked up the win on the mound while freshman Braden Griffin led the Hillbillies’ offensive attack, going 4-for-4 with a home run, two doubles and a single.

Man improved to 10-6 on the season and are scheduled to host arch rival Logan at 7 p.m. on Wednesday night. The game had originally been scheduled to be played at Logan but the venue was switched to Man due to the Logan baseball field still not being ready for play.

The Billies jumped out to an early 5-0 lead in the first inning off Van hurler Justin Toler. Jacob Riggins had a single and two RBI’s in the frame.

The Billies plated three more runs in the bottom of the second inning to take an 8-1 advantage. J.T. Twardy had a single and an RBI to make it 6-1. Griffin later had an RBI double to push the lead to 7-1. Merritt then grounded out, scoring Griffin to make it 8-1.

The Billies added another run in the bottom of the third inning to up the margin to 9-1 as Nick Carter rapped out an RBI single to score Griffin.

The Bulldogs scored four runs in the top of the third to cut the deficit to 9-5 but did so without the aid of a hit.

Man then put the game on ice in the bottom of the fourth frame, scoring seven runs to take a commanding 16-5 lead.

Griffin led off with a solo homer over the short porch in right field to make it 10-5.

Jordan Simpson singled and then scored on an RBI single by Jacob Riggins to make it 11-5.

Cody Carter later grounded out, scoring Riggins to push the lead to 12-5.

Shane Browning’s RBI single increased the lead to 13-5. Nick Carter then doubled to score Browning to make it 14-5. Twardy’s RBI single made it 15-5 and then Man scored its final run with Griffin’s second hit of the inning — an RBI double — which scored Twardy to make it a 16-5 ballgame.

Van got a lone run in the top of the fifth inning off Merritt to make it 16-6. Merritt then retired the next batter to halt the game due to the 10-run mercy rule.

Man banged out 16 runs on 17 hits in the game.

Man freshman Michael Scott Rowe and Andrew Merritt combined for a two-hitter.

Nick Carter was 3-for-4 at the plate with two RBI. Twardy, Simpson, Riggins and Thomas Blair had two hits each. Rowe and Browning had one hit each.

Van committed five errors in the game to two for the Billies.