St. Louis Cardinal farm hand and former Pinecrest pitcher Seth Maness has been promoted to the Palm Beach Cardinals of the Advanced A Florida State League. In his first appearance on Saturday night, he picked up his initial professional victory.

The right-hander, who was an 11th round draft choice of the Cards in June, began the season with the Batavia Muckdogs of the New York Penn League. In Saturday’s game against Jupiter, he pitched out of a second inning jam with Palm Beach trailing 3-1. He went on to pitch a scoreless 3 1/3 innings, allowing one hit and striking out four while walking one. The Cardinals won the game 9-3.

Maness’ performance for Batavia earned him a trip to the New York Penn League All-Star game in Lowell, Mass. on Aug. 16 where he pitched a scoreless inning. He received the promotion two days later. Even though he left four of his seven starts for Batavia with the lead, he finished with an 0-1 record.

In 39 2/3 innings for the Muckdogs, the East Carolina grad allowed only four earned runs for an ERA of 0.91. He surrendered 27 hits and struck out 31 while walking three and hitting one batter.

Maness was 38-11 as a pitcher in his career at East Carolina and 21-2 at Pinecrest.