By Thomas Grant Jr.
For the second straight year, the Lexington baseball team has returned to the Class 5A finals.
Once again, the Wildcats are riding an undefeated post-season streak in pursuit of the school’s eighth state championship and third under head coach Brian Hucks. Last week’s sweep of Blythewood in the Best-of-Three Upper State final extended the streak to 14 victories in a row.
“I think we’re built for it,” Hucks said. “We talk about just getting better every day and we talk about the schedule that we play. We play all of those games early because we know that at some point, that’s going to make us better and going to make us tougher.
“I think that hurts us in the RPI (ratings) a little bit because we play such a tough schedule. We lost nine games and some of these other teams lose four or five. But, playing the schedule we do makes us ready for this moment right now. The other final four teams (Blythewood, James Island and Stratford), we played them all during the regular season.”
Lexington jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning in Game 1. Christian Spivey had an RBI fielder’s choice and Brandon Cromer connected on the first of his three home runs in the series.
The University of South Carolina signee, who’s scheduled to have Tommy John surgery at the end of the season, went 5-5 with eight RBI in the two games.
“In the last 3-4 weeks, he’s seen as good as anybody in the state right now,” Hucks said. “His BP has been incredible. That’s the reason why he’s a South Carolina commit and he’s locked in right now.”
Blythewood tied the game in the Bottom 1st on an RBI single by Jackson Bolter and fielder’s choice by Sergio Melendez. A home run by Graham Coleman regained the lead for Lexington in the second inning and Cromer had an RBI double in the third inning to make it 4-2.
The Bengals loaded the bases in the Bottom 5th. They only managed a run on a sacrifice fly by Alex Myers.
Lexington starter Reider Carlson pitched two scoreless innings to close out the win.
In Game Two, Jackson Bottar’s RBI fielder’s choice gave the Bengals a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Cromer once again had the hot bat for the Wildcats with a game-tying RBI double. He later scored on an RBI single by Grant Kissner to put Lexington on top.
The first of two monstrous home runs by Amare Counts tied the game in the fourth inning. After a two-out single by Spivey, Cromer answered with a 2-run homer over the centerfield wall.
Lexington’s bats erupted in the next inning. Despite Cromer taking an intentional walk, It scored seven runs off five hits to go up 11-2.
Counts struck again in the Top 6th with a solo home run. Cromer closed out the series in the Bottom 6th with a 3-run homer to enforce the 10-run rule in the 15-3 victory.
Kissner struck out five and allowed seven hits on only 61 pitches in six innings for the victory.
University of South Carolina signee Brandon Cromer ignited the offense in the Upper State final series. He batted 5-5 with eight RBI and three home runs, including six runs driven in and two homers in Thursday’s 15-3 win in six innings.
“It’s win or go home,” Cromer said. “It’s the greatest time of the year. We come out, we have fun and do the best we can and we kind of trust what Coach (Hucks) has led us to the playoffs. We’ve been battle-tested this year and I’d say we’re the most battle-tested team to date. We just keep competing and keep fighting no matter what.”
Panthers drop Game 1
For the first time since 2004, Batesburg-Leesville was playing in the Class 2A baseball final.
The Panthers reached the championship after going 6-0 enroute to winning their District and the Upper State title. Awaiting them in the final in Charleston was Lower State champion Phillip Simmons.
Boosted by a strong outing by senior lefthander Nolan Clifford and capitalizing off Batesburg-Leesville miscues, the Iron Horses took Game One 5-3.
“When you have 8 walks, and your defense makes three costly errors, you usually don ‘t win a baseball game, and that is what happened to us today, against a quality opponent who took advantage of those two things,” Batesburg-Leesville head coach Rob Bouknight. “Our challenge on Tuesday, at our place, is to throw strikes, and don’t make errors. If we improve on those two things we will be a much better team for sure.”
Batesburg-Leesville took a 1-0 in the Top 1st on an RBI double by Braydon Hallman. The Iron Horses answered with four unanswered runs in the third and fourth innings to take a 4-1 lead.
Hallman added an RBI single in the fifth inning. Phillip Simmons extended its lead to 5-2 before Jack Bouknight drove in a run in the Top 7th as part of a late rally.
Feature photo – Lexington pitcher Grant Kissner with the bunt attempt
(Photos by Thomas Grant Jr.)
