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Williamsburg Academy baseball team off to a blistering start

Dennis Brunson hssr.com Associate Editor • Mar 20, 2024

Stallions are 10-0, having outscored opponents 117-25

Kingstree – Prior to his team’s high school baseball game against Carolina Academy on Tuesday, Williamsburg Academy head coach Tyler Boyd couldn’t be much happier with his team.


“We’ve been about as good as we can be,” Boyd said.


That’s because the Stallions were off to a 9-0 start. You can make that 10-0 now and 1-0 in SCISA Region 2-AAA after a 12-0 road win over Carolina.


And that type of game has been more the norm than the exception. Williamsburg has scored 117 runs while allowing just 25. Six of the victories have come by 10 or more runs. The Stallions scored in double figures in seven of the games, while the pitching staff spun shutouts in four of the games.


Williamsburg is trying to get back to a state championship for the fourth consecutive season. The Stallions won the AA state title in 2021 over Pee Dee Academy before losing to the Eagles in ’22. Both schools moved up to AAA last year and again played for the state title with Pee Dee winning.

 

Williamsburg reached the title series last year despite finishing with a 16-13 overall record. Boyd felt the Stallions never really got into a groove at the plate last season.

 

“The biggest difference for us this year is that we’ve been so much better offensively,” Boyd said. “Last year we never really hit the ball as well as I thought we would. I think I may have overscheduled last year. I wanted us to face tough pitching so we’d be ready for the playoffs, so we had a very difficult schedule.”

 

Williamsburg is getting great hitting up and down the lineup. Senior first baseman Blake Hedrick has the highest batting average at .500 and leads in runs batted in with 13. He also had three doubles and 12 runs scored.


Junior third baseman Bryce Blackburn is batting 485 and leads in total hits with 16. He has four doubles, a home run, 11 RBI and 13 runs scored. Junior rightfielder/third baseman Layton Morris has 11 hits, including five doubles and two homers. He is batting .379 and leads in runs with 20 while driving in 12 runs.

 

Junior leftfielder Wyatt Floyd has a .412 average with three doubles and a homer, Senior second baseman Wes Smith is batting .290 with 10 RBI and 12 runs.

 

Senior Conrad Balder is back at shortstop after missing all of last season due to an injury suffered in Williamsburg’s victory in the ’22 football state championship game. He is batting .346 with 14 runs.

 

Senior Greyson Moore plays in right when not pitching. He is batting .148 but has nine runs. Two other seniors are joining Balder and Smith up the middle with Landon Strong catching and BJ Davis in center.

 

Strong, who is committed to University of South Carolina Salkehatchie, is batting .167, but has a double, a triple and seven RBI. Davis is batting .188.

 

Other members of the team are junior leftfielder Kayden Carter (.200), sophomore second baseman Jay Kellahan (.286), senior Camden Moore (.250) and junior third baseman Luke Feagin.

 

The Stallions also have 53 stolen bases with each member of the team having at least one. Hedrick has 10, Smith seven, Floyd and Blackburn six apiece and Morris five.

 

Williamsburg’s pitching has been on fire of late. After beating Laurence Manning Academy 9-7 and Marion High School 21-9 in the first two games of the year, the Stallions have allowed just nine runs in the eight games since.

 

Moore and Blackburn lead the staff. Both have 3-0 win-loss records. Moore, who has offers from Coker College and Francis Marion University, has worked 14 innings with 21 strikeouts and a 2.00 earned run average. Blackburn has a 1.20 ERA and 24 strikeouts in 11 2/3 innings.

 

Strong has worked 7 1/3 innings and had a 1.91 ERA and one save. Morris has worked five innings with 1.40 ERA and a 1-0 record, Floyd has worked five innings with a 1-0 record and a 0.00 ERA, and Smith has worked 5 2/3 innings weith a 1-0 record and a 4.84 ERA.

 

Though Williamsburg has to take care of its business in the regular season, the end goal goes beyond that.

 

“Everyone knows what we’re wanting to accomplish,” Boyd said. “We want to get back to the state championship. We’ve come up one run short (in the third game of the championship series) the last two years. We want to win it again.”


By Billy Baker 17 May, 2024
By Billy G. Baker Publisher Moncks Corner — In a Lower State AAAAA softball play-off game continued from a second inning rain-out the night before, (May, 15), between Berkeley (19-9) and Chapin (22-8) , the home standing Stags won a pitcher’s duel 2-0 to advance to play Summerville on May, 17. The Stags have a tall order on their plate needing to defeat the top-ranked Green Wave twice in order to advance. The state championship series is scheduled to begin on Monday at the upper state champion s home field. Game two will revert back to the lower state’s team home field on Wednesday. If a third game tie-breaker is needed it will be played at neutral site on Friday (May, 24). After the win Berkley head coach Kelly Dillon shared some thoughts with the HSSR. “In my tenure at Berkeley this is our third trip to the Lower state finals and I am so proud of my team and the adversity they have overcome this season,” said Coach Dillon. “We have had some adversity with the weather and we lost one of our key players to an injury recently ( Savannah Scott ) and we have remained tough and focused on our goals anyway. “We played small ball in the bottom of the 6th because when you need just one run to win you play to win,” said Coach Dillon. “I am very thankful; for a great bunting team. Every time I have asked for it to be put down, they have put it down so I am very proud to our commitment to the cause.” ( Courtlyn Cox delivered a perfect bunt that advanced the runner into scoring position in the bottom of the 6 th inning.) “We know we have a challenge going over to Summerville on Friday needing to win two games and you never know what might happen,” said Coach Dillon. “We are hungry and we are on a mission and we are playing moment to moment so we hope to at our best on Friday.” Chapin head coach Cal Sayger is wrapping up his 7 th season at Chapin. ”we have been fighting the weather all during the play-offs,” said Coach Sayger. “We just made too many mistakes in this game tonight. We have the program on sound footing. We have won back-to-back region titles and I very proud of the commitment all of our players have made to the success tour program.” Coach Sayger is saying good bye to four seniors. They include pitcher Aspen Mayers , Ella Maychiva k, third baseman Andree Dircks , and outfielder Alexia Evans . “These girls have been in the program since the e8th grade a d they will be missed,” said Coach Sayger. The game remained scoreless until the bottom of the 6 th inning. The Stags Rileigh Ballentine led off with a single to center field. Courtlyn Cox’s Sac bunt moved Ballentine over to second base. She moved over to third, on a passed ball, while Brooklyn Moon was batting. Moon singled in Ballentine for the first run of the game. Ansley Riddle then doubled, barely missing a home run against the fence in deep center field. This hit put runners at second and third with one-out. An RBI ground-out by Camden Valicek scored Moon to give Berkeley all the runs they would need to win the game. Berkeley pitcher Reese Watson worked all seven innings, allowing only four hits. Watson’s six strike-outs in the game now gives her 201 on the season in 120 innings pitched with an ERA of 1.20.
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