Summerville is team to beat in AAAAA softball until proven otherwise
Green Wave No. 1 in HSSR poll; Byrnes No. 2
Sumter – Summerville High School is the defending AAAAA softball state champion, and it has given no reason to think it shouldn’t be considered the favorite to repeat with the lower state and upper state tournaments about to commence.
The Green Wave is 24-0 on the season and a victory away from winning the District 8 tournament title and advancing to the 4-team, double-elimination lower state tournament. It will face the winner of the Conway-Stratford elimination game on Wednesday, May 8.
Summerville is batting .350 as a team and is loaded with power and has two shutdown pitchers in Ansley Bennett and Hope Chase.
Bennett had worked 56 innings to 53 for Chase and both had faced 195 batters. Chase had an astounding 94 strikeouts, but Bennett had an even more dumbfounding 121.
Bennett had a 0.13 ERA to a 0.53 for Chase.
Bennett has been just as electric at the plate with a .552 batting average. Bennett has nine of the Wave’s 24 home runs, eight doubles, two triples and 29 runs batted in.
Katie Gulliam was batting .463, Melanie Edwards .373, Abby Driscoll .357 and North-South All-Star Series selection Caroline Waring .305. Edwards had four HRs and a team high 30 RBI. Chase had four homers and Gulliam three.
Stratford has a North-South selection in Lillian Hansen.
Let’s take a look at the other seven district tournaments that will give us the teams playing in the upper state and lower state tournaments.
DISTRICT 1
Lexington is in the driver’s seat after beating Dorman 10-1 and Woodmont 10-9. It will face one of those two on May 8 in the championship round.
Lexington tied for the Region 4 title with Chapin and got the No. 2 seed. Woodmont is the No. 1 seed from Region 1.
Maggie Hinz and Gracie Scott are two North-South selections for the Wildcats.
DISTRICT 2
Clover has proven itself to be dominant so far in this district. The Region 3 champion beat Mauldin 11-1 in the opening game and followed it up with a 10-0 win over Region 2 No. 2 Gaffney.
Clover is led by North-South selections Hope Marshburn and Gabby Badillo.
Gaffney and Dutch Fork are playing for the right to face Clover in the championship round.
DISCTRICT 3
T.L. Hanna is the team to beat in this district. It put itself in that position by edging Nation Ford 3-2 in the winner’s bracket game.
Nation Ford, a No. 2 seed like Hanna, will face Boiling Springs in an elimination game on May 6.
Hanna is led by North-South selection Addie Rose Glenn.
DISTRICT 4
Byrnes has to be considered the team to beat from the upper state. The Rebels are 26-3 and won the Region 2 title with a perfect 8-0 record. They won those games by a combined score of 87-1. For the season, Byrnes has outscored the opposition 264-30.
They’ve been just as dominant in their two district games, beating Spartanburg 16-0 and Blythewood 9-0.
Byrnes has two North-South picks in Courtney Dean and Eliza Scott.
Byrnes is awaiting the winner of the elimination game between Blythewood and Hillcrest.
Blythewood also has two North-South selections in Josie Smythe and Neliah Browne.
DISTRICT 5
This district had two upsets in the first round. Cane Bay, the No. 4 team from Region 6, knocked off top seed Chapin 2-0 in their opener. Sumter, the No. 3 team from Region 5, took out Region 7 No. 2 Fort Dorchester 3-1.
The Gamecocks advanced to the championship round by beating Cane Bay 5-0. They will play host to either Cane Bay or Chapin, which eliminated Fort Dorchester with a 4-2 win.
Sumter came into the playoffs with a 9-9 overall record, but it has rode the pitching of freshman Lillie Ivey to the playoff victories.
Junior Ariana Evans has been the Gamecocks’ leading hitter with an average well above .400. Senior Maddy Long entered the playoffs hitting over .350 with sophomore Kiley Laux not far behind her.
Cane Bay’s Aalyiah McLeod is a North-South pick.
DISTRICT 6
Region 6 champion Berkeley has put itself in position to make it to lower state with a pair of dominating wins. It shut out White Knoll 5-0 in the first round before hammering Ashley Ridge 15-1 in the winner’s bracket game.
Berkeley is led by North-South selection Savannah Scott.
The Stags are waiting to take on either Ashley Ridge or Carolina Forest in the championship round.
DISTRICT 8
St. James won the Region 5 title and it has been dominant with a pair of shutout victories in the district. It opened with a 10-0 victory over Goose Creek and followed it up with a 4-0 win over West Ashley.
St. James is led by Kaitlyn Elko, who was picked to the North-South game.
Wando and West Ashley are playing for the right to play St. James in the championship round. West Ashley, the Region 7 No. 4, beat Region 6 No. 2 Wando 11-2 in the first round.
Wando’s Allie Jepson was picked to play in the North-South Series.
If the undefeated teams all advance, the upper state tournament will consist of Lexington, Byrnes, Clover and T.L. Hanna. The four teams in the lower state will be Summerville, Berkeley, Sumter and St. James.
The winners of those two tournaments will face off in a best-of-3 state championship series.
HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS REPORT AAAAA POLL
AAAAA
1. Summerville
2. Byrnes
3. Clover
4. Lexington
5. Berkeley
6. T.L. Hanna
7. St. James
8. Chapin
9. Nation Ford
10. Blythewood
11. Woodmont
12. Sumter
13. Stratford
14. Cane Bay
15. Dutch Fork
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