Berkeley Advances To Lower State Div. II AAAAA Baseball Series Against West Florence After Beating North Myrtle Beach 6-2
Berkeley head coach Landy Cox.
By Billy G. Baker
Publisher
Moncks Corner—The goal of every coach is to have their respective teams playing their absolute best, once the second season of the play-offs begin, and one would have to agree that the Berkeley Stags (18-10) baseball team is that example, winning their 8th game in a row with a 6-2 win over North Myrtle Beach (20-8) on May, 16 to win a district championship.
The Stags, under the direction of coaching veteran Landy Cox, will now advance to a best two-out-of-three Div. II AAAAA Lower state series with West Florence on Tuesday (May,20th). West Florence advanced with a 5-0 win over Lucy Beckham.
In the upstate Div. II AAAAA the two teams advancing to play each other in the best of three series starting on May, 20th is number one seed Indian Land against Catawba Ridge. Indian Land advanced with an 8-0 win over Eastside while Catawba Ridge defeated TL Hanna 6-2 to advance.
After the Stags big win over NMB, head coach Landy Cox told the HSSR, “We got blown-out by Stratford 9-0 at home (April,21st) and I sat down with my staff and we talked about how we needed to get back to the basics that had helped our program win a lot of games in the past,” said Coach Cox. “We had a meeting with the team and we talked about how we needed to get back to old fashion, hard- nosed, Find A Way To Win Berkeley baseball and everyone bought into that pep talk.
“We beat Stratford in the third game of our series back at home by one run in 8 innings and that win would help us get a first round bye in the play-offs,” said Coach Cox. “We have won seven straight games over the past few weeks. I am proud of the way this team has bounced back from a slow start to the start of the season.
“Tonight, Hunter Morris came in and gave us four-plus innings of great relief effort, and he got the win,” said Coach Cox. “I am also very proud of Brady Proctor who got two hits and three RBI’s for us tonight. He has had to live in the shadows of his brother who went on to Clemson so it is great to see him do well.
“Hudson Clark’s home run was big for us also,” said Coach Cox. “He is the very face of Berkeley baseball and comes to practice and to games and gives 100 per cent all the time. He doesn’t talk much but he leads with his great work ethic and hustle.” (Clark is a junior second baseman).
“Winning tonight was great because had we lost we would be getting on the bus at 9 a.m. on Saturday morning headed to North Myrtle Beach to face a really good left-handed pitcher with a 2 p.m. start,” said Coach Cox. “We get to rest a little and get ready to play the winner between West Florence and Lucy Beckham on Tuesday.
“We will be throwing Gavin Gaskins and he has won 16 games over the past two seasons for us, and I like our chances with his on the mound,” said Coach Cox. Gaskins is 8-2 with a 1.29 ERA.
North Myrtle Beach head coach Brian Alderson was a college teammate of Coach Cox at Gardner-Webb in college. He told the HSSR after the game, “I am very proud of the fact that we have won three straight region titles but our goal will always be to win the District and advance deeper in the play-offs,” said Coach Alderson. “They out-played us and we did not swing the bats well. We had opportunities early with runners in scoring position but we could not come up with a timely hit.
“As far as the play-offs go this is the way it has been for us the last few games,” said Coach Alderson. “It was a bad time for our bats to go ice cold. We struggled in every game we played in the play-offs. We have pretty much won with pitching and defense.
“We had a heck of a regular season and I am proud of the effort of all of our players but we picked a bad time for the bats to go cold,” said Coach Alderson. “I have been a friend of Landy (Cox) since our college days and I wish him and his team the very best going forward.”
Berkeley scored the first run of the game in the bottom of the first when Hudson Clark drew a walk, moved to second on a ground-out and then he stole third base with one-out. Henry Rivers laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt that scored Clark for a 1-0 Stag lead.
After leaving the bases loaded In the second inning, the Chiefs sent 9 batters to the plate in the third inning, and while they produced two runs to take an early lead in the game, it could have been much better. Asa Board starting off with a single and a sacrifice bunt by junior North Carolina pitching commitment Sawyer Smith advanced him to second. Then Virginia Tech signee CJ Oxendine, an outstanding catcher, was intentionally walked to put two on with one-out.
Designated hitter and Coastal Carolina football signee, Brown Reaves, then walked to load the bases. Gabe Priest then hit a sharp single to left field scoring Board to tie the game 1-1. Peyton Gallup then reached on a fielder’s choice while Oxendine was tagged out at home plate. Kaden Lank then drew a bases load walk that scored Reaves and the Chiefs a 2-1 lead.
At this point the Stags starting pitcher, Keller Wofford, was relieved on the mound by Morris. He got the next batter Gabe Kuznik to flyout to center for the third out.
Berkeley responded with three runs in the bottom of the 4thg to go up for good 5-2. After the Stags first two batters struck-out, the next two batters walked (Devon Hogue & Easton Little). Then Bryson Heath singled to score Hogue to tie the score at 2. Then Proctor became the man of the hour for the Stags with a line drive double to left-field that scores Little and Heath to make it a 4-2 Stag lead.
In the bottom of the 5th Clark crushed a solo home run, right over the right center field power alley, to give Berkeley a 5-2 advantage. In the bottom of the 6th Berkeley added an insurance run after right fielder Hogue singled, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Little. Then Procter collected his third RBI of the game with a single that scored Hogue making the final score 6-2.
The stat leaders for Berkeley in the game were Procter with two hits and three RBI’s while Clark scored two runs and had a home run and one RBI. Center fielder Ryan Richardson had a hit and one RBI. Hogue had a hit. Heath had one hit and one RBI.
Wofford was the starting pitcher for Berkeley working 2.2 innings, allowing two hits, with three K’s. Morris, picked up the win, working 4.1 innings, allowing three hits with three K’s.
NMB was led at the plate by five different players who each had one hit. They were Board, Reaves, Priest, Lank, and Kuznik.
Smith pitched all six innings for the Chiefs. He allowed five hits, six earned runs and he had five K’s.
