Dorchester beats defending SCISA AA baseball state champion Lee Academy for 2nd state title in three years
Senior Wyatt Byrd seals the deal with 3-run home run in Raiders' 8-4 win in Game 3
St. George – Seeing that none of the other schools in SCISA Region 2-AA fielded baseball teams, the one that did – Dorchester Academy – played the overwhelming majority of its regular-season schedule against AAA schools.
That didn’t necessarily bode well for the Raiders. They finished the regular season with a 7-13 record.
“We competed, but we should have been better,” said DA head coach Brent Jackson.
Better came in the AA state playoffs, as in a second state championship in three seasons.
Dorchester went 6-2 in the playoffs, beating defending state champion Lee Academy 9-5 in the third and deciding game of the state championship series on May 14 at Laurence Manning Academy’s Tucker Belangia Diamond.
“These guys here we struggled all season long, but we never lost our composure,” said Jackson, whose team finished with a 13-15 overall record. “We just came out here in the playoffs and started playing baseball like we should have.”
Dorchester swept its first-round series against Carolina Academy, winning by the scores of 7-3 and 5-4. It beat Laurens Academy 2-1 in the semifinal series. The Raiders won the opener 7-1 and lost the second game 11-9 before winning the if game 6-4.
Against Lee, DA won the opener 6-2 before losing the second game 5-3.
Jackson felt playing the difficult regular-season schedule paid major dividends in the postseason.
“It definitely helped with our pitching.” Jackson said.
In the deciding game against the Cavaliers, Dorchester was clinging to a 5-4 lead entering the sixth inning. That set the stage for heroics by senior third baseman Wyatt Byrd.
The right-handed swinging Byrd, the No. 5 hitter, came to the plate with two outs and runners on first and second. He lofted a fly ball right down the right field line where it is just 295 feet. Byrd’s poke ended up clearing the fence for a 3-run home run that made it 8-4.
“When I hit it I thought I had a double,” said Byrd, who not only hit his first homer of the season but also hit a homer in his final high school at-bat. “I just got very excited when I saw it was a homer.”
Byrd was 2-for-4 with four runs batted in and a run scored. The Raiders finished with 12 hits, all of them coming over the last five innings. Abe Shuler led the way in terms of hits, going 3-for-4 with one run batted in.
Landon Holly was 2-for-4 with two runs and an RBI, while Warren Judy was 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run. Austin Varn had a hit, two runs and an RBI, Carter Beeks had a hit and two runs, and Reed Almers had a hit, a run and an RBI.
Judy pitched a complete game to get the win, using 90 pitches. He allowed seven hits, but didn’t walk a batter while striking out four.
Other members of the Dorchester starting lineup are John Quattlebaum and Bryce Marchant. The rest of the roster is made up of Will Quattlebaum, Ryan Gaillyard, Lane Gruber, Graham Varnadoe, Carter Proctor and Joe Carn.
