Gray Collegiate Softball Gets Sweep Over Flora To Win Third Straight State Title

By WORTHY EVANS

HSSR Contributing Writer

COLUMBIA — With little drama, the Gray Collegiate softball team made a big statement Friday night at the A.C. Flora softball field.

Sophomore Mackenzie Sease’s home runs in the first and second inning helped boost the War Eagles to a 6-0 lead, while junior Peyton Hendrix took the circle for the second time in the best-of-three series to close out a 11-1 victory and secure Gray’s second straight 4A state championship and third straight state title.

Add to that, University of South Carolina signee Aspen Boulware finished off her career with the War Eagles with a solo home run in her final at-bat, the 60^th of her career.

“We set a goal this year to go undefeated,” head coach Doug Frye said. “I know that sounds crazy, but we’d take it one game at a time. These girls bought into it and they stayed focused on what we were doing the whole year. It’s amazing, 34-0. It’s incredible.”

The War Eagles beat the Falcons 7-1 in the first game of the series that was disrupted by rain.

Gray held a 3-1 lead going into the fourth inning before the weather forced a suspension Wednesday night. When play resumed Thursday the War Eagles scored two more runs in the fourth inning on Sease’s 2-out double that drove in Wright and Boulware to make it 5-1. Gray scored a run in the fifth inning and another in the sixth, and Hendrix closed out her first complete game this week in the circle by shutting out the Falcons in the seventh. Hendrix scattered six Flora hits and struck out 10.

“It was just staying focused. All the preparation we’ve done before this season, that’s really what our strategy was,” Hendrix said Thursday. “We’ve all worked very hard this season and it’s trusting that process.”

Hendrix, 12-0 on the year and 35-0 as a War Eagle pitcher, had a similar night Friday. She scattered six Falcon hits again, gave up an earned run, walked seven, but still struck out 10 for the win.

“Peyton Hendrix is a dog, Frye said. “If you go to war you want Peyton Hendrix in the hole with you. She’s gonna battle. She called me today and she wanted the ball. I believe in her. I believe in all of these kids.”

The War Eagles took control early when Sease hit a one-out solo homer over the leftfield fence in the first inning. Later with two outs, Georgia Gilman and Gracie Porter both scored on a passed ball to make it 3-0.

Ella Griffin flied out to end the first inning for the War Eagles, but Sease hit a one-out 3-run shot over the centerfield fence in the second inning to give Gray a 6-0 lead.

“I was looking for the changeup,” Sease said about her home runs. “If you knock them out early, they lay down. That was our mentality the whole season, to go at them early.”

In the third inning with two outs and two runners on base, Griffin scored on a wild pitch to Boulware. Boulware’s RBI single scored Phoenix Wright, courtesy runner for Mackenzi Bradley.

Sease struck out to retire the side but by then Gray held an 8-0 advantage.  

A.C. Flora’s only run came when Hendrix walked Karson Riddle with the bases loaded, enabling Kayleigh Moore to score.

Annie Storm grounded out to end the fourth, stranding three runners. The Falcons (25-7) stranded 12 runners Friday, including three in the first inning and three more in the fourth.

Gray Collegiate scored a run on Bradley’s RBI single that scored Griffin in the fifth inning to make it 9-1. In the seventh inning Griffin led off with a single, and as Bradley batted, took second base on a wild pitch and promptly stole third. When Bradley grounded out Griffin easily scored the 10^th run.

Boulware’s solo shot with two outs was the cherry on the cake for the War Eagles.

“It was amazing,” she said. “I was in the box praying that God would give me one opportunity to finish strong and He did.”

The Falcons, in their first state-championship appearance, may have finished second, but head coach James Marlow said it was the team’s hard work that drove them this far, and the returners know what to do to get ready for next season.

“Congratulations to Gray, that is a phenomenal team, they deserve all of their accolades,” Marlow said. “Our girls have fought really hard to be here too, I definitely don’t want them overlooked for all their accomplishments. This is an amazing group here. We’ve got more opportunities, and we’re going to learn and grow from this, but I’m just so proud of them.”

Marlow also said it was exciting for the team to receive congratulations from the community, something that the A.C. Flora baseball team, which defeated Airport 4-0 Friday night to complete a 2-game sweep and win the Falcons’ eighth baseball state championship, was used to getting.

“It’s kind of euphoric right now. After the dust settles over the next couple of days we’ll look back and really know what we’ve done, but for sure we’ve made the community really proud,” Marlow said. “To get on the map and build a great program and be with these girls, it really does mean a lot for them.”

With its third state title trophy in hand, Gray Collegiate continues to look to next year. Boulware and other seniors will move on, but Frye said the way the team performed this year means the returners have a solid road map.

“They keep growing and growing, and they keep playing. We’re not going anywhere. We’ve got a bunch of young kids here who can play,” Frye said. “I tell them it’s hard to win. If you look at our schedule, we played three teams who played for state championships, and they just played hard and got after it all year long and they just when it got tough and they got up on us, they’d come back.”

“They never quit, they never faded, they kept fighting and fighting,” he added. “This group is very special. I told people at the beginning of the year that this is the best team I’ve ever had. They’re so athletic. Last year we hit 51 home runs but this year we hit 22, but we did everything with small ball, our bunts and triples and doubles. We really could run and had a lot of stolen bases.”

Game one

A.C. Flora                  0 1 0 0 0 0 0 – 1 6 2

Gray Collegiate    1 2 0 2 1 1 x – 7 7 0

WP: Peyton Hendrix, 7 IP, 6H, 1R, 1ER, 1BB, 10K.

F – Cameron Crook 2-2, 3B.

G – Mackenzie Sease 2B, 2 RBI. Payton Reed 2-4.

Game two

Gray Collegiate     3 3 2 0 1 0 2 – 11 8 1

A.C. Flora                    0 0 0 1 0 0 0 – 1 6 1

WP: Peyton Hendrix, 7 IP, 6H, 1R, 1ER, 7BB, 10K

F – Karson Riddle 2-3.

G – Mackenzie Sease 2-5, HR (2), 4 RBI. Aspen Boulware 2-4, HR, 2 RBI. Ella Griffin 3-4, 3B. Peyton Hendrix 2B.