Hampton County Wins the Watermelon Bowl toAadvance to the AA State Championship Game

By David Shelton Senior Writer Charleston – As the 2026 spring sports season turns the corner and heads into the state playoffs, the teams at Ashley Hall are showing a competitive spirit against a quality schedule of opponents.  Ashley Hall competes in the top classification of the South Carolina Independent Schools Association (SCISA) and while winning region titles is difficult, the Panthers work hard to put up competitive battles against elite challengers. Then spring season reached spring break last week, leaving less than a month before the state playoffs begin at the end of April. Entering the break, the Ashley Hall soccer team sits with a 4-6 record overall, including a pair of wins over area rival First Baptist. Setting the offensive pace for the Panthers is a senior captain, Catherine Clark , who has scored eight goals with four assists. Junior Molly Mettler has added five goals and four assists while Hampton Kennedy has a goal and assist. Goalkeeper Bea Anderson , a sophomore, has allowed 24 goals but also has 65 saves. The other captains on the team include seniors Annie Morrison, Gemma Williams and Britton Zollweg . The remaining senior is Kylie Wojdyla . Catherine Perkins is the only other junior on the roster. Sophomores include Bailey Burke , Evie Cowan, Camila Zuniga, Felice Killian, Bryn Wildstein , Lynden Taylor ,. Rounding out the roster are freshmen Ella Yaegar , Amelia Lennon and eighth-grader Schuyler Malloy . The lacrosse team has shown improvement from last season and entered the break with a 5-5 record after posting three wins last season. Junior Sally Rowson leads the team with 30 goals and five assists while junior Kate Murphy has added 26 goals and six assists. Eighth-grader Campbell Lennon has 13 goals and eight assists, and junior Caroline Copenhaver has scored eight goals. In track and field, top performers include sprinters Peyton Rivers , Nyra Jenkins and Camilla Heyward ; Charlie Silliman in middle distance; N a’Zyia Jenkin s, Elise Simmons and Amelia Hamilton in hurdles; Madison Middleton in jumps; Izzy Scolnick in the jumps and javelin, and Adyson Middleton in the discus and javelin.

Chesnee head coach Tripp Fogle says he has "a solid group of players that have worked hard in the offseason to improve."

Aynor and Belton-Honea Path high schools have played for the last two AAA softball state championships, could this year be the tie breaker?

Accelerated senior Aspen Boulware and the War Eagles looking for a repeat of the championship magic in AAAA again this year.

Catawba Ridge sophomore Keira O’Brien.

Bryce King (photo) and Chase Price are the top two pitchers this season and both have been dominant early.

As a brand-new school playing baseball a year ago ACA went 11-1 in the region under head coach Larry Prange.

SCHSL AAAA Baseball Top 10 (As of 4-12-2026) 1. Fountian Inn 2. Gray Collegiate 3. Airport 4. Wren 5. AC Flora 6. Hartsville 7. Gilbert 8. York 9. Hilton Head 10. South Florence When We Say Everybody Chasing Fountain Inn In The AAAA baseball Race We Mean It By Billy G. Baker Publisher Moncks Corner-Fountain Inn (20-2) head baseball coach Blake Roland is surely smiling every time he fills out his line-up card, before his team plays a game, knowing that he has a quality group of players all committed to the game of baseball. In baseball we all know the pitcher on the mound can control the game. Well, Fountain Inn has three quality pitchers led by senior RHP Paul Passmore . Passmore has worked 39.1 innings on the hill with 50 strikeouts and he has a sterling ERA of 0.18. The next two pitchers are senior Parker Davis who has worked 27.1 innings with an unreal 56 strikeouts and he has an ERA of 0.26. Then for good measure throw in senior RHP Collin Wilson who has pitched 28/1 innings with 36 strikeouts and an ERA of 0.74. Is there a better all-around pitching staff on any other team in South Carolina?  Then you have seven players batting .280 or better led by Davis at .396 with an eye turning 24 RBI’s. Senior catcher Mason Guion is hitting .365 with 12 RBI’s and sophomore outfielder/pitcher Colby Keller is swinging it at .353 and 17 RBI’s. Other top Fountain Inn hitters include senior LHP’first baseman Anderson Hayes at .327 and sophomore third baseman/pitcher Cole Dawkins is at .294 while senior utility performer Daniel Rentz is at .286. Who have to believe that Fountain Inn is going to gas-up on high octane once the playoffs start in a few weeks. Gray Collegiate0(14-3-1, 9-0) is a strong number two in our HSSR ranking head under the co-coach’s set-up of assistants James Adams and Terry Oldaker , who are acting as co-coaches this spring. With the change at the top came a challenge for the seniors as well as the assistant coaches, in that they had to bear a larger responsibility to keep the team going in the right direction. “The team was challenged. It’s their season, not ours,” Adams said. “We put some captains in place; that’s never been done before. We’ve leaned on our seniors. We have given them some direction. They have done a phenomenal job with it.” After a 3-3 start, Gray won 11 straight games, including a 5-4 win over region rival and defending 4A champion Airport April 3. The War Eagles got off to a 4-0 lead by the fourth inning, but Airport scored one run in the bottom of the fourth and, after Gray got a run in the sixth, scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth. Relief pitcher Brogan Sox , who came on to start the sixth, retired three of four Eagles batters to earn the save to starter Zak Perry’s win. “This is No.1 and No. 2 in the region,” Adams said. “It came down to the wire. We had our guys on the bump tonight. We dealt with adversity; we got it done. I’m proud of them, they grinded it out slowly but surely.” Perry is 5-0 on the season with a 0.24 earned-run average in his five appearances and 38 strikeouts. Sox is 2-0 with a 2.48 ERA in six appearances. At the plate Kaleb Holmes leads War Eagle batters with 40 or more at-bats with a .356 average. Chase Starkey is batting .354 with 17 hits and a team-high 19 RBI, and Garrett Blankenship isn’t far behind with a .346 batting average, 18 hits. Noah Styron (.346), M.J. Hornsby (.245), and Perry (.319) all have a home run. After a strong stint in the Gilbert Invitational over Spring Break, the War Eagles’ season goes into its final stretch. Gray faced Brookland - Cayce twice this week and takes on second-place Gilbert next week. How those two series play out will determine how good a seeding the War Eagles get in the postseason. Beyond the push for the playoffs, Adams said he and Oldaker want to make sure the team stays loose and ready for anything that comes along. “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it. We’re going to keep doing what we are doing,” Adams said. “We’re going to let the boys have fun. We’re going to practice hard and be wise with our time. We want to take the same approach to every game no matter who the opponent is that we are playing.” Look for AC Flora and Hartsville to make strong runs in the AAAA baseball playoffs as well.

By David Shelton Senior Writer Abbeville – Entering spring break, the spring sports teams at Abbeville High have set their sights on a strong finish. Abbeville will have a good presence in the Class A state playoffs when the postseason begins at the end of April. One team hoping for a good run in the baseball team, coached by Daniel Little . Though Little has a relatively young team after losing nine seniors off a 24-win team of 2025. The Panthers carried an 8-3 record into spring break.  “Much younger group with a lot of new faces, but it’s a fun team to coach,” Little said. “They are a scrappy bunch. They play hard and they practice well. We have a lot who have been in the program for a few years waiting on their chance. They know the exprctations of the program and they understand what it takes to compete. “This is my fifth year here so these kids have been with me since I took over and we have grown together. We have good team chemistry and it is a tight group.” The two most experienced players on the roster are shortstop Easton Townsend and pitcher Trey Deason . Deason is hitting .391 through 11 games while Townsend is hitting .333. Sophomore second baseman Thomas Nickles is hitting.381 and sophomore Logan Overholt is hitting .333. Sophomore Brayden Randall l eads the team with 15 innings pitched through March. “We don’t have the big power guys so we have to work hard to get guys on base, play small ball and use our speed to create scoring opportunities,” says Little. The softball team hit the break ar 8-6 overall and 5-2 in region 1-A. Senior Carli Smith has been the leader offensively with a .436 batting average and 12 RBI. Senior Jocelyn Foster is hitting .342 with 11 RBI and senior Miranda Smith is hitting .333. Freshman Rylee Tiller is hittimg .316 with 10 RBI. Freshman Maddie Beiler also has driven in 10 runs. The boys soccer team sits at 7-5 overall and 4-2 in region play. Senior Parker Henderson is among the top players with 16 goals and eight assists. Sophomore Carter Oberholzer has scored 15 goals with eight assists while freshman Juren Dominguez has `10 goals and eight assists. Sophomore Juan Velazquez has scored four goals and juior Brice Williams has scored three goals.