Hawks Survive Long Day at Ballpark to Advance

A.C. Flora captures the Class AAAA boys state championship title at the Cayce Tennis Center.

Scores, schedules, start times from each of the eight series.

Summerville pitcher Daphne Frady has more than 300 strikeouts this season. (Photo by Roger Lee)

By Billy G. Baker Publisher Lake City- During the 2026 softball season “The Carolina Academy ” Bobcats defeated region rival “The Kings Academy” Lions twice (7-3 and 1-0), so when the two teams won their respective SCISA AA brackets in the post-season tournament at Lexington (May 8-9), fans of both teams knew the best-of-three finals that began in Lake City on May, 11 was going to be like a prize fight, likely to extend to all three rounds. The Lions took advantage of numerous Bobcat errors, including 8 walks, to take game one 5-2. The two teams will meet again on Tuesday (May 12) in Florence for game two. TKA is hoping to sweep and earn a state title. “The Carolina Academy” are the defending SCISA AA state champions so this is not their first rodeo, and in all honesty, they did not play one of their better games of the season on Monday. The difference in this game was TKA sophomore pitcher Addison Bescher who recorded 12 strikeouts, while allowing just five hits. Her best stat might have been “no walks.” After all you need base runners to score runs and free passes glare at you in the stats totals. Ater the game, TKA head coach Jennifer John shared her thoughts. “Addison is pitching with a lot of confidence, and she knows exactly where she is locating her pitches,” said Coach John. “I also think like our girls were really disciplined at the plate. They waited for their pitch, and when they put it in play, they were smart about it. I think that made a huge difference in getting the runs we needed to win. “Addison and Emma (catcher Emma Atkinson ) have been a great pitcher/catcher combination all year and they are two of our best leaders,” said Coach John. “We know that Carolina Academy will come ready to play on Tuesday. We just need to stay focused and not beat ourselves.” Veteran Carolina Academy head coach Scotty Phillips spent a long time in his huddle talk with his team after the game. “I reminded our players that they are better hitters than they were tonight, and they were not attacking the ball very well in this game,” said Coach Phillips. “They have to come out and swing the bats better in game two. They are not getting on base through walks with their pitcher.”  Coach Phillips talked about his own veteran senior pitcher Raylee Frye who has been very impressive over her five- year career . “Raylee, for some reason, has started pulling up her arm a little bit when she pitches over the past couple weeks and we have to get that fixed before game two tomorrow,” said Coach Phillips. “Their pitcher pitched a good game. We will likely go with Raylee in game two and we are confident she will have better control and focus in this game.” Coach Phillips was very complimentary (once again) about veteran catcher Carlie Ann Smith. “ You do not get many like her in a coaching career,” said Coach Phillips. “She’s a very special player.” The Bobcats were limited to five hits in the game from five different players. Frye and Smith had hits along with freshman second baseman Natalie Braveboy , outfielder Paisley Coker and Ella Ham had a double in the 6th inning. As far as what he hopes to expect from his team in game two, Coach Phillips said, “It looked like we were not very confident tonight and I feel like we will be more alert and focused tomorrow,” said Coach Phillips. “We will be ready to play I promise you.” Both pitchers started off the game lights out with each of them retiring the first six batters they faced. Fyre had three of her five K’s in the first two innings. Bescher also had three strikeouts in the first two innings. Left fielder Hannah Allison led off the top of third for TKA with a single. She advanced on a ground-out by and scored on a throwing error to give the Lions a 1-0 lead. The Bobcats pushed across their only two runs of the game in the bottom of the 4 th to take a 2-1 lead at that point. Smith led off with a single. Paisley McCutcheon advanced Smith to second on a sac bunt. Frye drove in Smith with a well-hit ball to center field to tie the game 1-1. Fyre advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on an RBI single by Paisley Coker to make it 2-1. In the 6 th inning the Lions added two runs to take a 3-2 lead. Emma Atkinson reached on a one-out double and then the team benefited from a hit batter, and two straight walks with Atkinson tying the game on a bases load walk. Lauren Mills also scored on a bases loaded walk to put her team for good 3-1. Ham got out of the jam with two straight K’s to end the inning. The Lions added two insurance runs in the 7 th inning. First baseman Kate Buckley reached on a one-out single and then three straight walks to Atkinson, Mills, and Haley Griggs led to the Lions plating two more runs to win the game 5-2. The five hits by TKA came from Bescher, Buckley, E. Atkinson, Mills and H. Allison..

By WORTHY EVANS  BLYTHEWOOD — Spartanburg hit the road to Blythewood in the 5A Division 1 upper state District 2 baseball tournament Monday, and came home with a 7-5 victory over the Bengals—and the top seed in the championship game Friday. The Vikings (21-9) await the winner of Wednesday’s Boiling Springs - Blythewood matchup. The Bulldogs eliminated Mauldin 12-4 Monday night. “Blythewood is a great program, a great head coach. We knew we had our work cut out for us,” Spartanburg head coach Jessie Dyar credited his team’s maturation after battling through Region 2-5A. The Vikings finished fourth in the region with an 8-7 mark, and the 8-team region field champion Dorman , second-place Boiling Springs, and third place James F. Byrnes . All of the top four teams have posted 20 wins this season. “We’ve got a really resilient young group that got really battle tested over the last month playing some really good teams,” Dyar said. “They’re a testament to resiliency with how hard they go and how hard they play.” Starting pitcher Connor Mode got the win, giving up three runs on four hits, striking out four and walking two. Alex Bright came on to start the fifth inning and pitched three innings of 2-hit ball, striking out seven. “Connor Mode came out there and gave us a great chance to win,” Dyar said. “Alex Bright came in and gave us a chance to close the door and did an outstanding job. He’s a USC-Sumter commit and did a really good job.” Chris Colin went 3-for-4 and drove in two runs, Walker McCrory , Connor and Bolen Fields had two hits apiece. Juan Aguiar hit a 2-run home run in the first inning to put the Vikings on the scoreboard. Later in that inning Parker McCrory scored when Colin reached base on an error to make it 3-0. Blythewood (24-4) scored a run in the bottom of the first inning when Sergio Melendez tagged up and scored on Brandon Bolton’s fly out to centerfield. Melendez struck again in the bottom of the second with two out and Caleb Blackwell on base after a walk. He evened the score at three with a 2-run home run over the centerfield fence. Spartanburg retook the lead with two out in the third with Colin’s bases-loaded single that scored McCrory and Aguiar and give the Vikings a 5-3 lead. Colin was out at second to end the inning. Blythewood walked in a sixth Spartanburg run with one out in the fourth, but Charlie McCrory and Parker McCrory both hit into flyouts to retire the side. Fields smashed a hard ground ball into centerfield with two out in the top of the fifth, and scored Colin for the seventh run. Bright grounded out to end the fifth inning, but he retook the mound in the sixth and seventh frames and struck out five more batters. Bright’s only mistake came early in the seventh inning with nobody out—surrendering Melendez’s second home run of the night, this one a 2-run shot to cut the Vikings lead to 7-5. “He had a great night,” Dyar said. “He handled it really well in the situation they were in and hit a really good pitch.” The homer reignited the Bengals’ bench. Blythewood had a string of games that ended with late-innings heroics in April, but that end was not to be Monday night. Navy Strickland grounded out, and Bright struck out Bengals sluggers Amare Counts and Bolton to close out the win. “We were outplayed, they were a better team. There ain’t nothing else to say,” Bengals coach Travis Poole said. “It starts with me and it trickles down. They were better than we were today. The better team won today.”

Dennis Brunson hssr.com Associate Editor  Manning -- After losing to Pinewood Prep 3-1 on Friday in the SCISA AAAA softball state tournament at Patriot Park SportPlex in Sumter ,, Laurence Manning Academy had to do yeoman's work on Saturday to keep alive its hopes of being a 3-time state champion. It did just that, beating Heathwood Hall 6-1 and Wilson Hall 12-0 and 6-4 to win its bracket and advance to the best-of-3 state championship series. Awaiting the Lady 'Cats on Monday at Julie Skolar Field was the one and the same Pinewood Prep, which came into the game undefeated at 27-0. LMA broke through for four runs in the bottom of the third inning and went on to a 6-4 victory. "There again, it goes back to the tournament," said Laurence Manning head coach Buddy Truett . "It was just a case of hitting and passing the bats on down and believing in themselves. We had a good tournament on Saturday and it carried over." Laurence Manning, now 18-4, will be trying to wrap up its third consecutive AAAA state championship on Tuesday in Summerville . The game is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. If a third game is needed, it will be played on Wednesday at Orangeburg Prep beginning at 6 p.m. The Lady 'Cats scored their only run on Friday against Panthers frehsman pitcher Morgan Everitt in the top of the first. They didn't score for the final six innings of that game and the first two innings on Monday. The 4-spot in the third put the momentum squarely in LMA's favor. "That was huge for us," said Truett, whose team is playing in its fifth straight championship series. "We had the midneset going in to have the same pitching and . play the same defense and believe in ourselves at bat. We wanted to play the mental game, play some small ball and mix it up The girls held to it and it worked out for us. " PP scored twice in the top of the fourth to cut the deficit in half, but Laurence Manning answered with two in the bottom of the inning to make it 6-2. Pinewood Prep rallied in the seventh. scoring twice, but it wasn't enough. Senior Caroline Welch got the win in the circle, going 6 1/3 innings. Seventh-grader Avery Floyd came in to record the final two outs and get the save. Welch scattered eight hits and and walked seven. Seventh-grader Avery Floyd came in to record the final two outs and get the save. To Welch's defense, four of the seven walks were intentional passes to Everitt. She hit a 3-run home run in the bottom of the first on Friday to supply the Panthers' offense. "You take that home run away it's probably a different game," Truett said. "We took the bat our of hands. We just felt like if we can play defense we'd be OK. I didn't want that one person to beat us again." The Lady 'Cats were outstanding on defense. They turned four double plays behind Welch. LMA finished with seven hits, three of them going for extra bases. Seniors Marlee Black and Ashley Rae Hodge had two hits apiece. Black had a double and scored a run, while Hodge also had a double to go with two runs batted in and a run. Welch had the other extra-base hit, a triple, to go with an RBI. Senior Lyza Prickelmyer had a hit and scored twice, and senior Lily Wellborn had the other hit.Freshmen Kendall Tanner and Mcree Holcombe each scored a run. Everitt didn't record an out in Laurence Manning's 4-run third. She worked two innings, allowing four runs, only one of which was earned. She allowed three hits and two walks while striking out two. Alexis Buso pitched the final four innings, allowing two runs, four hits and one walk while striking out four. PP finished with eight hits with seventh-grader Sarah Grace Wickersham picking up two. Eighth-grader Kensley Gibbs had a hit , a run and an RBI, while sophomore Makayla Sullivan , seventh=grader Sofia Reed and freshman Grace Snyder each had a hit and a run. Sophomore Juliet Sussman had a hit and an RBI, and Buso had a hit. Reed and Sussman each had a double.

Colleton Prep senior, Sydney Stivender pitched all but one inning in the games the Lady Warhawks played in the May 8-9 tournament.

Berkeley High School Junior, Henry Rivers launched a three homer to seal the win against Lugoff-Elgin.

Pee Dee softball after 5th straight title; Laurence Manning softball, Hilton Head Christian baseball after 3 in a row.