Lake View Wins Game Two In Class A Baseball Finals With 6-1 Win Over McBee, Third Game Tie-breaker Set For Francis Marion On Saturday
Head Coach Kip Herlong with four senior starters after recent 6-2 win over McBee.
By Billy G. Baker
Publisher
Lake View—Both Lake View and McBee are tradition rich Class A baseball programs, so it was no surprise to see the Wild Gators bounce back in game two at home with a 6-1 win, after the Panthers had earned a 5-3 win at home on May, 24 in game one.
The Francis Marion College baseball field in Florence will be the venue for the third and deciding game in the best-of-three series at 6 p.m. on Saturday. Via a coin flip, after game two, McBee will be the home team in the deciding game.
After the win in game two, Lake View head coach Kip Herlong told the HSSR, “Our pitcher (Chase Price) did a great job on the mound today, and he has a done a good job all season, and our defense made some good plays behind him,” said Coach Herlong. “We got lucky today and bunched together some hits at the right time.”
Lake View made it into the finals for the 13th time under Coach Herlong, needing to go to Latta and win twice, and they pulled out two dramatic wins, 9-8 and 4-3, to make it into the goal medal round against.
“We can’t wait to get to practice tomorrow and nothing is going to change with us,” said Coach Herlong. “We are going to do what we do. We are going to work hard, focus on the things we need to focus on, and things are either going to work out for us, or not on Saturday.
“That’s the good Lord’s will and we are going to abide by it, just like we pray before every game,” said Coach Herlong. “In all matters, we trust faithfully in our Lord.”
Kason Herlong, who has signed to play at North Greenville, is joined in the Wild Gators line-up by three fellow seniors who all start and contribute to the team’s success. The other senior starters include first baseman Chris McGill, catcher Brayden Borders, and right fielder Kaden Parnell. Herlong was recently named the Class A Baseball Player of the Year by the South Carolina Baseball Coaches Association and he was joined on the Coaches all-state team Chase Price, a junior.
McBee head coach Josh Tiller is in his third season as head coach and he joined the team as an assistant in 2018. After the game he told the HSSR, “Our lefty Hayden Griggs pitched well for us today but we made some mistakes, with three hit batters, and two of them were with two strikes, and one of them was with two strikes and that came back to hurt us,” said Coach Tiller. “We have to clean a few things up and play cleaner on defense and I think we are right there going into Saturday’s game.”
Coach Tiller said he has a couple options on who might start on the mound Saturday but he has not decided yet. “Both our number two and three pitchers will be available Saturday but I am not sure which direction we are going to go just yet.”
Coach Tiller said he is hoping his team can move runners much better in Saturday’s game once they get on base. “We have to get them on, get them over and then get them in. This was one place we struggled at tonight. We need to be a little more aggressive at the plate.”
McBee has won four state baseball titles in school history. In Saturday’s game they will be led by 2025 Coaches Association all-state players pitcher Hayden Griggs and center fielder/pitcher Landon Tedder. Griggs is batting .393 with 34 RBI’s. Tedder is at .375 with 20 RBI’s. Tedder has an impressive 62 K’s in 38 innings of work on the mound with an ERA of 3.13. Cohen Reid is an option to start on the mound Saturday and he has 44 K’s in 36.2 innings of work with an ERA of 3.24.
McBee,22-6, has a team batting average of 336 coming into game three. The Panther’s top hitters include Aiden Hughes (.475 and 38 RBI’s) along with Chris Stone (.404), JJ Melton (.392).
Lake View will be making their 13th appearance in the state finals under Coach Herlong, and he has served as the head coach for 32 seasons. Coach Herlong announced earlier that this would be his final season in coaching. He will come into the game Saturday with a 633-169 career record, including 8 Class A state baseball titles on his impressive resume. His Lake View teams also have five runner-up finishes.
After game two, all of his former players, who were at the game, gathered for a group shot picture for the scrap books of memories. There were close to 100 former players at Coach Herlong’s final game at home on the Lake View diamond.
Adding to the historic final game Saturday, is the fact that Coach Herlong’s son, Kason, will likely be the starting pitcher for Lake View. Kason was recently voted the Baseball Coaches Association Class A Player of the Year. He will come into Saturday’s game at 7-0. He has pitched 45.1 innings with 71 K’s with an ERA of 0.618.
Expect some “father-son” hugs and tears at the end of the game Saturday, regardless of who wins the game. Hollywood could not have drawn up a better script for the final game in Coach Herlong’s successful career. Any time anyone does something for the final time in their life, you certainly hope they enjoy memorable moments from that final experience.
In game two Lake View went up 1-0 in the bottom of the first. Borders drew a one-out walk and was advanced to third on a single by McGill. Borders scored on a sacrifice fly ball by Brice King.
In the third inning Lake View made it 3-0 scoring two runs after the first two batters were retired. McGill reached on a walk and advanced on a single by Price. Both runners stole bases to advance to second and third and then 7th grader Colten Moody hit a blooper rover the first baseman’s head to bring in both McGill and Price to make it 3-0.
In the bottom of the 5th Lake View added three more runs to pull ahead 6-0. They took advantage of two errors, a walk, and a single by Moody to get the three runs across the plate. Landon King led off with a walk, then Price reached on an error, and then a ground-out RBI by Holden Lee made it 4-0. Moody’s single scored Price to make it 5-0 and the team’s final run of the game Moody scored on a throwing error.
McBee scored their only run of the game in the sixth inning. Tedder singled to left field to start the inning. He scored on a doble by Aiden Hughes.
For the game Lake View had seven hits. They were led at the plate by Moody with two hits and one RBI.
McBee also had seven hits in game two. They were led at the plate by Hughes with two hits and one RBI.
Griggs pitched 4.1 innings before Tedder relieved him and worked 1.2 innings on the mound. Griggs had three trike-outs.
Price went 6.2 innings on the mound with 9 K’s. Herlong came in and pitched 0.1 innings to earn a save.
