Latta baseball makes postseason run to Class A state championship series
Vikings take 10-game journey to win district, lower state tournaments
Latta – The Latta High School baseball team may have finished fourth in Region 1-Class A, but it finished the year as the second best team in the state.
The Vikings got on a roll in the state playoffs and made it to the state championship series where they lost to 2-time defending state champion Southside Christian School in two games in the best-of-3 series.
Along with playing in a tough region to prepare it for the playoffs, Latta head coach Robbie Brown knew his team would give it all it had.
“I knew our team was going to be made up of grit,” Brown said of the Vikings, who finished with a 23-12 record. “I always expect to compete. We had 16 guys who believed in what we do, and it was a fortunate experience for everyone in our program. I’m so proud of that group.”
Latta didn’t chart an easy course to get to the the championship series. In the District 7 tournament, the Vikings pounded No. 1 seed Bamberg-Ehrhardt 16-3 in their opener. That was followed by a 3-1 loss to No. 2 seed Johnsonville. Latta beat B-E 16-6 in an elimination game to get to the championship round against Johnsonville. It needed two wins to advance to the Lower State tournament and it got them by the scores of 2-1 and 9-5.
The Vikings were joined in the Lower State tournament by two of their region foes, champion Lake View and No. 2 Green Sea Floyds, and East Clarendon. They opened with a 15-4 win over GSF before falling to Lake View 1-0.
Latta topped EC 6-5 in an elimination game to get to the championship round. It needed two wins to advance and again it got them, beating Lake View 2-1 and 12-11 in eight innings.
“They finally bought in to what we preached all year, never give up, never give up and always compete,” Brown said when asked what was the difference in the team in the postseason.
The Vikings were led by a pair of Class A All-State selections in Seth Minshew and Preston Brown. Minshew had a .418 batting average to go with eight doubles, a triple, a home run, 26 runs batted in and 28 runs scored. Brown worked 48 innings on the mound and had a 2.19 earned run average while batting .330 with 17 RBI.
Brown was the Region Pitcher of the Year and was joined on the All-Region team by Minshew, Eli Jones, Mason Weatherford, Fischer Richardson, Colby Smith and BW Berry.
Jones batted .333 with five doubles, two triples, 16 RBI, 31 runs and 15 stolen bases, while Richardson batted .305 with 21 RBI, 32 runs and 13 steals. Weatherford batted .372 with seven doubles and 19 RBI, Smith batted .314 with eight doubles, 18 RBI and 16 runs, and Berry batted .326 with five doubles, 20 RBI and 26 runs.
Team award winners were Minshew as the Offensive Player of the Year, Jones as the Defensive Player of the Year, Brown as the Pitcher of the Year and Richardson as the Most Improved Player. Weatherford won the Don Cribb Award and Nick Lane won the Viking Award.
