Six Cavalier softball players All-Region selections

By Billy G. Baker Publisher Ehrhardt —Despite being out-hit 6 to 2, the visiting Lee Academy Cavaliers took advantage of several errors to defeat Andrew Jackson Academy 6-5 in game one of the SCISA AA state finals on May, 13 th . The two teams will meet again at 7:30 p.m. today at Lee Academy (Bishopville) and if the Cavs win it will be their first state baseball title since 2019 when they were head coached by David Rankin who is now at Carolina Academy . Lee Academy is now head coached by Danny Price , who was an HSSR All-State selection in 1991 when he graduated from Lee Academy and he also played in the HSSR- SCISA Challenge all-star game after graduation. Lee Academy is expected to throw left-handed pitcher Braydon Davis today. He is 6-0 with 57 K’s in 40-1 innings of work. AJA is expected to throw Channing Terry who is 2-0 with 45 K’s in 42.2 innings of work. After the game on Tuesday, Coach Price told the HSSR, “Other than the 6 th inning I felt like we played fairly well on both sides of the ball,” said Coach Price. “All season long we have pitched Fyre earlier in the week and then our lefty (Braydon Davis) pitches the next game and that is what we plan to do at home on Wednesday. “I was an assistant with David Rankin when we last won a state title back in 2019 when my sone was on the team,” said Coach Price. “We hope to play well at home tomorrow and win a state championship.” AJA head coach Jason Mathys told the HSSR after the game, “Other than that one bad inning I felt like Landon (Johnson) pitched well enough for us to have won the game,” he said. “The errors hurt for sure. We have scored a lot of runs on our aggressive base running this season and our speed on the base paths have been one of our strengths on the season. However, it caught up with us in the 6 th inning. Those two outs in the bottom of the 6 th hurt our chances for sure. “We will pitch Channing Terry at Lee on Wednesday and we hope he pounds the strike zone,” said Coach Mathy’s. “We must also cut out these errors also.” Against AJA, Lee Academy scored one run in the first inning after Noah Brazell reached on an error, stole second and moved to third base on a ground-out by Brayden Davis . Brazell scored on a single by Andrew Bowers . In the top of the 4 th inning the Cavaliers plated four runs to go ahead 5-0 as they sent 10 batters to the plate against starting pitcher Landon Johnson . After Landon Olson and Tyler Gilbert began the inning with back-to-back walks. A two-base throwing error scored Olson and Gilbert on a mis-handled bunt put down by Tucker Rodgers to make it 3-0. The next two batters struck-out. Then Carson Davis singled in Rogers to make it 4-0. After two back-to back walks to Brazell and Braydon Davis a single by Bowers made it 5-0. In the bottom of the 4 th , AJA pushed across a run. Johnson reached on a hit-by-pitch and scored two batters later on an RBI single by Eli Mathys to make it 5-1. In the top of the 5 th Lee Academy added a very important insurance run that ended up being the difference in the game. Rodgers reached on a hit-by-pitch, stole second, and scored on a throwing error to make it 6-1. In the bottom of the 5 th AJA plated two runs to trail 6-3. Kaiden Kinard struck-out, but the catcher dropped the ball and he was able to reach first safely ahead of the throw. Kinard then stole second and scored on Jack Walling’s single. Walling stole second and third and scored on a fielder’s choice RBI by Channing Terry to cut the deficit to 6-3. In the bottom of the 6 th inning, it was a picture of good and bad for the Warriors. Brad Hightower and Mathys led off with back-to-back singles, and then Hall Sease drew a walk to load the bases with no-outs. Hayden McClung singled in Hightower to make it 6-4 and then Kinard then drew a bases loaded Rbi walk to bring in Mathy’s and a heads up play by Sease made it 6-5 when he ran in right behind Mathy’s on a throwing error. Then two AJA runners got hung-up between second and third and first and second (on the same play) and both were tagged out by an alert Cavalier defense resulting in two- outs when the situation could have been a score of 6-5 with runners on second and third with no-out. The next AJA batter grounded into the third out and the 6-5 score help up for a Lee Academy victory.

Game 1 of the SCISA Class A Baseball Championship series, Andrew Jackson Academy at home facing Lee Academy . Enjoy this sample of images, click the link here for the full gallery.

The SCISA Baseball playoffs are in the final semi finals and here are the updated brackets. 

Mazie Tomlinson selected as Region 1 Player of the Year

Cavalier boys 3-4 under first-year head coach Kemp DeWitt

By Dennis Brunson hssr.com Associate Editor Bishopville – Will Furse has seen his Lee Academy football tam show marked improvement in his first season as head coach. However, he knows the Cavaliers don’t have an easy finish to the season. “My expectations continue to improve,” said Furse, whose team was 3-2-1 on the season before beginning its SCISA Region 1-Class A schedule against Dorchester Academy on October 4. “We’re a lot better today than we were at the start of the season. Our region is very competitive so we have our work cut out for us.” Dorchester and Lee, which played for the Class A state title last season, are joined in the region by Williamsburg Academy and Carolina Academy . Williamsburg played for the AA state title last year before reclassification while Carolina is led by David Rankin , whom Furse replaced at Lee. Dorchester is 4-0, Williamsburg is 4-1 and Carolina is 3-1. “We need to finish games, finish drives,” Furse said. “If we do that, we’ll be alright. We’re healthy so that’s a good thing. These games will determine playoff seedings, all that kind of stuff.” The Cavaliers have freshman Braydon Davis leading them at quarterback, and he is having a strong season. Davis had completed 48 of 76 passes for 781 yards and seven touchdowns against one interception. He had 134 rushing yards and three touchdowns on 25 carries. Junior Andrew Bowers is having a strong season at running back. He had 830 yards and 10 touchdowns on 102 carries. Sophomore Landon Olson had rushed for 217 yards and two touchdowns on 37 carries. Cain June is the leading receiver. He had 21 catches for 299 yards and two touchdowns. Noah Brazell had eight catches for 164 yards and a touchdown. Bowers had 10 catches for 79 yards and a touchdown. Junior linebacker Tucker Boyce leads the Cavaliers in tackles with 51 to go with four tackles for loss. Senior Trace June had 42 tackles while Dawson Daniel had 23 tackles and a team high seven tackles for loss. Bowers has three interceptions in the secondary while Cain June had two interceptions. Lee’s three wins were 41-21 over Spartanburg Christian Academy, 42-6 over Christian Academy of Myrtle Beach and 35-16 over Thomas Sumter Academy. The Cavaliers lost to Beaufort Academy 35-20 and to Pee Dee Academy 38-16. ` The tie was 7-7 against Dillon Christian School in a game that was stopped because of inclement weather.

Lee Academy OL/LB/DL anchor, senior Trace June (6-1, 230)