Lexington evens 5A Division 1 state championship series with 9-4 game two win over James Island
By WORTHY EVANS
Contributing Writer
Columbia - Coming off a 5-4 walk-off loss in eight innings to James Island Tuesday night in game one of the 5A Division 1 state championship series, the Lexington baseball team wanted to leave no doubt Wednesday at the Wildcats stadium.
Christian Spivey, Logan Blight, and Graham Coleman all doubled off of James Island junior pitcher and Ole Miss commit Taj Marchand in Lexington’s 4-run first inning, and the Wildcats never looked back in a 9-4 victory over the Trojans in game two.
“That’s an incredible arm we faced tonight,” Wildcats head coach Brian Hucks said. “I told our guys that it was an amazing show of grit and toughness to lose a heartbreaker like we did the night before and know you’re facing that guy and come back and swing it like that.”
The best-of-three series concludes Saturday, as Lexington (22-10-1) and James Island (29-4) will battle it out in Sumter’s Riley Park at 1 p.m.
“We’ve got everybody available except Grant (Kisner), I believe. I think we’ve done a pretty good job of managing our pitching staff and our pitch counts. Reidar (Carlson, the starting pitcher for game one) will be available to go, I’m not sure if we’re going to start him or not, but we’ll figure out how to piece it together and see what we can do.”
Wildcats fans and Trojans fans packed the perimeter of the Lexington ballfield Wednesday, and everyone saw what the home team could do at the plate.
James Island opened the scoring in the first inning with Connor Dantzler’s 2-out RBI single. That hit scored Luke Maxwell, courtesy runner for lead-off man and catcher Stow Rogers, who was hit by a pitch to get on base.
With Trip Ostergard at third base and Dantzler at first, Hayden Little struck out to retire the side and bring Lexington to bat.
The Wildcats wasted no time. Lead-off man Toby Sobieralski drew a walk, and with Sobieralski’s courtesy runner Jonathan Waldrop on base, Spivey hit a line drive double into centerfield to put runners at second and third.
Marchand struck out Brandon Cromer and Lincoln Hill, but Blight’s double into centerfield scored Waldrop and Spivey to give Lexington a 2-1 lead.
Kissner drove in Blight with a single to rightfield, and Coleman’s double into rightfield scored Kissner to make it 4-1.
Coleman got stranded when Allen Hegler struck out to end the inning, but the Wildcats hits kept on coming in the second inning.
Brandon Mobley led off the bottom of the second with a double to left field, and Sobieralski promptly singled him home to make it 5-2. Marchand struck out Spivey, but Cromer’s single put Waldrop at second, and Hill drew a walk to load the bases.
Blight was ruled out on the infield fly rule, but with two out, Kissner’s base hit into centerfield scored Cromer and Waldrop to make it 7-1.
By then Marchand left the mound in favor of Colt Hernandez, but the James Island reliever didn’t last the inning. Bishop Nixon came on the mound for the Trojans to face Coleman, butHill bolted home from third and was picked off to end the inning.
“You knew this was coming, Lexington is too good of a team to lay down,” Trojans head coach Matt Spivey said. “Coach Hucks and his staff do a great job and they’ve got some really talented players, and you’re coming into a tough environment. A couple of things didn’t go our way early on and we didn’t make a couple of routine plays that I thought would have gotten us out of the inning, and all of a sudden you’re staring at a 7-1 deficit.”
Marchand was off the mound but stayed in the game, and in the top of the third inning he led off with a solo home run over the fence in leftfield to cut the lead to 7-2.
Lexington got two more runs in the third inning. Spivey led off the frame with a solo homer, and later Kissner’s 1-out RBI single scored Cromer to give the Wildcats a 9-2 lead.
Kissner, Lexington’s starter, lasted into the fifth inning. He gave up four hits over 4-plus innings. Jack Cooper came on early in the fifth and gave up two earned runs in the sixth inning, but lasted till one out in the seventh.
Ahead 9-4, Jake Epps took the mound for Lexington with one out and two men on. He struck out Collin Anderson for the second out and closed out the game getting Finn Pratt out on a flyball to centerfield.
While Wednesday didn’t go the Trojans way, Coach Spivey said the team will shake it off and get down to business on Saturday.
“We’ll shake this as soon as we get back to the bus,” he said. “We’ll get back to James Island and regroup and we’ll be ready Saturday.”
Saturday’s game between Lexington, the 2024 5A champion, and James Island, the 2024 4A champion, will likely electrify Riley Park.
“I’m just incredibly proud of our toughness and our grit, and we forced a game three,” Hucks said. “They held serve at their place and we held serve in our place, now let’s play for it all.”
Game 1
Lexington 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 – 4 7 1
James Island 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 – 5 9 0
WP: Colt Hernandez, 0.2 IP, 1K
L – Toby Sobieralski 3-4, HR. Christian Spivey HR. J –Trip Ostergard 3-4, 2B, 2 RBI. Jake Amman 2-3, 2B, 3B. Taj Marchand 2B.
Game 2
James Island 1 0 1 0 0 2 0 – 4 9 0
Lexington 4 3 0 2 0 0 x – 9 11 1
WP: Grant Kissner, 4 IP, 5H, 2R, 2ER, 3BB, 3K.
J – Taj Marchand 2-4, HR, 2 RBI. .
L – Grant Kissner 3-4, 2B, 4 RBI. Christian Spivey 2-4, 2B, HR. Logan Blight 2B. Bryce Mobley 2B. Graham Coleman 2B.
