Lake City baseball team wins district to reach AA lower state tournament
Panthers finish 20-10 as one of three Region 7 teams to advance to lower state
Lake City – The Lake City High School baseball team may have only finished third in Region 7-AA, but that didn’t keep the Panthers from having a great season.
Lake City won its district tournament in the AA state playoffs to earn a spot in the 4-team, double-elimination lower state tournament. The Panthers went 0-2, but that still meant they finished the year with a 20-10 record.
Lake City swept its district by beating Barnwell 10-9 and then topping Chesterfield twice, 5-1 and 3-1.
The Panthers moved on to lower state where they were joined by the two teams who finished in front of them in Region 7, East Clarendon and Atlantic Collegiate Academy. The other team was Cheraw.
Lake City lost to ACA 11-1 in its opener. It then fell to Cheraw 15-6.
“We picked a bad day to have a bad day, but that is baseball and why it is so addicting,” LC head coach Matt Apicella said in a Facebook post following the loss to Cheraw. “A 20-win season was not expected in a rebuilding year with five or six ninth-graders starting every night. This team proved that the program blueprint works.”
While the Panthers were very young, they were led by veteran senior Amari Hanna. He was selected to AA All-State team by the South Carolina Baseball Coaches Association.
