Hilton Head Christian beats Cardinal Newman for third straight SCISA baseball state title
Coach Scarbro credits Eagles players for sustained success despite move from AAA to AAAA
Bluffton – After winning the SCISA AAA baseball state championship in 2024, Hilton Head Christian Academy was bumped up to the AAAA classification beginning with the 2025 season.
All the Eagles have done since “moving on up” is add two more state championship trophies to the school’s trophy case.
HHCA beat Cardinal Newman 7-3 on May 13 to complete a sweep of the best-of-3 title series in front of the home crowd.
Jay Scarbro, who was an assistant coach on the AAA title team and the head coach for the two AAAA crowns, finds it hard to believe the amount of success Hilton Head Christian has enjoyed.
“I don’t know if I can put into words how to describe the success that we’ve had,” Scarbro said. “We won in AAA in ’24 and we moved up and to win it in ‘25 and ‘26 is a testament to our players. They knew AAAA was going to be more difficult, but they accepted that and made it work.
“We had three seniors on this team who played as sophomores. They mean a lot to me, and they’ve just been so consistent.”
Those three seniors are centerfielder/shortstop Slaide Burd, catcher Roman Colella and shortstop/pitcher Chip Hetzel.
Burd is the Region 3-AAAA Player of the Year. Burd, who will be playing collegiately at Stetson, had a .591 batting average and an on-base percentage of .675. He had 52 hits, 11 of which were home runs, to go with 25 stolen bases.
“Slaide is well known by everybody, and it’s hard at times to meet those expectations,” Scarbro said. “I can’t say enough good stuff about him.”
Colella had a .455 batting average to go with a .575 OBP. He had 35 hits, four of which were homers, and has been a defensive standout his entire career, according to Scarbro.
“I’ve coached high school baseball for 22 years, and Roman is the best catcher who ever played for me,” Scarbro said. “I can’t say enough for what he did behind the plate. He never asked to take a game off. What is special to me is his attitude and work ethic.”
Hetzel batted .357 with a .509 OBP and 24 stolen bases. He worked 37 innings as a pitcher, striking our 41 and posting a 2.83 earned run average.
“Chip made the transition from second base to shortstop last year and was great,” Scarbro said. “I was told he wasn’t much of a pitcher, but he’s just been outstanding for us the last two years. He’s been used as a starter, a closer, a middle reliever, a matchup guy, whatever we need at the time.”
Each of those three was an All-Region 3-AAAA selection along with junior Jackson Richardson and freshman Colt Spargur.
Richardson batted .438, had a .496 OBP and 28 stolen bases. Spargur was a force on the mound, working 58 innings and finishing with a 0.96 ERA. He struck out 100 and walked just 13.
The other seniors on the team are first baseman Will Mahl, a 2-year starter, and Tommy Gehm, who joined the team this year mainly as a courtesy runner.
Interestingly, it was the underclassmen doing most of the damage in the deciding game against Cardinal Newman. Freshman third baseman Stone Burd, Slaide’s younger brother, smacked two home runs and had five RBI. It was his first two dingers of the season.
“The interesting story about Stone is that he had a serious health issue in the locker room as we were getting ready to play in the championship game last year,” Scarbro said. “He had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance, and he was a starter. This year he has the best game of the year he had. It was right at the right time.”
Richardson and sophomore Josh Koepke both had two hits and a double, and sophomore Dylan Gehm had two hits. Colella hit a 2-run homer.
Spargur got the win, working six innings and striking out 10 while scattering five hits with two walks. Hetzel came in to get the final three outs.
