Lee Academy comes up just short of defending SCISA AA baseball state title
Cavaliers fall to Dorchester Academy in three games in championship series
Bishopville -- The Lee Academy baseball team had another outstanding season, but it just didn’t end in the way for which the Cavaliers and their fans hoped.,
LA finished the season with an 18-6 record but came up a game short of defending its SCISA AA state championship. Lee lost to Dorchester Academy 9-5 in the third and deciding game of the title series on May 14 at Laurence Manning Academy’s Tucker Belangia Diamond.
“We had a great season,” said Cavaliers’ second-year head coach Danny Price. “We hit and pitched well most of the season, but we just didn’t seem to play our best in this series. You have to tip your cap to them (Dorchester). They played well.”
LA, which swept Beaufort Academy and The King’s Academy in its first two series, dropped the first game of the title series on the road by a 6-2 count. It rallied at home though for a 5-3 victory to force the if game.
The final score isn’t a true indication of the closeness of the game. Lee trailed just 5-4 going into the sixth inning. The Raiders got a 2-out, 3-run home run from Wyatt Byrd to make the deficit too large with too little time to make it up.
Landon Olson had two of Lee’s seven hits to go with a run scored and a run batted in. Chance Entzminger had a hit, two runs and an RBI, Andrew Bowers had a hit and an RBI, and Cash Holloway had a hit and a run.
Tucker Rogers and Aiden Fitzgerald each had a hit, while Myles Frye scored a run and picked up an RBI.
Lee got out to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first when Entzminger reached on a 1-out error, stole second and scored on an Olson single.
After Dorchester scored four times in the third, LA cut the lead to 4-2 in the fourth. Olson singled with one out, reached third on a Fitzgerald single and scored on a sacrifice fly by Frye.
Dorchester made it 5-2 to start the fifth. However, Lee pulled within a run in the bottom of the inning.
Holloway led off with a single and was sacrificed to second by Cary Privette. Entzminger delivered Holloway with a 2-out single, and Bowers followed with an RBI single to cut the deficit to 5-4.
Tyler Gilbert, Olson, Fitzgerald, Bowers and Frye were all named to the All-Region 2-AA team.
Other members of the Cavalier roster are Luke Richardson and Zach Blackwell.
