Pee Dee wins fourth consecutive SCISA softball state championship

      Summerton – The Pee Dee Academy softball team won its fourth consecutive SCISA state championship on Wednesday, defeating Clarendon Hall 12-3 at the CH ield to complete a sweep of the best-of-3 AAA series. 

       Pee Dee scored five runs in the top of the first ad never looked back.

      The Golden Eagles, who finished the year with a 26-1 record, started their championship streak by winning the 2022 AA title and have since followed it with three straight AAA titles

. They snapped Clarendon Hall’s 3-year title run as well. The Lady Saints, in their first year in AAA after realignment, won the two previous AA crowns and the Class A title in ’22.

      After Clarendon Hall scored two runs in the bottom of the first, Pee Dee added three more in the second to go up 8-2.

      Addison Hasty led the Eagles’ 15-hit attack, going 3-for-5 with two doubles, two runs scored and one run batted in. Azeleigh Arnette and Claire Eskridge both had two hits, including a home run. Arnette had two runs and two RBI, and Eskridge had two RBI and a run.

      Maddie Coward had two hits, including a double, and an RBI. Katie Estes had two hits, two runs and the game-winning RBI, and Carly Carroll had two hits, two runs and an RBI.

      Coward went the distance on the mound, scattering six hits while striking out five and walking none.

      Seniors Maggie Harrington and Skylar Dymond both had two hits to lead Clarendon Hall, which finished with a 14-7 record. Harrington had a double and scored twice and Dymond had an RBI.

      Seniors Mandy Wells and Calli Yount had the other hits, Wells scoring a run and Yount driving one in.

      In Game 1 on Tuesday in Mullins, PDA scored two runs in the bottom o the sixth to force extra innings and won it in the eighth in a 4-3 come-from-behind win.

      With the international tiebreaker rule in affect, courtesy runner Lilly Grace Rowell started on second base in Pee Dee's half of the eighth. She moved to third before scoring on a single by Estes.

      Clarendon Hall took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first before Coward settled down. She allowed just one run the rest of the way, allowing five hits while striking out 14 and walking one.

      Arnette and Estes both had two hits, each fininishing with an RBI and Estes scoring a run. Leah Nettles had a hit and an RBI, and Carroll had a hit and a run.

      Harrington, Brynli Brewer and Dymond each had a hit and an RBI for the Lady Saints. Brewer’s hit was a double. Wells had a triple and scored twice.

      Yount worked 7-plus innings, allowing seven hits while striking out nine and walking three.