Pee Dee wins fourth straight SCISA softball state championship
Golden Eagles sweep Clarendon Hall to win AAA title
Summerton – The Pee Dee Academy softball team actually played its first game of the 2025 season before it had its first practice of the 2025 season.
Because many of the softball players were helping PDA win a SCISA AAA basketball title on Saturday, March 1, and a school holiday on Monday, March 3, kept the 3-time defending state championship team from practicing, the Golden Eagles’ game against Clarendon Hall on Tuesday, March 4, was the first time they did anything together.
They won the game and had their first practice the next day. The late start didn’t deter Pee Dee as it won its fourth straight state title. It beat the same Clarendon Hall team with a sweep of the best-of-3 AAA championship series.
“It’s pretty incredible,” said PDA head coach Will Eskridge, who led the team to a 26-1 record. “It’s unbelievable. You start the season and really try not to talk about winning the state championship with the team. You worry the girls might take it for granted.”
Pee Dee defeated Clarendon Hall 12-3 at the CH field on Wednesday, May 14, to complete a sweep of the best-of-3 series.
Pee Dee scored five runs in the top of the first and never looked back.
The Golden Eagles 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.
Being able to send Coward, a junior, to the circle to pitch alleviates some of that worry of which Coach Eskridge spoke. The left-hander has pitched the Eagles to three of those titles and was stopped by a mid-season injury in her freshman year from making it all four.
Coward was selected as the Region 3-AAA Player of the Year for her work in the circle as well as her .557 batting average.
“It sure starts in the circle,” Eskridge said. “She’s a leader on this team. Shes been a leader since way back in the eighth grade. If she was intimidated by the older kids she never let it show.
“You always feel confident she’s going to get it done. I can’t think of a pitcher I’d rather have in the circle. She’s a competitor who believes in herself.”
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 of 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 finishing 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.
