PHOTOS: Summerville vs Sumter Game 2

Phillip Ssimmons head Coach Poses With Five Senior Starters After Big Win Over East Clarendon.

Green Wave to face Byrnes for the state title beginning on Monday

By Billy G. Baker Publisher  Florence ---The AAAA Lower State softball playoff game between region foes South Florence and Hartsville was likely a “Good News Versus Bad News” situation for the winner, and that honor goes to the host Bruins, who rallied for a 6-2 win after trailing early in the game. The Good News is the win itself, and the Bad News is that South Florence has to travel to Gray Collegiate later this week, needing to defeat the War Eagles twice in order to advance to the gold medal round that starts next week. The Bruns lost to Gray Collegiate on Monday 8-2 in the double elimination play-off. After the game, South Florence head coach Bobby Jones, drew his comparison of his team versus Gray Collegiate , the top ranked AAAA softball team in the state with these comments. “First of all, Gray has college prospects sitting on their bench who don’t even start,” said Coach Jones. “As a charter school they draw their players from all over Columbia, and our players all come from South Florence. “They have four Division I college prospects starting on their team, and in all my years coaching softball, I have never had a Division I signee,” said Coach Jones. “Gray is strong one through 15, all the way down the line. “We played a tough schedule against teams like Summerville and Catawba Ridge to get ready for them,” said Coach Jones. “We knew at the start of the season they were the team to beat in AAAA. Our goal is be very competitive and paly our best game of the season when we fact them again.” In reflecting on the Bruins win over Hartsville, Coach Jones said. “Our pitcher ( Payton Perry ) had a good night and our batters came through with key hits when we needed them the most,” said Coach Jones. “Our little 8 th grader ( Rylee Rowsey ) got a triple in the bottom of the 6 th that scored two runs when the game had been tied at two. It was a solid team win tonight.” Coach Jones, in his 29 th year of coaching, said the Bruins will miss all three senior starters from this year’s 24-8 team. Perry is headed to Coker College after a solid career . The other two starting seniors are outfielders Alaina Floyd and Riley Owens and they have been hard workers on the team.” Hartsville (23-6) is head coached by Amber Harvey, concluding her 6th season as the head coach at her alma mater . “ Unfortunately, we have averaged one bad inning on defense, in several of our games this season, and that is what happened again in this game, that cost us the game,” said Coach Harvey. “We have a total of four seniors on the team, and three of them start. Carter Shumate starts at first while Allie Bailey is our main pitcher, and Jaysha McCullough is our starting center fielder. Our other senior is Jenna Storm . Shumate came in to the game batting .513. “Allie Bailey really had a good year for us pitching and she sort of waited her turn and it was her time to shine and we are really proud of her contributions this season,” said Coach Harvey. “Carter has helped us on both defense and at the plate and she had a great throw to the plate from first base to get an out, and we practice that throw from first to home a lot in practice and she executed it very well,” said Coach Harvey. “We are proud of our season this year and with six starters returning for next year we are looking forward to further success.” The Red Foxes were led at the plate by junior shortstop prospect Myah Harvey who batted .522 with 8 home runs, 25 stolen bases, and 39 RBI’s. Shumate was second at .513 and 28 RBI’s followed by McCullough at .488 with 18 RBI’s. Hartsville took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second. Sophomore Emma Kate Hudson led off with an infield single and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by 9 th grader Claire Smith . A ground-out by freshman Aliyah Smith moved Hudson to third. Junior catcher Mary Ellyn Hickey then singled in Hudson to give the Red Foxes an early lead. Hartsville extended the lead to 2-0 after batting in the 4 th inning. Shumate led off with a single and advanced to third on a double by Hudson. Two batters later Shumate scored on an RBI ground-out by Smith. South Florence tied the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the 5 th . Riley Rowsey reached on a one-out single. She advanced to second on a walk to Riley Owens . A single by Page White scored Rowsey to cut the deficit to 2-1. Two batters later Ryleigh Hux doubled in White to tie the game. SF was hoping to make it a 3-2 lead but Hux was gunned down at the plate on a perfect throw by Shumate. In the bottom of the 6 th inning, the Bruins sent 8 batters to the plate when they broke the game open with four runs. Blakely Blue drew a one-out walk. Ava Black then reached on an error to put runners on first and second. Ryle Rowsey delivered the big hit of the game, a triple into the deep corner of left field that scored Blue and Black to give SF a 4-2 lead. Riley Owens then singled in Rowsey to make it 5-2. Owens scored the Bruins final run on a throwing error to give SF the final margin of 6-2. South Florence has players batting .354 or better. They are Hux (.395 & 24 RBI’s), Perry (.391 & 28 RBI’s) White (.388 & 24 RTBI’s), R Rowsey (.364 & 21 RBI’s) while Black and Owens are hitting .354.

HHP rallies from 3-1 deficit with 4-run 6th to win program's first ever baseball championship

Summerville pitcher Ansley Bennett threw a no-hitter against Sumter May 19 during the playoffs. Photo by Roger Lee

By Neill Kirkpatrick Special to HSSR Hanahan – Nothing in baseball causes a coach more stress than when his pitching staff can’t find the strike zone as was the case for Fox Creek in the second and third innings Monday night as home standing Hanahan took full advantage by scoring 9 runs and then they had to withstand a Fox Creek rally to advance into the lower state final with a 9-8 win. “I’m proud of our guys. We got down five in the second inning but they didn’t hang their heads. We are a young team but these guys never give up, they never stop fighting and they always compete,” said Head coach Skylar Hunter. The Hawks will take on region rival and the HSSR’s second ranked team Oceanside Collegiate (26-5). The teams have played three times this season with the Landsharks winning all three. The Hawks will have to win twice to advance to their eight state championships series and third in a row. Fox Creek ends the season at 23-7. The Predators will also say good bye to nine seniors that were the backbone of back-to-back region and district champions. “I’m proud of this team. They battled to the end and showed a lot of grit all game,” said Head Coach Roby Gillespie. “This senior class has set the precedent for future teams. We tell the guys ‘Good isn’t good enough, strive to be great’ and this team did that every day.” After an uneventful first inning, the Predators came alive in the second. Bradley Anderson led off the inning with a single. After a strikeout, Will Frischmann stepped to the plate and launched a bomb to right center for a two-run tater and a 2-0 lead. Hanahan starter Chris Polm then walked the next three Fox Creek batters. The first batter that walked Jackson Wright was thrown out by the Hawks Hudson Sprovero for the second out of the inning. Caleb Waters had an infield single for Fox Creek to load the bases with two out. Will Fountain would score on an error and then Anderson plated two runs with a single pushing the lead to 5-0. The Hawks would respond in their half of the second with help from Fox Creek starting pitcher Devin Hillary. With one out Hillary walked Wyatt Muirheid. Zac Jimenez singled to put runners on first and second. Hillary then struck out the next batter before he couldn’t find the strike and walked the next three Hanahan which resulted in two runs cutting the Predators lead to 5-2. In the bottom of the third the Hawks would take the lead with a seven-run inning. It started with a lazy fly out to right. Hillary then walked the next two Hawks. Two wild pitches and a passed ball moved both runners up to second and third. Jimenez singled to scored Polm from third and still leaving the bases loaded.  Gunnar Haulbrooks came up next and singled scoring Muirheid and Jimenez and the game was tied at 5. The inning continued as Tripp Gallus had infield single and Joe Furse walked to load the bases. Sprovero came up next and promptly deposited the ball over the left field fence for a grand slam giving the Hawks a 9-5 lead. Fox Creek’s would bring in their fourth pitcher of the game Audyn Randall, who would get Jimenez to ground out to second base to end the inning. Randall pitched the finals 3 1/3 innings for Fox Creek and shutdown the Hawks offense. He struck out the side in the fourth and gave up only one hit to keep the Predators in the game. “Audyn maybe pitched four or five innings for us all. He came up to me and said coach give me the ball, I know I can throw strikes. He got up there and did his job to keep us in the game,” said Fox Creek coach Gillespie. Meanwhile, Hanahan brought in Haulbrooks in the second inning and he pitched well until the fifth inning. “Gunnar did a good job of settling us down in the middles innings and he also a big hit to bring two runs,” coach Hunter said. The Predators would draw closer to the Hawks as they scored twice to cut the lead to 9-7. Chance Weathersbee singled with one out and moved to second when Wright drew two out walk. Will Fountain would score both runners when he hit a triple into the right field corner. Hillary would cut the lead to one in the top of the sixth when he hit a solo shot over the right centerfield fence and suddenly the Predators were down only one at 9-8. The Hawks made a pitching change after the home run going to lefty Nolyn Nickels. Nickels would walk the first batter he faced but then got the final four outs of the game including striking out the last two batters and the Hawks were headed to the Lower State finals.

Southside Christian senior Grayson Gibbons wins more gold to close out prep career.

Kailen Kramer of Oceanside clearing 12'6 during the AAA State Championship Pole Vault.

By Neill Kirkpatrick Special to the HSSR Columbia – There is nothing like heading into the final running event at a track and field meet needing to score some points to capture a state title but that is what faced the Seneca Bobcats as Landon Crawford stepped into the starting blocks for the start of the 4x400 relay with his team trailing upstate rival Wren 53-52. Along with Kevin Bradley, Evan Jackson, and Elias Mcgee they ran a season’s best 3:23.29 to finish second in heat one and place seventh overall after the results from the two heats were in to get the two points they needed to overtake Wren 54-53 and win their seventh state AAA track and field state championship. Their last state championship was in 2018. The Bobcats had been close as they have finished runner up three times since 2021. After the meet head coach Chris White told his team, “We have been working towards this moment for seven years. I am so proud of you guys. This is a result of all the hard work you put in all year.” The Bobcats won this meet by scoring in six of the seven events for 43 points. Avery Butler led the way by winning gold in the discus and winning silver in the shot put. He also set new personal record in both events. In the discus he throw 58.46 bettering his old mark by almost three meters and he put the shot 16.56 meters. Corbin Williamson was second in the javelin with a throw of 51.10 meters while Isaiah Lippert and Mcgee won bronze medals in the pole vault and triple jump, respectively. Mcgee placed fourth in the long jump as well. Crawford placed fifth in the 400 and he, Jackson and Mcgee were joined by Cameron Benson to place fourth in the 4x100 relays. Wren had four medal winners on the day led by Jaxon Jerabek, who took gold in the pole vault and finished fifth in the long jump. Also, in the pole vault Bryson Todd brought home the silver medal while Parker Harris placed fourth. They scored 23 points in the event. Grant Young and Camden Pendleton finished second and third in the 1600 and 3200. Young was also fourth in the 3200. Richland Northeast’s Ethan Moody was the big winner at the AAAA meet winning three gold medals on his home track and setting new personal records in every event. His first event was the 110 high hurdles were he ran a new personal best of 14.05 to beat a loaded field where six hurdlers ran 14.80 or better. He came back to run 10.59 in the 100 and 52 flat in the 400 hurdles setting new personal best in the 100 and tying a personal best in the hurdles. He had one event left on the day after the 400 hurdles with opportunity to become the 10 th male to win four gold medals and just the third to win four in all individuals events. He came up short in his last event the 200, finishing seventh. Just like the other events he set a new PR with a time of 22.01. He finished the day with 32 points. “I did not know I had a 10.5 in the 100 in me,” said Moody. “This is my home track and I just wanted to come out and perform well. I’m very excited with the new personal bests.” 1 Seneca 54 2 Wren 53 3 South Pointe 48 4 Travelers Rest 45 5 Beaufort 42 6 Bishop England 41 7 Brookland Cayce 40 8 Gray Collegiate 34 9 Richland Northeast 32 10 Hartsville 30 11 Bluffton 27 12 Daniel 24 13 Westside 20 14 Lakewood 18 14 May River High School 18 16 Wilson 16 16 Emerald 16 18 Blue Ridge 13 18 Hilton Head 13 20 Lower Richland 12 21 Gilbert 11 21 Airport 11 23 South Florence 10 23 Midland Valley 10 25 Fountain Inn High School 9 26 Laurens 8 26 Southside 8 27 Aiken 8 28 AC Flora 8 30 York 7 31 Dreher 5 31 Camden 5 33 North Augusta 3 34 Colleton County 2 35 Crestwood 1