SCHSL Softball Highlights by Class
Senior shortstop Katie Guilliam (and headed to play for Missouri) led off with a home run as the first Green Wave batter against Byrnes and her two RBI single in the bottom of the sixth to help earn the Green Wave their third state title in recent years.
SCHSL Softball Highlights by Region
By Billy G. Baker
Publisher
Summerville—Senior shortstop Katie Guilliam led off with a home run as the first Green Wave batter against Byrnes, in the first inning of game two of the Div. I AAAAA softball series on May 17, and she will also remember her single in the bottom of the sixth that drove in two runs that helped Summerville defeat the Rebels 6-3, earning the Green Wave their third state title in recent years.
Guilliam, headed to Missouri on a softball scholarship, told the HSSR after the game. “She pitched me on the inside every time I batted in game one, so I knew what was coming,” said Guilliam. “I timed it out right and got a good level swing, so it was great to help give my team early momentum.”
Then in the sixth inning her single brought in two runs with the game still in doubt.” I just loving playing the game, and I am a very humble player so anytime I can help my team win a game, that’s my goal,” she said. “I have been on the varsity for six years now and I am proud to have been apart of all three state titles we won.
“Being a senior, this one is very special, especially after last year the way we lost in game three in the state finals,” said Guilliam. “This is the way I wanted to go out. This one felt good.”
For the game Guilliam went 3-of-4 with three RBI’s to lead the Green Wave.
Summerville head coach Heather Tucker was very proud of her team after the game. “Katie Guilliam, what a stud,” said Coach Tucker. “She has been playing on the varsity since the 7th grade. She is a tough kid, and I love her approach to the game.
“She is a grinder who puts so much work and effort into the sport,” said Coach Tucker. “She always comes through when she is on the big stage.”
Tucker said it was no doubt in her mind that the best two teams in Div. I AAAAA softball were the Green Wave and Byrnes. Summerville won game one in Duncan 6-5 in a game that took 9 innings. “That first game was a battle on the road and it was a tough game no doubt,” said Coach Tucker. “We got home at 4:30 am Tuesday morning and we got ready that afternoon to get ready for this game. It was a team effort and a great team win.”
Coach Tucker also praised the play of senior pitcher Daphne Grady, headed to North Greenville. “She stepped up this year as our pitcher and she wanted the ball in her hand every game and we gave it to her,” said Coach Tucker. “She worked hard and put in the extra time to give us strong pitching all season. I am super proud of her.”
Grady had well over 300 strikeouts for the season setting a new record for one season at Summerville. Coach Tucker also cited the play of CF Jayden Bennett, and she praised ay f senior Delaney Hayes who rejoined the team for her senior year, after not playing since junior varsity.”
Summerville won state softball titles back in 2023 and 2024. Coach Tucker also won a title as a player at Stratford back in 1996.
Summerville had 10 hits for the game. Behind Guilliam was Bennett who had a hit and made two really nice catches in center field. Frady had a hit and two RBI’s and Maeven Moreno had a hit and played solid defense. Summer Knight had a hit along with Hayes and RF Haylee Sexton also contributed a hit.
In the circle, Frady went all seven innings, allowed 10 hits, with four strikeouts.
Byrnes also collected 10 hits in the evenly matched game. Melton, who has a strong arm in RF, led the Rebels going 3-of-4 with a double. Addy Waters had a hit and one RBI, while Durrah also had one hit and one RBI. Aiken, a superb defensive shortstop for an 8th grader, had two hits and sophomore left fielder Bayleigh Murray had two hits, including a double.
In the circle, Crutcher worked all six innings, allowed 10 hits, and had four strikeouts.
Class AAAAA Division II Softball
By Billy G. Baker
Publisher
Florence — Indian Land (31-3) and St. James (27-7) split their first two games in the best-of-three state softball finals, from the Div. II AAAAA ranks, so a third game was needed at neutral site, South Florence High on May 29, to break the deadlock.
Indian Land scored all their four runs in the 4th inning, and pounded out 10 hits in the game, to earn a 4-0 win over St James, earning the school’s 10th state softball title. The Warriors had won 9 state titles as a Class A member, with their last title coming in 2006. The program won seven straight titles between 2000 and 2006.
Indian Land has a rich softball tradition, and their current head coach, Monica Barfield, won three of those titles in 2004, ’05. ’06 before she took a break, after the 2008 season, to help raise her small children at the time. Coach Barfield returned to the program as the head coach in 2017, for what she calls “Round II.”
In game one, Indian Land lost at home to St. James 5-3 on May 25. Bad weather delayed game two at Indian Land until May, 29 when St James, head coached by Paula Blackwell, took that game on the road 3-1, forcing a third game tie-breaker.
In the bottom of the 4th, in game three, catcher Logan Thomas got Indian Land going on offense with a double. Pitcher Olivia Miller followed with a double to score Thomas, for the game’s first run. Right fielder Taylor Marvin then doubled scoring CR Jayla Herron to make it 2-0. Next, with no outs, first baseman Layla Crandall singled to center scoring Marvin to make it 3-0.
The next two batters were out on a pop- ups in foul territory. Center fielder Avery Clark came up and smashed a double to left field scoring Crandall and the Warriors led for good at 4-0, with no additional runs being scored by either team.
Miller was the winning pitcher for Indian Land. She went a complete game seven innings allowing just three hits with seven strikeouts. At one point in the season Miller had a 9-4 record in the circle with an incredible 102 strikeouts in 42 innings of work with an ERA at 1.17.
For the game Miller, Marvin and Crandall paced the Warrior’s offense with two hits and one RBI each. Clark and Thomas joined first baseman Harper Murphy, and second baseman Raegan Langborgh with one hit each.
St James was limited to three hits in the game. They were made by shortstop Kinzie Kraus, first baseman Payton Cox and DP Khloee Barton.
Raegan Tibbits was the losing pitcher for the Sharks. She pitched all six innings, allowed 10 hits, and had three strikeouts.
AAAA Softball
By WORTHY EVANS
HSSR Contributing Writer
COLUMBIA — With little drama, the Gray Collegiate softball team made a big statement Friday night at the A.C. Flora softball field.
Sophomore Mackenzie Sease’s home runs in the first and second inning helped boost the War Eagles to a 6-0 lead, while junior Peyton Hendrix took the circle for the second time in the best-of-three series to close out a 11-1 victory and secure Gray’s second straight 4A state championship and third straight state title.
Add to that, University of South Carolina signee Aspen Boulware finished off her career with the War Eagles with a solo home run in her final at-bat, the 60th of her career.
“We set a goal this year to go undefeated,” head coach Doug Frye said. “I know that sounds crazy, but we’d take it one game at a time. These girls bought into it and they stayed focused on what we were doing the whole year. It’s amazing, 34-0. It’s incredible.”
The War Eagles beat the Falcons 7-1 in the first game of the series that was disrupted by rain.
Gray held a 3-1 lead going into the fourth inning before the weather forced a suspension Wednesday night. When play resumed Thursday the War Eagles scored two more runs in the fourth inning on Sease’s 2-out double that drove in Wright and Boulware to make it 5-1. Gray scored a run in the fifth inning and another in the sixth, and Hendrix closed out her first complete game this week in the circle by shutting out the Falcons in the seventh. Hendrix scattered six Flora hits and struck out 10.
“It was just staying focused. All the preparation we’ve done before this season, that’s really what our strategy was,” Hendrix said Thursday. “We’ve all worked very hard this season and it’s trusting that process.”
AAA Softball
By Rob Gantt
Special Contributor
Hanahan -- There’s nothing special in the water in Iva which magically helps Crescent High School’s softball program find success. It’s just a sense of family and culture - and a bunch of tough kids - that keeps the Tigers shining on the diamond spring after spring.
Tigers head coach Jeff Craft had plenty of words of praise for his squad after it rallied for a 12-7 victory over Hanahan on Thursday, May 28, at the HHS field in the AAA state championship series, securing another state crown for the traditional power with a 2-game sweep of the Hawkettes.
The title was the 20th overall for the program, but the first in 13 years.
“We’ve been behind in seven of eight playoff games and just battled back and haven’t lost a one,” said Craft, whose team finished 29-4 for the season. “It’s just what they do. Every time they get behind, you see no fear… They never believe they’re out of a game. You saw that tonight. They refused to make an out in the seventh inning.”
The Tigers plated seven runs in the top of the seventh to pull away from the home team. Earlier, Crescent trailed 4-0 and 7-3 but kept chipping away to get within striking distance going into its final set of hacks. The Tigers recorded five hits in the seventh, including a 2-run single off the bat of pitcher Mikayla Rodney with one out that broke a 7-7 tie.
AA Softball
By Dennis Brunson
Hssr.com Associate Editor
Chesterfield – The Saluda High School softball team made history in 2024 when it played in its first ever upper state championship series. In 2025, the Tigers made history again, winning the AA upper state title and playing in a state championship series for the first time.
Well, Saluda made history again on Thursday, so you know what that means. The school has to make room for a state championship trophy.
The Tigers won the school’s first ever softball state title by beating Chesterfield 3-0 in front of a packed house at the CHS field to sweep the best-of-3 AA state championship series.
“It just means everything to bring it back to Saluda,” said Tigers head coach Hannah Towery. “It’s been a tough ride after last season (getting swept by East Clarendon in the AA title series), and to me it means everything to give the girls this opportunity.
“I’ve always wanted to give the girls this experience because I never had this chance. I played on a lot of teams that came up short. It just means everything to make history for a third year in a row.”
SHS finishes the year with a 29-3 record. The Rams finish 17-10.
Sophomore pitcher Miller Martin and junior centerfielder Amy Sorcia said it was sweet to get the title after coming up short last season.
“It feels really good because we’ve really grown from last year,” Martin said. “It means a lot to me because this is my sister’s (senior second baseman Ava Martin) last year, she’s a senior and she’s graduating, and it just feels good to come out here and play good and win it.”
“We worked hard last year and sadly we fell short,” Sorcia said. “I think we definitely knew what we wanted to accomplish and we did it.”
Towery decided to throw both of her pitchers on Thursday, and the move worked like a charm, not that Towery expected anything else.
Left-hander Kyle McGlohorn started in the circle and worked the first three innings. She allowed three hits and struck out two while walking none.
Righty Miller Martin came on in the fourth. Martin, who allowed just two hits while striking out 13 in a complete game in the Tigers’ 7-1 win on Wednesday, allowed three hits on Thursday while striking out seven and walking none.
“I told them before the game we were going to play this game like we’ve done the whole entire year,” Towery said. “They’ve been our rock the whole entire year, both pitchers, and we were going to finish the year just how we started and ride what got us there, which was the two of them. I couldn’t be more proud of them.”
Freshman Ashton Cassidy had a strong pitching performance for Chesterfield. She went the distance, allowing six hits while walking two and fanning four. Only two of the runs were earned.
“She is an awesome pitcher,” second-year head coach Graham Harpe said of Cassidy, one of just two starters from last season at the same position. “ She has carried us. She is definitely one of the MVPs (most valuable players) on this team.”
The game was scoreless through the first four innings. SHS final broke through with a run in the top of the fifth.
Reese Shaw started the inning with a single, and Kamryn Campbell drew a walk. After an out, Ashlynn Vereen hit into a fielder’s choice to leave runners on the corners with two outs.
Vereen took off for second on the first pitch to Nyla Jordan, and catcher Madison Vanderpool sailed her throw into center field. Shaw easily scored to make it 1-0.
Saluda made it 2-0 in the sixth. Zoey Springs singled with one out before Ava Martin drew a walk with two outs. Aubrey Marnati then delivered a single to score Springs.
The Tigers got a big insurance run in the seventh. With one out, Sorcia sent the ball over the left field fence for a home run to make it 3-0.
“When I went up to hit the first two imes, I got it right down the middle both times,” said Sorcia, who was 2-for-3 with a triple and four runs batted in in the opener. “That’s what I was looking for and, yes sir, that’s what I got.”
Miller Martin retired the side in order in the bottom of the inning to set off a big celebration, not only by the players,but by the Saluda faithful as well.
“I wasn’t really stressed, but I was dialed in to make sure they didn’t score,” Miller Martin said of taking over a scoreless game.
Class A Softball
By Billy G. Baker
Edtor
Pamplico -- Home teams from rural areas in South Carolina seem to always celebrate state championships a little longer after the hard-fought battle is over. That was the case in Hannah-Pamplico High School’s highly competitive 4-3 win over Whitmire in Game 2 of the the Class A softball state championship series on Friday that gave it the state title.
It was the Lady Raiders’ second state title since 2023 under head coach Amber Knight. Knight first complimented the Whitmire team.
Turning to her own team, Knight talked about the four seniors who started in the game who also played in the 2023 state title game. They are catcher Meredith Stone, headed to USC Upstate, pitcher Kadence Poston, headed to Western Carolina, along with shortstop Chloe Cooper, and centerfielder Savannah Owens.
