St. John’s Christian Academy Falls Short Of State Championship Series
By Neill Kirkpatrick
Special to the HSSR
Moncks Corner – St. John’s Christian Academy fell a little short of their goal to get into the SCISA AAA baseball championship series, as they fell in the state semi’s to state runner up Orangeburg Prep (4-1) in what was the rubber game for the teams this season.
The loss dropped their record to 12-9. They finished second in region 4 AAA at 4-2 with their only losses coming to AAA state championship Hilton Head Prep.
The Cavaliers had to come thru the losers bracket in the state tournament as they dropped their first game to Pee Dee Academy 4-0 before beating Spartanburg Christian (6-1) and Patrick Henry (3-2) to set up another game with Pee Dee Academy.
Senior Mason Ritter, who pitched well in losing to Pee Dee in game one, pitched a four hitter and didn’t allow a run to cross the plate as SJCA won the game 1-0 setting the game with OP. On the season he went 4-5 with a 2.31 ERA. He struck out 50 hitters in 42.1 innings.
Senior Sumpter Moorer was named to the SCISA all-state team after leading the Cav’s in batting at .388, in hits with 26, runs scored with 17, doubles with four, triples with three and one round tripper. He was second in RBI’s with 11. On the bump, he appeared in nine games and had a 0.91 ERA to lead the team.
Tyler Black was solid all year on the bump, leading the team with five wins. His era was 1.91 and he had team high 60 strike outs.
Senior Lucas Morrison led the team in stolen bases with 9 while senior Landon Chipman was second on the team in hitting with a .297 average.
Jacob Glover has been outstanding behind the plate this season. The junior had two errors in a 156 chances for a .987 fielding percentage. He did a great job of handling the pitching staff all year.
“We had a veteran group with seven seniors that have played a lot of baseball together and they knew what it would take to make a playoff run. They have set a standard for future teams, ” said head coach Stewart Pierce. “
