Top Ranked Gray Collegiate Softball Begins AAAA Play-offs With Big Win Over Bluffton

All four teams complete sweeps in semifinal series

Irmo – Lexington High’s girls lacrosse team made history on May 3, winning their first-ever state championship with a 12-7 win over Spartanburg in the 2025 Class AAAAA Division I state title contest at Irmo High School. The rest of the state championship contests were dominated by Lowcountry schools. Oceanside Collegiate won the boys and girls titles in class AAAA, while Lucy Beckham won titles in both boys and girls in AAAAA Division II. The Wando boys team won the AAAAA Division I championship. The Wildcats finish an historic season with an 18-1 record, losing only to AAAA state champion Oceanside Collegiate during the regular season. Early in the season, Lexington knocked off Bishop England, handing the Bishops their first loss to an in-state team since 2017. Izzy Saville scored five goals to lead a balanced offensive effort for the Wildcats, Anna Barger scored three goals, all in the second half. “It has to take everyone to accomplish something like this,” Saville said. But the story of the day was Lexington goalie Emersin Clamp , who shut down the Spartanburg offensive attack with 15 saves. Seven of those saves came in the key first quarter when she had seven saves as Lexington opened a 4-1 lead in the opening period. “I had to do it for my team,” Clamp said. “I knew what I was doing it for, for my team.” Saville’s third goal gave Lexington a 5-2 halftime lead and her fourth goal, after Barger’s first score, pushed the lead to 7-2 with 7:30 left in the third. Spartanburg’s biggest rally came over the final 4:07 of the third period. Evers Morris tallied two quick scores and Saffy Evans made it 9-6 heading into the fourth on a goal with seven seconds left. Lexington snuffed out the comeback with three goals in the first three minutes of the fourth quarter as Jada Van Sickle, Bella Adler and Barger all netted tallies. Morris and Evans led Spartanburg with three goals each. “We focused on playing our game, really all season. We didn’t worry so much about who we were playing as long as we kept our tempo up,” second-year Lexington coach Tiffany Tortorello said. “This shows the improvements in the Midlands and how our team culture is growing.” Not even Mother Nature could keep the Oceanside Collegiate girls lacrosse team from winning their second state title in three years on Friday night. The Landsharks, ranked as the No. 1 team in South Carolina, earned their first-ever win over rival Bishop England, the second-ranked team in the state, by a final score of 12-8 in the Class AAAA finals. The championship game was halted by thunderstorms early in the third period with OCA holding a 10-3 lead, The delay lasted more than two hours. Two-time All-American Teagan Scott came up big for Oceanside, tallying five early goals and two assists as the Landsharks built a 9-3 halftime advantage. Cadyn Clark’s second goal in the first minute of the third quarter pushed the lead to 10-3 just before lightening and heavy rain halted play. Bishop England came into the contest having won seven of the last eight state titles and with a 16-2 record. The Bishops came out of the long weather delay as the more aggressive team and Hannah Rosato scored two goals in five minutes to trim the OCA lead to 10-5. Scott, however, added her sixth goal with 2:42 remaining in the quarter to put the lead at 11-5. Bishop England’s Natalie Noone scored with under a minute remaining but OCA answered late in the quarter on a goal from Ashlyn Key to take a 12-6 lead into the fourth quarter. Whitney Jellison’s goal early in the fourth to bring the Bishops to 12-7. Noone added a goal to make it 12-8 with just under eight minutes remaining in the game. Oceanside Collegiate finishes with an 18-4 record. “It feels really, really good,” OCA coach Ashley McCulloch said. “I think we know how hard we worked this year and how much time and effort we put into it. These seniors were freshmen when I started coaching here so it has been nice to see them go through the program and end on a really good note.” Wando’s boys team claimed their ninth state title, beating Dorman, 18-1, in the Class AAAAA Division I finals, while the Lucy Beckham boys team won their fourth straight championship, beating Nation Ford, 14-5, in the AAAAA Division II finals.. Lucy Beckham’s girls captured their first state title, beating Fort Mill, 8-5, in the AAAAA Division II championship. The dominance of the Wando program continued on Saturday as the Warriors scored early and often while surviving a three-hour weather delay. Wando (16-2) won its ninth state championship in their 13th finals appearance of the last 15 seasons, all under current coach Lance Renes . The Warriors were clearly the better team as evidenced by early aggressive play. Wando got two quick first quarter goals from Connor Carretta and Brock Simpson , followed by Harris Beck’s goal for a 3-0 lead five minutes into the contest. Beck and Simpson each added goals late in the first and the Warriors were up 5-0. The lead stretched to 9-0 after two more goals from Carretta, and tallies from Gavin Long and Pierce Melell a. Dorman got on the board with 7:12 left in the second period, just before a weather delay due to lightening sent the teams to the locker room. This delay lasted three hours but the break in play did nothing to cool Wando’s momentum. Three minutes after the resumption of play, Wando made it 10-1 on Connor Bennett’s tally. The Warriors led 13-1 after three periods on goals from Carretta, Long and Beck. Carretta finished with three goals while Simpson and Beck each scored twice. The second half was played with a running clock with Wando leading 16-1 after three periods. “Today was just another example of adapting and overcoming,” said Renes. “Proud of our guys for sticking out a three-hour rain delay. Proud of them for holding in and getting the job done.” Lucy Beckham’s girls joined the Lowcountry parade of champions with Oceanside Collegiate, who won the AAAA girls title the night before. The Bengals were making their second finals appearance, losing to OCA in 2023. “One of our goals in the beginning of the season was to show out and show up and become a part of the championship tradition,” second-year head coach Vanessa Southworth said. “It has been a journey that started when these seniors were freshmen. We got a little better each year but we all felt like this could be our year. It’s very satisfying as a coach to see these girls celebrate with so much emotion.” A strong defensive effort was key in the victory as Lucy Beckham dominated play and possession in building a 7-2 halftime advantage. Iliana Kane (three goals) and Emily Butler (two goals) set the pace offensively. Mia Weis , Cat Chance and Violet Coates added scores as well. “We certainly try to be balanced but I think our defense has been our strength,” Southworth said. “It was good today. We got the stops and gave our attack an opportunity to score. We were really locked in today.” The Lucy Beckham boys were tested by perennial Upper State power Nation Ford, at least for a half. The Bengals held a slim 4-3 lead at the half but were thoroughly dominant in the last two periods with a 10-2 scoring advantage. Bear Hankins and Connor Simmons each scored three goals while Henry Hankins and Brendan Dick each provided two goals apiece. The Bengals scored 71 goals in their four playoff wins, allowing only seven goals in those wins. The Bengals won the third quarter by a 4-0 count, getting two goals from Henry Hankins and single tallies from Bear Hankins and Wyatt Coombs . Fort Mill made a brief run midway through the fourth quarter as Josh Ameo scored two quick goals to cut the lead to 9-5. Ameo finished his final game with three goals. But, Lucy Beckham answered the challenge with five goals over the final six minutes. The Bengals finished the season with a 17-3 record.

Roundup on all eight games along with complete brackets are available here

The SCISA Baseball playoffs are in the final semi finals and here are the updated brackets. 

Head coach Jason Mathys with senior captains Jack Walling an Hayden McClung 

By Billy G. Baker Publisher Walterboro —The Barnwell High (19-2) and Colleton County High (15-5) softball teams met in a final regular season “play-off tune-up” type game on May, 2 and the Warhorses rallied late in the game to pull-out a hard-fought 9-7 win. “Very proud of the job our 7 th grade pitcher ( Kinsey Terrapin ) did in the circle tonight,” said Barnwell head coach Mike Beasley . “We actually had two other seventh graders starting in this game, and for most of the season, in catcher Genesis Walker and shortstop Shalayah Badger. This just speaks volumes about the future of our softball program in Barnwell.  “This is our 8 th game in 10 days, over the past two weeks, and we played against some real good teams, and we were 5-3 over this stretch,” said Coach Beasley. “We rested our senior number one pitcher Jaidyn Devore tonight to get her ready for the play-offs that start on Wednesday. “All I know is that we will be hosting a four- team district play-off starting on Wednesday (May, 7) and that we will be playing and at-large team in the first game, but right now I can’t tell you who that team will be,” said Coach Beasley. “As long as we can keep winning, we will stay at home in the district, in the lower state play-offs, and in the first game of the state championship best of three series if we are fortunate enough to make it to the AA finals.” Against Colleton County the teams were tied after six innings at 5-5. In their top of the 7 th inning, Barnwell used two singles, and took advantage of five Cougar errors to push across five runs in the inning to take a 9-5 lead. Sophomore Laney Grubbs got things started with a one-out single. Then sophomore Kendall O’Berry singled to put runners on first and second. With two out Brooklyn Gardner reached on an error to load the bases. Then junior Abigial Corley hit a sharp ground ball, to the middle of the infield, that had the potential to end the inning, keeping the score tied. However, four throwing errors during the same play, cleared the bases, even scoring Corley who dove head first on home plate to make it 9-5 on one of the strangest set of errors witnessed by this writer in a long time. Colleton County did not give up. The Lady Cougars came to back in the bottom of the 7 th with redemption on their minds. Brooklyn Holmes started the inning off with a walk and then Alexa Eversole got her 4 th hit of the game off of a single. Both runners stole bases to move up to second and third respectively with no-outs. (At this point Coach Beasley replaced Terrapin in the circle with Grubbs, as the young Terrapin left the circle, she received a loud ovation from the Barnwell fans at the game.) Xiomara Oxner then hit a SAC fly RBI to score Holmes to cut the deficit to 9-6. The next batter Bre Gerard hit a SAC fly RBI to make it 9-7. Then the Cougars got back-to-back singles from Madison Miller and Lanasia Sanders to have two on with two out. Grubbs got the next batter to ground out to short to end the game. After the game, Colleton County 8-year head coach Tavara Edwards , told the HSSR, “We are 15-4 right now and we have a home play-off game on Tuesday, so all-in-all we have had a good season,” said Coach Edwards. “One of our senior leaders has been Lanasia Sanders who started out pitching tonight before we moved her to shortstop. She has been in the program five years and she is a real good leader for us both in the circle and at the plate. “We have two other senior starters, one is center fielder Madison Miller who we moved over to left field later in the game, and the third senior is Kristina Rheam and we will miss all three of our senior starters,” said Coach Edwards. “We are a very young team but if my girls come out here and play with a clear head, they can compete with anyone.” For the game Barnwell had six hits led by O’Berry who had two hits and one RBI. Grubbs had a hit and one RBI, and Corley had one hit and four RBI’s. Walker scored a run and produced two RBI’s, and Arnold scored a run with one RBI. Devore contributed a hit also. In the circle Terrapin allowed two earned runs while striking out three. Grubbs picked up the save with a solid performance. Colleton County had four players with multiple hits. Miller was 2-of-four including a double while McKenzie Cochran was 2-of-4 and junior Alexa Oversole went four-for-four and scored three runs. Bre Gerard had two hits and two RBI’s for the Cougars while Oxner had two RBI’s also. Sanders started the game in the circle for CC and worked three innings with five K’s and she gave up four hits. Bre Gerard worked four innings with 7 K’s and she gave up two hits. Devore, Barnwell’s ace pitcher will enter the AA play-offs having pitched 84.1 innings this season with 168 K’s and she has a stellar 0.83 ERA. Devore has signed to play at Howard University next season. Terrapin is 4-0 having worked 17 innings in the circle with 18 K’s and she has an ERA of 1.65. Grubbs is at 4-1 with 35 K’s in 24.2 innings of work. Grubs has an ERA of 2.84. Barnwell enters the playoffs with seven batters hitting over .300. Junior Shaelyn Badger paces the hit index at .471 and 10 RBI’s. Terrapin is next at .421 and six RBI’s. Shalayah Badger is at .375 with six RBI’s. Devore is hitting .344 with a team leading 23 RBI’s including five home runs. O’Berry is at .333 with 16 RBI’s and Walker is at .333 with 8 RBI’s. Gardner is hitting .317 with 10 RBI’s. Colleton County comes into the play-offs with an incredible .414 team batting average. Holmes leads the way at .607 including 31 RBI’s, five triples and one home run. Eversole is next at .571 with 22 RBI’s followed by Sanders at .527 including 33 RBI’s and four homers. Gerard is at .519 and 22 RBI’s entering the AAAA play-offs while Oxner is at .500 with three RBI’s. Cochran is at .360 with 20 RBI’s and Miller is hitting .356 with 14 RBI’s. The Cougars are le din the circle by Gerard and Sanders. Gerard comes into the play-offs with a 7-1 record with 96 K’s in 60 innings of work with a 1.40 ERA. Sanders is 5-2 with 67 K’s in 40 innings pitched and she has a 2.45 ERA. Retired Hall of Fame coach Rusty Adams serves as the pitching coach for Colleton County.

By Billy G. Baker Publisher Sumter —You can always count on a highly competitive game when SCISA AAAA region softball foes Laurence Manning (19-2) and Wilson Hall play each other, and their game on May, 1 was another such game as the Swamp cats rallied for five runs in the top of the 7 th inning to earn a 7-3 win. “This is our first game coming back from Spring break, and we spent most of the day today at the State House where the team was recognized for our state championship season last year,” said head coach Buddy Truett . “These two factors contributed to our slow start today but I was pleased with our late rally that got us the win. I was worried about us playing a little dead today.” In the bottom of the third, with the scored tied at one, there was a collision between WH batter Mary Paisley Geddings and LMA first baseman Lyza Prickelmyer on a towering pop up just inside the first base bag. Pricklemyer laid on the ground for a few minutes as a hush came over what had been a vocal crowd for both teams. The runner was called out and Coach Truett helped Prickelmyer off the ground, and they began walking down the first base line. “Lyza told me she was not coming out of the game, no matter what,” said Coach Truett after the game. “I have coached her since rec ball days and it would have taken a stretcher being called in to have got her out of the game. She is a competitor, a real baller. “I was also very proud of Kendall coming in and giving us a spark with her RBI single,” said Coach Truett. “Lainia did her job in the circle once again also. “We have come back from being down earlier in the season also,” said Coach Truett. “We trailed Orangeburg Prep by 10 and we came back and won that game when we scored 22 runs. “I would say the biggest difference in this year’s team and last year’s team is that when this group gets down, or something bad happens early in the game, they do not panic, and they stay focused,” said Coach Truett. After the game, Wilson Hall head coach Teresa Alexander, in her 18 th season , told the HSSR, “Even we lost this game I feel good about where we are now entering the play-offs,” said Coach Alexander. “What we need to improve on is getting one-or-two timely hits with runners in scoring position. “This team has performed well to have only have three returning starters from last season,” said Coach Alexander. “LMA is a talented team. I anticipate we will be playing them again in the play-offs.” Wilson Hall went up 1-0 in the bottom of the first. Junior left fielder Addie Griffin reached on an error and later scored on a throwing error off a ground ball hit by Lily Grace Przybyla .  In the top of the 4 th LMA ties the game when Prickelmyer singled and made it all the way to third on a Barron throwing error. Kaylee Parmenter Avins came up next and hit a ground ball that was over-thrown scoring Prickelmyer to tie the game. WH went up 3-1 in the 5 th inning. Caroline Andrews led off with a single. Center fielder Abby Bradley then bunted safely to put runners on first and second with no-outs. Geddings then singled in Andrews to make it 2-1. Two batters later, 8 th grade third baseman, Marsha Kate Skey , brought Bradley in on a ground-out RBI to make it 3-1. In the top of the 7 th LMA’s first four batters all singled. Pitcher Laini Kosinski led off with a ripped single to center, followed up by Lily Welborn’s hit. Then Coach Truett entered 8 th grade pinch hitter Kendall Tanner , who had just been called up from the junior varsity for her first time batting as a varsity player. Tanner will have fond memories of the moment as she delivered an RBI single to right field that scored Kosinski to cut the deficit to 3-2. Maggie Welch came up next for LMA, and her infield single brought in Welborn to tie the game at three. Two batters later gold glove senior catcher Lila Kate Mathis’ ground-out RBI brought in Tanner to give LMA their lead for good at 4-3. Carol Ann Briggs then singled to advance a run in from second to make it a 5-3 game. Then Marlee Black and Prickelmyer reached on consecutive infield bunts to load the bases. Ashley Rae Hodge then delivered an RBI single scoring Hodge to make it 6-3. The final run of the game was brought in on an RBI single by Kosinski who batted twice in the final inning. For the game LMA was led at the plate by Kosinski who went 3-for-four with two RBI’s. Welch was three-for three with an RBI, and Prickelmyer had two hits and scored two runs. Welborn and Tanner each had a hit and Tanner also had an RBI. Hodge and Mathis had one RBI each while Briggs contributed a hit and one RBI. In the circle, Kosinski pitched all seven innings for LMA, allowing two earned runs and with six strike-outs. Wilson Hall was led at the plate by Andrews who had two hits and scored a run. Geddings had a hit and one RBI. Griffin had a hit and scored a run. Skey added a hit and one RBI. Grace McArthur contributed a hit and Bradley had a hit and scored a run. Lily Grace Przybyla was the starting pitcher for WH and she left the game after the 5 th inning but she reentered in the 7 th inning. She had one strike-out.

W.W. King, Marlboro to complete deciding game in Class A quarterfinal series on Monday after Knights win protest

Sumter - Softball action at Patriot Park in Sumter, SC with Laurence Manning traveling to take on Wilson Hall. Enjoy this sample of images, follow this link for the full gallery.