Southern Lee baseball makes history with school's first state title

BURLINGTON, N.C. — General rule tells you doing something for the first time is not only difficult, but improbable. But being a Cavalier sometimes means dismissing the general rules.

After all, there’s a first time for everything.

This Saturday, the Cavaliers of the Southern Lee baseball team captured the school’s first N.C. High School Athletic Association state championship in any sport. They did so by battling for three games against South Caldwell and walking away with a 12-2 Game 3 win in the 6A championship series at Burlington Athletic Stadium.

It was a wild day in Burlington for the Cavs. In Game 2, they were one strike away from securing the state championship hours earlier. Instead, South Caldwell's Nate Hall batted in a run with a double to tie Game 2 in the bottom of the seventh. The Spartans went on to walk off Southern Lee after a wild comeback.

But the craziness of Game 2 never changed the mission for SLHS. Even after suffering such an emotional loss, they hit the diamond with renewed determination to bring the championship trophy back to Sanford.

“This is it. This is our day,” Southern Lee head coach Tommy Harrington told his team before taking the field for Game 2. And while it may not have worked out for the Cavs in that game — ultimately those words rang true.

"Really just sat and talked and as a team and decided what we did wrong and what we needed to do better," Cavalier junior Drew Patton said when asked how the team regrouped after Game 2. "And worked it out, and it worked.

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Here’s how Game 3 shook out.

Cavalier junior pitcher Rylan Stephens struck out the first two batters in the top of the first. Right after that is when the errors started to stack up. First, an error allowed South Caldwell senior Kori McCall onto first. Later, as McCall was trying to steal his way to third, an errant throw went far past the base plate and rolled deep into the outfield. That allowed McCall and another runner to score.

South Caldwell established a 2-0 lead without a single hit.

It's important to note that Stephens pitched all five innings of the mercy rule victory without giving up any earned runs. He struck out nine and gave up just two hits and three walks.

"He was huge," Southern Lee head coach Tommy Harrington said about Stephens. "[South Caldwell] hadn't seen a lefty all weekend, so we thought, 'Hey, let's mix it up.'"

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That lead didn’t last long. Of the first four Cavaliers into the box, two walked and two struck out. The pair that reached base were soon scored by a triple from Gavin Shaffer to tie the game 2-2. The separating run was put in motion by Dallas Roberts as he took a long lead off first to distract the Spartan defense. The ruse worked and Shaffer crossed home before Roberts was tagged out.

That put Southern Lee ahead, 3-2, at the end of the first inning.

In the second, Max Andrew Sercy delivered the team’s second triple in as many innings to help add to the lead, 4-2.

The lead continued to grow in the third as Parker Bloedorn, Dallas Roberts and Brody Brown each hit RBI singles to make it 7-2. South Caldwell made a pitching change, swapping Luke Church (who made the walkoff hit in Game 2) for Brady Boston. The Spartan senior closed the inning, but not before Patton stepped up with a sacrifice fly to make it 8-2.

Patton demonstrated a knack for nabbing timely moments throughout the series. That's what earned him the series MVP.

"It's crazy," Patton said about winning MVP. "I worked my butt off to get here. Definitely didn't think [the award] was going to be in my hands. It's just all the emotions are going right now."

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The offensive flurry continued with an RBI single from Shaffer and an error which allowed one to cross. That made it 10-2 entering the fifth.

Throughout the fourth and fifth, Southern Lee successfully stranded five Spartan runners to maintain the comfortable lead.

With bases loaded in the bottom of the fifth, Bloedorn batted one in on a ground out to make it 11-2. Finally, the game ended on the steal of home to make it 12-2 with a 10-run mercy rule in five innings.

"A lot of hard work showed and it's a total team effort," Harrington said.

Box Score

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