On Saturday, the top teams and athletes in the upper state of South Carolina competed at multiple venues for the chance to punch their tickets to their respective state championship meets that start this coming Friday.
With the upper state championship meets, the athlete or team needs to finish in the top four of their events to qualify for the state championship meets, which will be held at two locations around Columbia. The 3A Upper State championship meet was held at Seneca High School where the members of the Chapman track team competed for their spots at the 3A state championship meet. Chapman junior Shamon Black punched his ticket by winning the 3A Upper State championship meet in the 110m hurdles event with a time of 13.96, which was almost a second ahead of second place. Panther's senior Rashawn Cunningham made his way to the state meet by winning the 3A Upper State boys' long jump event with a distance of 22' 04". Mya Jackson earned her way to the state meet with a winning performance in the girls' long jump event with a distance of 17' 06" and also had a third place finish in the 100m events with a time of 12.48, just three-tenths of a second behind the winner of the event. Marquisha Sturdivant finished in second place of the girls' high jump event with a height of 4' 11" to earn her trip to the 3A state championship meet. The 2A Upper State championship meet was held at Liberty High School where the Chesnee Eagles competed for their opportunities to compete in the 2A state championship meet next week. Eagles sophomore Adrenia Barnes earned her way to the state championship meet with a second place finish in the girls' shot-put event with a distance of 33' 0.7". Chesnee junior KJ Proctor earned his spot to the state championship meet in the boys' javelin event with a distance of 156' 4" to finish in second place of the event. The Chesnee girls' 4x800m team (Lanie Arrowood, Olyvia Stowell, Olivia Wampler, and Claire Walker) finished in third place with a time of 10:58.43 to earn their spot in the 2A state championship meet. The 5A Upper State championship meet was held at Byrnes High School where the Boiling Springs track team saw multiple teams look to make their way to Columbia for a chance at a state championship. Boiling Springs junior Katelyn Grate punched her ticket to the state championship in the girls' 100m hurdles event with a third place finish in a time of 15.09. She also will be going in the girls' long jump event after finishing third with a distance of 17' 9". The Boiling Springs 4x100m team (Katelyn Grate, Kendall Garner, Jayonna Dawkins, and Carson Byrd) punched their ticket to the state championship meet with a fourth place finish with a time of 47.92, which was just four-tenths of a second behind the Upper State champions from Hillcrest. The 5A state championship meet will be held on Friday (May 17th) at Spring Valley High School starting at 5:00 PM while the 3A event will be on the same day at Lower Richland High School. The 2A state championship meet will be held of Saturday (May 18th) at Lower Richland High School starting at 9:00 AM. ANDERSON, SC - With the level of play that was seen on Monday at the Cobbs Glenn golf course, it was no surprise that it took a late shot from a Bulldogs golfer to help them qualify for next week's state championship tournament.
With the Bulldogs top four golfers already in the clubhouse, they needed a great shot from their fifth golfer, senior Maddux Camp, and they got just that. Camp was on the 18th hole needing a par to push his team to the state championship tournament and came away with a great chip for par sending the Bulldogs to another state championship tournament. The chip shot gave the Bulldogs a final score of 302 as a team, tying them for seventh with Dorman, as the top eight teams advance to the state championship tournament. It was an outstanding day of golf for all the teams on Monday, as the Bulldogs won the tournament last year with a score of 306 and just made the cut with a score of 302 this year. Boiling Springs head coach Josh Pruitt said that when Camp made the chip, you'd thought they were playing at a PGA major event with the reaction of the crowd. "We played really well today, and I knew we were in until I checked the scores about halfway through the back nine," said Pruitt. "By the 18th hole, our number five golfer had to make a par for us to advance. It felt like a crowd roar at Augusta National as he chipped in from over the green for par. These Upstate kids are good, I never would have thought it would take a score of 302 to get in especially after we won it last year with a score of 306." Spartanburg won the Upper State tournament with a score of 288 followed by TL Hanna (290), Mauldin (294), Nation Ford (294), Gaffney (295), Chapin (301), along with Boiling Springs and Dorman at 302. The Bulldogs were led by Walker Ingram who finished 13th with a score of 73 and was just ahead of teammate Clayton Taylor who shot a score of 74. Boiling Springs will now get to work preparing for the state tournament next Monday and Tuesday (May 13th and 14th) at the Country Club of Lexington in Lexington, SC. FORT MILL, SC - The Boiling Springs softball team made the trip up Highway 5 knowing they needed to win to keep their season alive and they done just that as they defeated the Fort Mill Yellow Jackets 5-3 on Friday night.
"We finally put some pieces together and applied softball smarts in some crucial situations to come away with this victory," said Bulldogs head coach Hannah McDowell. The long trip on the bus didn't seem to affect the Bulldogs as they got their bats going in the first inning. Abbie Wilson reached base on an error and with two outs Sayde Parris followed her with a towering home run over the left centerfield wall to give the Bulldogs an early 2-0 lead. Fort Mill responded with a run of their own in the bottom of the first inning as Viki Lott singled home Brooke Roserio from third base. In the bottom of the third inning, the Yellow Jackets scored two runs to take a 3-2 lead over the Bulldogs. Sayde Parris started out the top of the fourth inning being intentionally walked and moved up to second base on a sacrifice bunt by Addison Wheeler. With two outs, Chloe Osteen hit a double to centerfield that allowed Parris to score from second base and tie the game at 3-3. Eleah McAbee followed Osteen with a double of her own to leftfield scoring Osteen to put the Bulldogs back ahead at 4-3 over Fort Mill. McAbee stole third base on the next at-bat before Chloe Taulbee singled to put the Bulldogs ahead 5-3 after four innings of play. Boiling Springs pitcher had a strong outing for the Bulldogs going all seven innings while only allowing three runs on five hits while striking out eight batters. After the Bulldogs retook the lead in the fourth inning, Sloand only allowed two more baserunners the rest of the game as the final out of the game was a groundout to third baseman Abbie Wilson who threw the ball to first baseman Sydnee Spencer to close out the victory for the Bulldogs. The left side of the Bulldogs infield made it tough for Fort Mill to get much going as third baseman Abbie Wilson and shortstop Chloe Osteen didn't allow much to happen for the Yellow Jackets when it was hit in their direction. "The defensive duo of Abbie Wilson and Chloe Osteen along with the lights out pitching from Chloe Sloand made it hard for Fort Mill to compete," said McDowell. "Offensively we had a two run homerun from Sayde Parris. We also strung together hits well through younger players including Addison Wheeler, Eleah McAbee, and Chloe Osteen." Sayde Parris led the Bulldogs hitters going one for one at the plate with a home run while being walked three times and scoring two runs. Chloe Osteen and Abbie Wilson was two of four at the plate while Osteen had an RBI and a run scored. Boiling Springs will now travel back up to the Fort Mill area on Monday as they look to beat Nation Ford in the second matchup in a week against the Falcons to keep their season alive and move on to the district championship. 5A BASEBALL PLAYOFFS Fort Mill 11 Boiling Springs 1 The Bulldogs baseball season came to an end just across the way from where the softball was playing as they fell to Fort Mill 11-1 on Friday night. Boiling Springs took an early 1-0 lead on a Justin Dawkins home run to leftfield in the top of the first inning. Fort Mill responded with nine runs in the bottom of the first inning on their way to scoring 11 unanswered runs to take the victory and move on to the district championship against Dutch Fork. BOILING SPRINGS, SC - The Boiling Springs baseball team entered Thursday's game in familiar territory as last season, needing to win to stay alive in the playoffs, and they did just that coming away with a walk off 1-0 win over Woodmont.
After losing in an extra inning game on Tuesday night, the Bulldogs hoped to stay away from that fate going into the bottom of the seventh inning. With one out in the inning, Chansen Cole reached on an error followed by back-to-back singles from Austin Staiger and Noah Ezell to put runners at second and third bases after the lead runner, who was pinch running for Cole, was thrown out at the plate trying to score. With two runners in scoring position, junior Kyle Patterson walked to the plate and on a 3-1 pitch was able to reach base on an infield error that allowed Staiger to score and give the Bulldogs the 1-0 victory. Prior to the game winning play, the Bulldogs got an outstanding outing on the mound from sophomore Cathen Cole who went all seven innings only allowing four hits and striking out seven Woodmont batters. Both teams got strong pitching outings, as between the three pitchers that were used in the game, they combined for 10 hits overall. Boiling Springs had six of those hits as Austin Staiger had three of them followed by two from Justin Dawkins (including the Bulldogs only extra base hit) and one hit from Noah Ezell in his only plate appearance. The Bulldogs will look to keep their winning ways going and stay alive in the 5A playoffs as they travel to Fort Mill on Friday for a 7:00 PM game after the number one seed Yellow Jackets fell to Dutch Fork 4-3 on Thursday night. SPARTANBURG, SC - On Wednesday all the track teams from the schools in Region II-5A met at Spartanburg High School to determine who was the best of the best and claim region championships.
While the Bulldogs came away with fourth place finishes in the boys' and girls' overall team events, they were able to come away with multiple region championships in different events. Boiling Springs junior Katelyn Grate was the only Bulldogs player that won multiple region championships as she won the region championship in the girls 100m hurdles in a time of 14.88, which was almost one second ahead of the second-place finisher. She also won the region championship in the girls' long jump with a distance of 16' 9" which was over half a foot longer than second place. The Bulldogs also saw sophomore Akera Morris win the region championship in the girls' high jump event with a height of 5'1" to add another medal to the collection for the team. Boiling Springs' girls' 4x100m relay team also captured a region championship in a time of 48.11 as they just beat Dorman at the line by Sophomore Grayson Crowe had the best performance for the boys' team as he finished runner-up in the boys' 110m hurdles with a time of 15.63, just six-tenths of a second behind Spartanburg's Christian Roberts who won the region championship. As a team the Bulldogs boys' and girls' teams will now turn their focus to the 5A Upper State championships on May 11th. GAFFNEY, SC - The Boiling Springs baseball team finished up their 2024 regular season schedule with an impressive 7-1 victory over Gaffney to sweep the season series against the Indians on Friday night.
With the sweep the Bulldogs lock up the second seed out of Region II-5A for the upcoming 5A playoffs. Boiling Springs got their bats going in the top of the second inning as Emory Horton and Kohen Bridges had two singles to put runners at first and second bases before Kyle Patterson walked to load the bases with two outs. Landon Stevens followed by reaching on an error that allowed both Horton and Bridges to score to give the Bulldogs a 2-0 lead. Bridges scored again in the top of the fourth inning after he and Patterson reached base on back-to-back singles before making the lead 3-0 in favor of the Bulldogs when he scored on a sacrifice fly to left field by Stevens. Lucas Morrison started the fifth inning with a single to left field before scoring on a double by A Staiger to right field to push the lead to 4-1 over Gaffney. Horton worked a walk with one out in the top of the seventh inning before being pinch ran for by Grayson Easler. Easler advanced to third base on a single to centerfield by Staiger before scoring on a sacrifice fly by Bridges to push the lead to 5-1 in favor of the Bulldogs. Patterson followed Staiger with a single up the middle to push runners at first and second bases before Stevens knocked a triple to right field scoring both runners to put the Bulldogs lead a 7-1 going into the final half inning of the game. Josh Kanipe came on to pitch for the Bulldogs in the bottom of the seventh inning retiring the lineup in order, striking out the first two batters and forcing a lineout to shortstop for the last out of the game. Kyle Patterson, Kohen Bridges, Austin Staiger, Lucas Morrison, and Justin Dawkins all recorded two hits in the matchup on Friday night. Landon Stevens led the team with three RBIs. Boiling Springs got a strong start from senior pitcher Kyle Dill, who picked up the win, as he went five innings allowing only one hit and one run while striking out one batter. Emory Horton and Josh Kanipe pitched the sixth and seventh innings for the Bulldogs where they allowed no hits while Kanipe struck out two batters. Boiling Springs will now turn their focus to the 5A playoffs where they will host a first-round game against Dutch Fork. If the Bulldogs win on Tuesday, they would either travel to Fort Mill or host Woodmont on Thursday depending on the winner of their matchup. BOILING SPRINGS, SC - In what has been a historic season for the Boiling Springs boys' tennis team, the Bulldogs kept their season rolling in the 5A playoffs with a 4-3 victory at home over Mauldin to get one step away from an Upper State championship match berth.
"This team can always find a way to pull out a win," said Bulldogs head coach Matt Schumate. "When one or two players fall short, then their teammates will step up and get the four wins we need to move on." Boiling Springs held a 3-2 lead after singles play, which meant that the match was going to come down to the play of their doubles teams to keep their season going. After the number one doubles team fell (6-3, 6-3) it all came down to the number two doubles team of Thomas Raynor and Preston Reese to keep the season going for the Bulldogs. The two players did just that capturing a (6-4, 6-4) victory and sending Boiling Springs to a rematch against a team that ended their season last year. "We're playing a strong TL Hanna team on Monday who knocked us out of the playoffs last year and beat us 4-3 earlier this season," said Schumate. "With an Upper State championship appearance on the line, we know we have to give it our all." In the singles matches Preston Reese got a win at number two singles (6-1, 6-0) while Ben Reese got a win at number three singles (6-3, 6-2). They also got a win from Nathan Miller at number four singles (7-6, 6-4) to setup the winning match in doubles play. Boiling Springs will now turn their attention to their third round 5A playoff match against TL Hanna on Monday that is set to begin at 4:30 PM. BOILING SPRINGS, SC - Two days after a tough loss on senior night that saw the Bulldogs honor their lone senior in Sydnee Spencer, they were able to bounce back in their regular season finale with a 13-6 road trip victory over Fort Mill on Thursday night.
The Bulldogs got a big game from catcher Sayde Parris who went two of five at the plate with six RBIs and two runs scored. Boiling Springs got the scoring started in the top of the first inning with one out as Myah Salters singled and Abbie Wilson walked before Parris tripled to left field bringing home both runners to give the Bulldogs a 2-0 lead. Addison Wheeler scored Parris with a single to centerfield giving them a 3-0 lead after one inning of play. Fort Mill answered with five runs in the bottom of the first and second innings to take a 5-4 lead over the Bulldogs, scoring four in the bottom of the first inning. Cloey Taulbee walked to start the top of the second inning before scoring from second base on a double to left field by Sydnee Spencer to tie the game at 4-4. Chloe Osteen, Chloe Sloand, and Wheeler all got three straight singles to start the top of the third inning. With two outs, Eleah McAbee doubled to the right side of the field to score Sloand to tie the game at 5-5 before Osteen stole home to give the Bulldogs back the lead at 6-5 over the Yellow Jackets. Salters and Wilson worked walks to start the top of the fourth inning before both stole a base to put runners at second and third bases. Parris followed them both with a sacrifice fly to right field scoring Salters to push the lead to 7-5 over Fort Mill. Wilson scored on an error that allowed Wheeler to reach base safely to give Boiling Springs an 8-5 lead. The top of the seventh inning is when the Bulldogs were able to give themselves breathing room as they scored five unanswered runs with two outs to extend their lead over the Yellow Jackets. Osteen opened the inning by reaching on an error before scoring three batters later when Hallie Dismukes reached on an infield error giving the Bulldogs a 9-6 lead. Dismukes, who advanced to second after the error, scored on a single to centerfield by Salters to push the lead to 10-6 over Fort Mill. Wilson followed Salters with a single of her own to centerfield before Parris had the biggest hit of the inning, crushing a homerun over the left field fence to score both Salters and Wilson and giving the Bulldogs a 13-6 lead. Boiling Springs pitcher Chloe Sloand forced a fly out, groundout, and a strikeout over the final four batters to help seal the victory for the Bulldogs. Sloand had a good night from the pitching circle as she allowed six runs while striking out seven batters. Abbie Wilson and Myah Salters each recorded three hits for the Bulldogs as they combined to go six of seven at the plate with seven runs scored and three RBIs. The Bulldogs will now await to find out who their opponent will be in the upcoming 5A playoffs that begin on Wednesday. BOILING SPRINGS, SC - In front of the home crowd on Wednesday night, the Boiling Springs baseball team honored their six seniors and then went on to capture a key 6-1 region win over the visiting Gaffney Indians.
The Bulldogs honored seniors Chansen Cole, Kyle Dill, Mason Shuford, Dylan Miller, Carson Walker, and Justin Dawkins in a pregame ceremony for their contributions to the baseball program at Boiling Springs. Boiling Springs got an impressive performance from their seniors off the pitching mound as three of the seniors combined for seven innings pitched while allowing five hits and only one run. Chansen Cole got the start and the win for the Bulldogs going six innings allowing only four hits while giving up one run (not until the fifth inning) and striking out five batters. Mason Shuford pitched two thirds of an inning allowing one hit and striking out another and Dylan Miller got the last out forcing a fly ball to fellow senior Justin Dawkins in right field. Dawkins also brought in the first runs of the game in the bottom of the third inning as he singled to left field that allowed Landon Stevens and Kai Lee to both score and take a 2-0 lead over the Indians. With one out in the bottom of the fourth inning, Kohen Bridges singled to centerfield allowing Logan Merchant to score from second base. Dawkins picked up his third RBI of the game in the bottom of the fifth inning when he singled to centerfield allowing Stevens to score again and putting the Boiling Springs lead at 4-1 over the Indians. Just a few batters later, JD Moore reached base on an error that allowed Dawkins and Lee to score to push the lead to 6-1 over the Indians. Justin Dawkins led the Bulldogs bats going two of three with three RBIs while also scoring a run. JD Moore and Kai Lee both added two hits each for the Bulldogs as Moore added two RBIs and Lee scored two runs. In a ceremony on Tuesday, three of the seniors signed letters to play at the college level next season as Chansen Cole signed with Newberry College, Justin Dawkins signed with Spartanburg Methodist College, and Mason Shuford signed to play at Kings University in Tennessee. With the win and a Dorman loss at Byrnes on Wednesday night, the Bulldogs are in the lead to finish in second place in region play allowing them to host at least one round in the upcoming 5A playoffs. The Bulldogs can lock up their region spot in their final region matchup of the season as they travel up I-85 to take on the same Gaffney team on Friday in a game scheduled to start at 6:30 PM. BOILING SPRINGS, SC - Just last week the Boiling Springs boys' tennis team won their first region championship in 35 years and on Tuesday afternoon the same team broke a playoff win drought that had lasted 10 years with a 6-0 win over region rival Byrnes.
"This win was huge for our program," said Bulldogs head coach Matt Schumate. "Our team has had a first round playoff exit for the past few years. We've finally cleared that hurdle and we're on to the next match." The Bulldogs got impressive performances throughout the lineup as all but one person won in straight sets. Boiling Springs got a (6-0, 6-0) win from number one single player Sam Corbitt (on the day same day he committed to Converse University), number two singles player Preston Reese, number four singles player Nathan Miller, and number five singles player William Garner. The Bulldogs also got a straight set victory in number two doubles (Raynor, Humphries). Ben Reese wrapped up the 6-0 victory for the Bulldogs as he won in number three singles (6-0, 6-1) over his opponent. Boiling Springs will move on to the next round of the playoffs as they'll host Mauldin, who defeated Nation Ford on Tuesday, in the second round at home in a matchup set to begin at 4:30 PM. |
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