Category: Sports

BLYTHEWOOD (July 7, 2016) – Three years ago, he was on the short end of a two games to one disappointment. This year, they are using words like “Legend.”

And that word is being batted around on a much larger stage than the 2103 Class 4A state baseball championship series.

Andrew Beckwith, the former Blythewood High School Bengal who was tagged for the 4-0 loss to the Lexington Wildcats in the deciding game of the 2013 state title series, went nationwide last week when he delivered a remarkable performance in the College World Series in Omaha, Neb. The Coastal Carolina junior right-hander hurled two complete-game victories in late June, then sealed the deal last Thursday with the championship victory, going 5 2/3 innings in the 4-3 win over a different breed of Wildcats – from the University of Arizona.

Beckwith’s performance – overall, he went 22 2/3 innings, allowing just four runs (only two of which were earned) on 19 hits and four walks with 14 strikeouts – lifted the Chanticleers to their first national title and earned him the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament award.

“This whole experience has been unbelievable,” Beckwith told The Voice this week. “Winning the national title is by far better (than a state title), but you learn a lot from losing. You learn more from losing than winning.”

Although now basking in the glow of a national crown, Beckwith clearly still carries the scars of 2013.

“That was a tough day,” he said of the 2103 finale against the Wildcats he could not tame. “We didn’t play our best ball. We made a lot of errors. And Reagan (Lexington’s Josh Reagan, who went 11-0 in 2013) is a good pitcher.”

Beckwith said he wasn’t the only member of the Chanticleer staff still carrying the weight of a previous letdown.

“A.C. (Alex Cunningham) and I both lost state title games,” Beckwith said. “A.C. lost three in a row (for Byrnes High School). I can’t imagine his relief (now). When I lost one, I was devastated. I can’t imagine what it would have been like to lose three in a row. Both of us have been vindicated.”

Vindicated in a big way, and on the same stage.

Cunningham closed out the Chanticleers’ championship last week, striking out Ryan Haug swinging on a 3-2 pitch that stranded Wildcat runners on second and third in the bottom of the ninth. Arizona had already scored once in the inning to close the gap to a single run.

There is also a little irony in Beckwith’s tale.

Although he had thrown two complete-game one-run wins in the tournament, his June 24 win over TCU saw him rack up 137 pitches. The win ran his record to 14-1 (a Coastal Carolina single season best), but also meant that, at best, he would only be available for an inning or two out of the bullpen on June 29.

But then the Baseball Gods delivered an additional day of rest for the sidewinder, pouring rain down on TD Ameritrade Park and postponing the deciding game to the following afternoon.

“I was in the pen Wednesday,” Beckwith said. “Cunningham was going to start. Then we had the rainout and I had an extra day of rest going into Thursday. The coaches were like, ‘just get us to where we need to be’ (for the bullpen to take over).”

Beckwith held Arizona scoreless until the bottom of the sixth when the Wildcats scraped together two unearned runs on a two-out, two-run single by Jared Oliva.

With two runners still on, Coastal brought Bobby Holmes in from the bullpen. Holmes, who had a remarkable tournament of his own (he allowed just four earned runs in 18 2/3 innings), struck out Louis Boyd to end the inning.

Adding to the irony and the legend, Beckwith was passed over by all 30 Major League teams in this year’s player draft. But Beckwith took that in its stride as well.

“I completely understand,” he said. “It’s all about projectability. Obviously, the scouts saw something that I could improve on and I’ve just got to figure out what that is in my senior year. I won’t mind coming back my senior year and playing for coach (Gary) Gilmore. Everything happens for a reason. This year just wasn’t my year.”

If only we could all have such an ‘off year.’

And on top of everything else, Beckwith was not even a starter for the Chanticleers for the majority of the season. He got most of his work out of the pen as a middle reliever – the role he was ultimately supposed to have played in game three.

On June 19, he got the ball against Florida – the number one team in the country. Butterflies, anyone?

“It felt like any other baseball game,” Beckwith said. “All it is is a whole lot more people watching. You just stick with your process, stick with what you do.”

And a lot of what he does, what he did, began in Blythewood.

Former head baseball coach Barry Mizzell and his staff, Beckwith said, instilled the fundamentals – physically and mentally – that translated to Omaha.

“I learned a lot of the mental game at Blythewood,” Beckwith said. “They all (Mizzell and staff) ingrained discipline, having good character and having a positive outlook on life. It has really helped me become a leader, on and off the field.”

After spending a few days in Blythewood last week, Beckwith was back in Conway Tuesday for an instructional youth baseball camp on campus. When that wraps up, the psychology major said he’ll be spending the rest of the summer in Washington, D.C., for an internship. Meanwhile, he is still coping with celebrity.

Beckwith said he and a few teammates stopped in the Eggs Up Grill in Myrtle Beach recently for breakfast.

“We got a standing ovation,” he said. “It was really cool, but you’ve got to stay humble and not let it get to your head.”

 

WINNSBORO (April 8, 2016) — “The headline on The State newspaper read: ‘Winnsboro winless, scoreless, looses again,’ and it was more than we could take,” said Wade Hall, former right tackle on the 1958 State Champion Mt. Zion football team, in remarks to those attending the dedication of a monument on Saturday honoring that football team and the 1959 football team who were state champions the following year.

“We got together that summer and said that was going to end,” said Hall. Indeed, according to the ‘58-’59 Tusitala yearbook, the Mt. Zion Wildcats’ were a potent squad that fall, routing Saluda 35-0 in the season opener. Similar scores followed: 6-0, 13-0, 2-0, 7-0, 18-3, 3-0 with only one loss and that was by only 1 point.

“I was a senior that year,” Jackie Wilkes, now a Winnsboro Town Councilman, recalls. “We’d worn the same jerseys since I was in 10th grade. Because it looked like we might get to the state championship, the school decided late in the season to buy us new jerseys. I think they must have found a good buy on some, because the lowest number on the ‘new’ jerseys was 59,” Wilkes said, laughing. “Our quarterback’s number was in the 60s.”

There were other obstacles for the team that year and funny remembrances as well.

“That grassy area out front of Mt. Zion was our playing field and our practice field,” Wilkes said. “So it didn’t have much grass on it. It was always either muddy or dusty. Sometimes the referee would have to call time just for the dust to settle.”

Nevertheless, by the time the Wildcats finished the year with a 26-0 state championship victory over Batesburg-Leesville, they had shut out 9 teams and allowed only 26 points the entire season.

The next year was a remarkable repeat with the ‘59 Wildcats not only going undefeated, but never scoring less than 19 points in a game.

Following the dedication at Mt. Zion, the former teammates, cheerleaders were honored by their families and friends with a reception at Mission Ridge.

“Those were a couple of great years,” said Ronnie Collins (‘59), recalling the teams’ glory days. “And we were two great teams.”

 

WINNSBORO (March 25, 2016) – Prior to the beginning of the Richard Winn versus Fairfield Central crosstown rivalry game Friday, both teams gathered on the diamond to celebrate the dedication of Richard Winn’s baseball field to Billy Ladd.

Ladd, who lost his battle with cancer in February, was a mainstay not only in the Richard Winn community, but in the Winnsboro baseball community as a whole. Griffins head coach Scotty Dean shared his own memories of Ladd.

“I sit and I type up my line-up card, about three or four, and I cut them out, and if anything is wrong with this or that, or the order that you bat in, Billy Ladd was on top of it.

“Great baseball guy,” Dean added. “I have a lot of respect for him, and what he meant to the kids over here is unbelievable. When we had our preseason tournament, and his funeral was on that Monday, I got all the teams up and prayed, and I’m just thankful that I had a chance to share this arena with them.”

Ladd’s ties with Richard Winn ran very deep. He began his own school baseball career in 1971 as a pitcher, catcher and shortstop in the Eagles’ inaugural baseball season.

He was the first captain in Richard Winn’s celebrated baseball history. Once high school was over, Ladd converted his love of baseball to the coaching side of things in what would become a 40-year passion.

“After high school, Billy continued to feed his passion for the sport of baseball. He volunteered on many youth teams including Drawdy Park, and the American Legion team,” Richard Winn Athletic Director Joe Pitt said during the dedication.

Ladd coached his son William Jr.’s 10 and under team to the very first Drawdy park State Championship. Ladd was a part of the Eagles’ coaching staff during the team’s 2007 SCISA state championship run, a team that his son also played for.

“How rewarding it must have been to have this championship experience with your son at two different levels,” Pitt said.

The Eagle family fought alongside Ladd throughout his entire battle with cancer. At the tail-end of the basketball season the ‘Ballin for Billy’ fundraising campaign was launched, and helped raise thousands of dollars to ease the family’s medical expenses.

Additionally, before Ladd passed away he was enshrined in the Richard Winn Hall of Fame. Following Friday’s ceremony, two large “Billy Ladd Field” plaques were placed on both the home and away dugouts.

To cap off the dedication, William Ladd Jr., who was by his dad’s side for two championships, threw out the first pitch.

“It was a special night,” Eagles head coach Al Berry said. “The important thing tonight was to honor coach Ladd, and his family, and to really use that for an inspiration as to how we play the game.”

 

*Editor’s Note: We would be remiss here as we honor the memory of Billy Ladd if we did not offer a special word of thanks for all he did to help The Voice newspaper in its coverage of RWA sports, particularly baseball. A small newspaper simply does not have the manpower to be everywhere at once, and because of the nature of the SCISA scheduling, the Eagles were often playing baseball on deadline nights in places very far from home. But no matter what the hour, Billy Ladd was only a phone call away, ready, willing and eager to go through the book, recounting every detail of a dramatic RWA win or a heartbreaking RWA loss. Without fail. There can be no doubt that without Billy Ladd, our coverage of RWA baseball on many nights would have been far less than it was.

Thank you, Billy. You were One of a Kind, and you shall be missed.