Alex Nevils (2) puts a tag on a Spring Valley runner in last Friday’s game. | Anthony Montgomery
BLYTHEWOOD – Coming off a 2-1 nail-biter victory over Spring Valley last Friday, Blythewood went up early on Ridge View Tuesday night, scoring six runs in the first en route to an 11-1, 5-inning victory over the Blazers.
Kevin Steelman got the win for the Bengals (15-2, 7-0),
scattering three hits over 4 2/3 innings of work. He struck out six and walked
two.
Zac Cowan led off the game with a single and scored on Ty
Dooley’s double. Caleb McCants drove in Dooley on a triple to rightfield to
make it 2-0 Bengals.
McCants then scored on a wild pitch as Alex Nevils batted.
Nevils singled and his courtesy runner, Ryan Hunter, scored on Watson Saunders’
single to centerfield to make it 4-0 Blythewood with nobody out.
After Camden Watts grounded out and Justin Flemming walked,
Saunders stole home to make it 5-0. Landon Penfield grounded out at first, but
it was enough for Flemming to cross the plate and make it 6-0.
Justin White closed out the first inning flying out to
centerfield.
Blythewood scored two more runs in the second inning, and
after giving up a run in the fourth, the Bengals got three more runs in the
fifth to close out the game on the 10-run mercy rule.
Against Spring Valley Friday night, the game was much
closer.
The Bengals clung to a 1-0 lead going into the top of the
sixth, when Ethan Rumpel’s 2-out single to score Wynn Ravan and tie the game.
Watson Saunders led off the the bottom of that frame with a
single, moved to second on a passed ball, and moved to third on Nevils’
sacrifice bunt. Watts then laid down a bunt to the pitcher that enabled
Saunders to score.
With Watts at first, Kevin Steelman doubled and moved Watts
to third with one out for Flemming. As it turned out, Watts got picked off
third and Flemming struck out to end the inning.
It was all the Bengals needed. Cowan, on the mound since the
top of the sixth, struck out one and got two batters to ground out get the 2-1
win.
Blythewood plays host to Ridge View for a double header
Friday.
Blythewood – 6-2-0-0-3-X – 11-12-1
Ridge View – 0-0-0-0-1-X – 1-3-0
WP: Kevin Steelman. LP:
Noard
Hitters: Alex Nevils 3-3, 2B. Watson Saunders 3-3, 2B. Caleb McCants 3B.
Ty Dooley 2B.
Spring Valley – 0-0-0-0-0-0-1 – 1-6-0
Blythewood -1-0-0-0-0-1-X – 2-5-3
WP: Zac Cowan.
Hitters: Zac Cowan 3B. Alex Nevils 2B. Kevin Steelman
2B.
BLYTHEWOOD – The Blythewood High School (BHS) Athletic Hall
of Fame announced its inaugural induction class.
Created in 2019 to recognize the outstanding contributions
to Blythewood High School athletics, the Hall of Fame will honor five inductees
at a banquet on Thursday, Oct. 31. The inductees will also be recognized at
Blythewood’s final regular season varsity football game on Friday, Nov. 1.
The first Bengals inducted will be Nicole Quinlan Durig (2008) – volleyball and track; Grayson Greiner (2011) – baseball; Vince Lowry – first BHS Athletic Director; Richard Mounce (2008) – football and baseball;, and Jeff Scott – first BHS varsity football coach.
Tickets to the Induction Banquet, held at Columbia Country
Club, are available to the public for $25. Ticket inquiries may be directed to
Buzzy Myers (buzzmy- ers@live.com) or current BHS Athletic Director Barry
Mizzell (bmizzell@richland2.org).
Blythewood Principal Matthew Sherman accepts the SCHSL 5A State Runner Up trophy as the Bengals, Athletic Director Barry Mizzell and R2 Superintendent Dr. Baron Davis look on.
COLUMBIA – For the better part of a season, the Blythewood baseball team made a living out of guts and pulling victory from defeat.
In the deciding game of the best-of-3 5A state championship series Friday night at the Columbia Fireflies’ Segra Park, the Bengals fell one round of the bases short of clinching a state title.
John Lanier (21) tries to ignite a rally in the bottom of the seventh.
With Blythewood down 2-1 with two out in the bottom of the seventh, John Lanier caught hold of a Sam Hatcher fastball and drove it deep into rightfield. Dutch Fork’s Brice Alexander was in a position to end the game right then, but Blythewood stayed alive when the ball ricocheted off the top of the webbing on the outfielder’s glove.
Lanier raced for second and easily made it.
Brady Beasley stepped in the batter’s box, and worked up a 2-2 count. When Hatcher delivered another offspeed pitch, Beasley swung on with the intent of driving a ball far enough to get the tying run across the plate.
He missed, and so too did the Bengals, who fell 2-1.
“We did a good job managing it, keeping within striking distance,” said Blythewood head coach Banks Faulkner, whose team excels at bunting and base running, with an occasional reach for extra bases. “We did have a lot of opportunities and the things we pride ourselves on we weren’t very good at tonight, and it’s a hard lesson.”
Brady Beasley (11)
In the three games against the Silver Foxes (24-10), Blythewood accounted for just four runs to Dutch Fork’s nine. Even so, the Bengals (25-10) stayed close. Only once—in the ninth inning of the first game of the series they won 2-1 on May 11—could they find a game-winning base-running and hitting combination.
Blythewood fell 6-1 at Dutch Fork Wednesday to force Friday night’s game. Bengals and Silver Foxes fans filled the bowl of the 9,000-plus capacity stadium and lounged in the picnic areas, hanging onto strikeouts and a couple of pushes home.
While Blythewood came up short in its final game of the season, Faulkner said the younger players who came up a circle of the bases short of winning a state title will have the resolve to work toward that end—if they can be leaders.
“We’ve got a really good group coming back but we graduate some key leaders, Faulkner said. “The key to next year’s team will be to find leadership. We’ve got some really good players, but that’s a lot more, and that was what was so special about this team.”
Added Faulkner, “Their resolve and their leadership and the way they bounced back, they were a pleasure to coach, probably my favorite team I’ve ever coached.”
For Dutch Fork, which had to bounce back from the losers’ bracket in its district tournament and in the lower state tournament, the moment was as sweet as it was bitter for the Bengals.
“We’re living the dream tonight,” Silver Foxes head coach Casey Waites said. “You got two teams who are known for hitting a baseball. We’re living the dream with these guys right here. We’d expected to do this a long time ago. Our guys bringing a state championship to Dutch Fork baseball love it, love it.”
Harrison Lambert (13) scores to tie the game at 1 in the bottom of the second.
Dutch Fork took a 1-0 lead in the second when Noah Jackson scored on a Lucas’ 2-out wild pitch to Brice Alexander. Alexander later singled, but Jalon McDuffie grounded out to end the inning.
Blythewood got that run back in the bottom of the second. Harrison Lambert legged out an infield hit and Nate Hinson reached on an error, and Zach Bailes walked to load the bases with two out. As Lucas batted, Lambert scored on a botched pickoff attempt with the bases loaded.
Dutch Fork got another run in the fourth inning when Jackson hit a 1-out double into the left centerfield gap and moved to third on a passed ball. Crosby Jones plated Jackson with a single to right.
That run turned out to be all the Silver Foxes needed.
Lucas walked Lance Fuhr to put runners at first and second with one out, but he recovered and struck out Alexander and got McDuffie to ground out to John Lanier at first.
The Blythewood bats lay silent for the next three innings, as Webb and the Silver Foxes retired nine straight batters from the second to the fifth innings. Lucas reached on a walk and Lanier singled with two out in the bottom of the fifth, which signaled the end of Webb’s night.
When Sam Hatcher came on the mound in relief, he went up 0-2 on Michael Gregory, then got him to hit a short grounder that second baseman Noah Jackson scooped up and fired to Ryan Helms at first for the third out.
Josh Cowan (6) took the mound in the seventh.
Blythewood finally caught a break when Brady Beasley led off the sixth with a single, Jansen Stokes bunted him over to second, and Lambert’s one-out single to right put runners at first and third.
A go-ahead inning was not to be for the Bengals, as Nate Hinson struck out and Josh Cowan ended the inning on an infield pop-up.
“Ice in his veins, his pitches,” Waites said of Henry, who with the Silver Foxes defense snuffed out three potential rallies. “He doesn’t try to overpower people, he throws his curveball, his changeup, threw a couple of fastballs, awesome job.”
Thus, Dutch Fork came into the seventh with its 2-1 lead intact. In the top of that inning Bengals catcher Josh Cowan took over on the mound for reliever Kevin Steelman. Cowan got Jay Metts and Ty Olenchuk to fly out. He hit Hugh Ryan, but Ryan Helms grounded out to set up Blythewood’s last effort.
“They fought till the last out,” Faulkner said. “I told them I was proud of them and I love them. Sometimes the game is cruel and the pain will take a while, but we’ve gotten the program back the way it should be. We’ll win a state championship at Blythewood, and when we do, it’s gonna be because of this game.”
DUTCH FORK 2, BLYTHEWOOD 1
DUTCH FORK – 0-1-0-1-0-0-0 – 2, 4, 1
BLYTHEWOOD – 0-1-0-0-0-0-0 – 1, 6, 0
WP: Doug Webb LP: Landon Lucas
HITTERS: Dutch Fork – Noah Jackson 2-3, 2B. Blythewood – John Lanier 2-4, 2B.
Michael Gregory (12) scores from Zach Bailes’ walk-off single to give the Bengals the 2-1 win in the ninth. | Photos: Martha Ladd
BLYTHEWOOD – Zach Bailes’ last hit in his home ballpark was a bouncer up the middle that barely made it to the outfield.
For the Bengals, that little hit Bailes cracked with two out in the bottom of the ninth was the shot heard ’round the Midlands.
Zach Bailes (7) was 2-5 on the night.
Bailes hit a 1-0 pitch hard back to the mound, but neither relief pitcher Andrew Fulmer nor second baseman Noah Jackson could get a handle on it. As the ball bounced beyond second base, Michael Gregory easily made his way home to clinch a 2-1 Game One victory in the best-of-three series in the last game of the season at Bengals Field.
“It was the ninth inning and rain was coming, I just figured we may as well go home,” Bailes said. “Rain was coming, I heard the thunder. I just did everything to get a hit there.”
The play happened as Blythewood head coach Banks Faulkner signaled Gregory to go for home and for courtesy runner Mulukan Hass to break for second.
“We were grasping for it there,” Faulkner said. “Michael Gregory does what he’s done all season. He comes up with a huge hit with two outs and we took a chance there—sort of who we are—we took a chance running them there, and it was just an incredible job by our guys finding a way to win.”
The walk-off win erased a strong performance from Dutch Fork left-hander Sam Hatcher. Hatcher worked eight full innings, scattered six hits and struck out four. He threw 101 pitches and picked off or stranded eight Blythewood baserunners from the second through the sixth inning.
“Hats off to their kid, I thought he competed,” Faulkner said. “He did a good job keeping us off balance. We just could not scratch a run there in the middle innings. It was almost a relief to get him off the mound and see a different arm.”
Blythewood (26-8) travels to Dutch Fork (22-11) Tuesday at 7 for the second game. Winning Saturday obviously was advantageous for the Bengals, but the team knows the season isn’t finished.
“It’s big,” Faulkner said about Saturday. “Anytime you win the first one, it’s huge. We like our position, but we know we’re going to go into a hornets’ nest Tuesday night against a really good team. We’ll face a really, really good arm and we’ve got our work cut out for us.”
Bailes’ hit gave the win to closer Josh Cowan, his first of the year. Cowan came on in relief of starting pitcher Landon Lucas, who worked 7 1/3 innings and pitched five innings of no-hit ball after giving up Dutch Fork’s only run in the second. Cowan also no-hit the Silver Foxes over his 1 2/3 innings on the mound.
Lucas and Cowan frustrated the Dutch Fork bats after the Silver Foxes got a run on Jay Metts’ sacrifice fly that scored Brice Alexander. After that play, the pitchers retired the next 22 batters.
Landon Lucas (4) worked 7.2 innings on the mound in Game One, allowing only two hits and one run.
“Landon kept it tight, pitched great the whole game, Josh came in and shut it down,” Bailes said about the pitchers holding off. “It was a great team effort, Mulukan running to second hard helped us, everyone before me getting on base helped.”
Dutch Fork actually got to Lucas early, getting its first three batters, Ty Olenchuk, Hugh Ryan, and Brian Holmes to reach base with a walk, a single and an error, respectively.
From there, Lucas stuck out Noah Jackson and Crosby Jones, then tossed Lance Fuhr’s shot back to the mound to first baseman John Lanier to get the third out.
After putting Blythewood on the scoreboard with a solo home run in his team’s half of the first, Lucas gave up a hit to Alexander and saw Jaylen McDuffie reach on an error with nobody out. Metts drove a long fly ball out to centerfield for Nate Hinson to glove, and that enabled Alexander to tie the game at 1.
Lucas then got Olenchuk to pop out and Ryan to ground out to retire the side.
“It goes to my teammates making the plays,” Lucas said about his mound performance. “I didn’t make as many strikeouts as I would’ve liked, but they just hung in there and made the plays for me.”
From the second inning onward, Dutch Fork had just one baserunner, Jones. Jones reached base on a catcher’s interference call with two out in the ninth.
Cowan got Fuhr to hit into a fielder’s choice to retire the side in the ninth and set up Blythewood’s last offensive effort.
With Fulmer on the mound to start the ninth, Dutch Fork got Brady Beasley and Jansen Stokes out in infield grounders. Gregory’s single to left gave the Bengals life though, and they leapt at their chance to clinch Game One.
Cowan reached base on an infield error that brought Gregory over to third. With Hass taking the place of Cowan at first, the Bengals had the table set for Bailes, who delivered.
“You know, the bats had to break eventually,” Faulkner said. “Thankfully for us we hit it in just the right spot and found a way to win.”
Blythewood claims Upper State Championship with 3-0 shutout of J.L. Mann
Michael Gregory went 2-2 at the plate with a double and triple. | Photos: Martha Ladd
BLYTHEWOOD – Two freshman pitchers and two big hits from Michael Gregory and Landon Lucas were just what Blythewood needed Wednesday night.
Davis Wright and Kevin Steelman combined for seven innings of shutout ball, Gregory tripled in a run in the third and Lucas hit a solo home run in the sixth, and the Bengals clinched their first upper state championship with a 3-0 victory over J.L. Mann.
“Unbelievable,” head coach Banks Faulkner said of Wright and Steelman’s 4-hitter. “They’ve got unbelievable poise and composure. They’re very mature beyond their years and we’ve got all the confidence in the world in them.”
Blythewood (25-8) will play Dutch Fork for the 5A state championship in a best-of-3 series. Game one will be at Blythewood Saturday at 7. Game two will be on the road for the Bengals Tuesday night. If necessary, the deciding game will be set at a neutral site Saturday.
“This just another step in the journey,” Faulkner said. “One of our goals in the offseason was to win the last game we played, and to do that, it’s going to take an unbelievable effort.”
“It’s been three long years”, Faulkner, who came to coach the program from Summerville in 2016, said. “When I got here this was such a young program that looked nothing like what I left. To see them get to this point has been a process, and we’ve had some guys that have been really committed to being great. It’s been gratifying to see them accomplish this after their hard work and dedication.”
Freshman Davis Wright picked up the win for the Bengals.
Wright, third in the team’s rotation, had six starts on the year, but he was still a little nervous in starting the upper state title game.
“A little bit but once I got through the first inning I was good to go,” Wright said. “It means a lot, all the work we put in, my dad, my mom supported me, all my coaches believed in me. They called the pitches and I executed, and it worked out for us.”
Gregory provided the run support in the second inning.
Nate Hinson led off the inning with a double and moved to third after Josh Cowan walked.
With two out, Gregory got to the plate and took a passed ball that enabled Hinson to score the first run. Gregory then lashed out a triple that easily scored Colton Harman, Cowan’s courtesy runner.
“It’s crazy, Gregory said. “The top of our order wasn’t performing very well at the beginning of the game and I knew I had to get something started. I went up, not worried, just trying to get the job done. I got a runner in scoring position and found a way to make it work.”
With two runs on the board, and later Lucas’ sixth-inning shot, Wright and Steelman made it work for them, too.
“That’s huge,” Gregory said. “They are both so talented, just being freshman and being able to have the poise to go out and combine for seven innings and that’s a huge stage for them.”
Wright worked a clean first inning. He gave up two hits in the second with one out before striking out two straight Patriots to get out of the jam. He got into trouble in the fourth inning but escaped a bases-loaded jam when Cody Nichols grounded into a fielder’s choice.
“Throughout the season I’ve been put out for about four innings,” Wright said. “Coach knows what he’s doing and he made the right move.”
Freshman Kevin Steelman (24)
Steelman found out he would take the mound last weekend, when assistant coach Trey Dyson was playing in a local golf tournament with Steelman’s dad.
“I was working there, and I went up to him and (Dyson) tossed me a baseball and told me to change my grips and stuff,” Steelman said. “He just told me to be ready because I would be playing on Wednesday.”
When Davis finished up, he set the stage for Steelman.
J.L. Mann’s Tomas Frick got on board with an error to lead off the inning, but Steelman got Reed Morrissey to hit into a 6-4-3 double play on the next at-bat. Ben Lumsden flied out in centerfield to end the inning.
The right-hander struck out two in the sixth and two more in the seventh innings—generally the territory for closer Josh Cowan, the team’s starting catcher. Because High School League rules wouldn’t allow Cowan to catch in the nightcap of a doubleheader if he pitched in the first game, Faulkner opted for Steelman to stay on the mound for as long as possible.
“The rule makes it difficult,” Faulkner said. “If we bring in Josh, and then things don’t happen to go our way, and we can’t use him (for the deciding game). It’s a really tough rule. We were prepared to go to Landon, not an ideal situation, but I felt like Kevin was in control of the game. We were gonna give him a base runner and just let him go.”
Steelman’s three innings of no-hit ball evaporated Mann’s chance of a comeback.
“It was crazy. It was scary.” Steelman said. “But I believed in my stuff and just went out there and did my job, threw strikes. My coaches are always building me up. Coach Dyson and Coach Faulkner they always believed in my stuff. I’ve been working on my changeup with Coach Dyson and it really paid off today.”
Now the Bengals set their sights on winning their last game of the season. The team knows all about Coach Faulkner’s ups and downs with the team over the last three years, and Gregory said Blythewood will do all it can to go one series further.
“He’s our coach,” Gregory said. “It doesn’t matter what happens, we all love him. It’s been three rough years, but we’re here.”
Blythewood 3, J.L. Mann 0
JLM – 0-0-0-0-0-0-0 – 0, 4, 0
BHS – 0-2-0-0-0-1-X – 3, 4, 2
WP: Davis Wright (6-2) LP: Freeman S: Kevin Steelman
Hitters: J.L. Mann – Blythewood – Michael Gregory 2-2, 3B, 2B. Landon Lucas HR (6). Nate Hinson 2B.
Let The Games Begin – Blythewood Town Councilman Larry Griffin threw out the ceremonial first pitch of the South Carolina Diamond Invitational at BHS on Wednesday. | Martha Ladd
BLYTHEWOOD – The Blythewood baseball team finished the Region 4-5A slate of games in strong fashion, with series sweeps over Irmo, Sumter, and Spring Valley, and taking two out of three games against Lugoff-Elgin.
Now the Bengals set their sights on the South Carolina Diamond Invitational, which opened Wednesday.
“We’re going to have some really good competition that’ll prepare us for what we see in the playoffs,” Blythewood head coach Banks Faulkner said. “We’ve got four games to keep figuring some things out, but we like our team. We’ve got some depth.”
Blythewood (17-5, 11-1) is ranked third among the state’s 5A teams by the South Carolina Baseball Coaches Association. The Bengals will meet No.1 Dorman, Wren, and Spartanburg, along with T.L. Hanna, along with area teams No.5 Chapin , No.9 Dutch Fork, , and Lexington.
Landon Lucas leads the way for the Bengals at the plate with a .439 batting average, four home runs, seven doubles and 24 runs batted in.
“It’s gonna be a good chance for us to see some new people, see some new competition,” Lucas said about the spring break tournament. “We’re looking forward to it.”
John Lanier leads the team in homers with six, also has 24RBI, and has a team-high .570 on-base percentage. Zach Bailes is batting .419 with three doubles. Nate Hinson is batting .410 with seven doubles and 18 RBI.
Lanier also is tops on the mound in wins with six, on top of a 0.36 earned-run average and 47 strikeouts. Lucas and Davis Wright have four wins apiece as pitchers.
First pitch in the tournament comes at 11:30 a.m., when T.L. Hanna takes on Lexington Wednesday. Blythewood opens the invitational against Wren at 4 p.m. that day and will play Dorman at 8:30 that night.
SC Diamond Invitational
(Game times have been adjusted noting the possibility of inclement weather Friday.)
Greiner singled in his first Major League appearance at the plate. | John Sleezer – The Kansas City Star
KANSAS CITY – Grayson Greiner, former Blythewood Bengal standout who went on to be a third round draft pick by the Detroit Tigers organization, received his call up to the majors last week and made his major league debut on Sunday.
Greiner, who was called up as a replacement for injured perennial all-star Miguel Cabrera, singled in his first at bat of his Major League career and finished the day 1-for-4. He also tied the Major League Baseball record for the tallest person to play catcher. Greiner and two others are the only players to play behind the plate at 6’6”.
Prior to the season, The Detroit News ranked Greiner as the Tigers’ 23 best prospect. So far this season he has hit .259 with one home run in 17 games for the Toledo Mudhens.
