Belton-Honea Path softball pushed to deciding third game in AAA state championship series
Belton-Honea Path softball dropped a 4-1 game Wednesday night at Aynor but will get another chance to win the first state championship in program history.
The Bears (34-5), who won the first game in a best-of-three series, will square off with Aynor in a deciding third game of the Class AAA high school finals 6 p.m. Friday at neutral site White Knoll High School.
“I think our girls are going to be fine,” Belton-Honea Path coach Jarad Jennings said. “We’ve played some good teams in some tight situations all year long. We’ve played in championship games in two tournaments, won the region, won district and won the Upper State championship. I feel like our kids will be ready on Friday.”
SOFTBALL SUPER 25: Belton-Honea Path No. 1 in final Upstate softball Super 25 power rankings
Belton-Honea Path scored its run in the first inning and had two runners in scoring position in the second but left them stranded.
“I thought that was a critical moment in the game,” Jennings said. “If we could’ve gotten a hit there, it could’ve really put the pressure on them. … We missed a few opportunities early. They had one good inning and we didn’t have an answer.”
Aynor (23-5) scored three runs in the third and tacked on another in the sixth.
Todd Shanesy is a former award-winning writer who now covers high school athletics for the Greenville News, Spartanburg Herald-Journal and Anderson Independent Mail in the USA TODAY Network. Contact him by email at todd.shanesy@shj.com. Follow him on X, formerly called Twitter, at @ToddShanesySHJ.
This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: SCHSL softball state championship: Belton-Honea Path, Aynor tied in 3A
