Hear them roar! Augusta Christian Lions win second straight baseball state championship
The Augusta Christian Lions are once again the kings of baseball in the South Carolina Independent School Association’s Class 4A. Augusta Christian dominated Cardinal Newman 8-0 to take game three of the state championship series at Lexington High School, winning their second straight state title.
The Lions won game one of the series at home, 3-1 earlier in the week. They lost game two at Cardinal Newman in crushing fashion, 7-6 in eight innings. Down 6-2, and down to their final out, Augusta Christian rallied to score four runs and tie the game 6-6, forcing extra innings, before the heartbreaking outcome. The Lions used that disappointment as fuel to leave no doubt about the outcome of the decisive game three.
“It feels it feels great, it’s amazing,” said Augusta Christian head coach Austin Robinson. “I’m so proud of these guys and the way they battled, losing a heartbreaker last night and they battled back all the way down. And for them to come out and do what they did tonight, I mean, our pitchers threw a two hitter and combined shutout. So I’m so proud of those guys and they deserve this,” added Robinson.
Augusta Christian starting pitcher Santiago Pacheco had a no-hitter going when he had to be pulled due to pitch counts rules after pitch number 75. “I feel so amazing,” said Pacheco. “I mean, I came in, I tried to do my best and it worked. You know, yesterday was a tough game, but we came back like we do every day,” added Pacheco. Lions reliever Austin Fox was more than capable of finishing the job. The Lions provided plenty of run support early, jumping out to a 4-0 lead by the end of the second inning, including a solo home run from catcher Luca Perriello, a Virginia Tech signee.
“I mean, game two, it was a rough one,” said Perriello. We, you know, we struggled around errors and stuff. But I mean, we went to bed last night with a chip on my shoulder and we were, we were ready to go. We wanted to play this game. We want to get it over with. We wanted to win back to back,” added Perriello.
In the bottom of the fourth, Jonah Shipes, hitting in the No. 9 spot, blasted his first career home run to make it 5-0. Later in the inning, Ethan Duckworth doubled to bring in two more runs after the Cardinals intentionally walked Kahleel Pratt, a University of Kentucky signee.
“I mean, these are my guys,” said Pratt. “I mean, I’ve been playing with most of these guys all my life. So, I mean, I’m just going to remember, like, just the building up to this point because, I mean, it’s been a lot of hard struggle with guys going through slumps. You had a ton of injuries this year and for us to come back and put it all together, I mean, it’s been great,” added Pratt.
Pratt, Perriello and the rest of the seniors are leaving behind quite a legacy at Augusta Christian. “I mean, these seniors started, well, it started with the seniors last year, but this group of seniors bought in for two years in a row and they got it done,” said Robinson. “They left their legacy and their mark on this program. And the program’s in a great spot,” he added.
When Robinson was asked what stands out most about this year’s team, he summed reflected on the long journey it has been back to the top.
“For me, it is the way these guys battled all year,” said Robinson. “There’s so many positive moments and so many key at-bats, key pitches. And these guys just fought and fought and they worked their tail off. There’s no one moment that stands out, you know, these guys are just something special,” he finished.
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