Southside Christian baseball advances to Class A state final for second straight year
The Sabres have been one of the state's best all season. The most recent SCBCA poll has Southside Christian as the top team in Class A.
That showed Wednesday night as SCS thumped Lewisville, 10-0, in a five-inning run-rule win. Now, for the second year in a row, coach Scott Freeman and his team will play for the Class A championship. Last year, the Sabres fell to Lake View in the title series.
"It’s great," said Freeman, the former Mauldin coach. "We still feel like we have kind of unfinished business, because that has been the goal to get back and have a chance to finish the deal this year.
"I encourage the guys to appreciate the journey and enjoy every step, I think we have done that."
The major factor in the Sabres' win was Nelson Vaughan on the mound. The sophomore fanned seven batters and improved to 6-0 on the year as a starter. He now has 65 Ks across 52.1 innings pitched.
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Southside Christian (26-5) will play at Johnsonville, beginning Saturday, in the championship series. It's the second straight season the Sabres are playing for the state championship and only the second time in program history.
Freeman, who won the 2004 AAAA championship at Mauldin, beating Stratford, also led the Mavericks to the 2005 state championship series as well. He will be coaching in his fourth state championship as the skipper for a Greenville County baseball program.
"When we won the state championship at Mauldin when I was coaching in 2004, nobody really expected us to be there," Freeman said. "This season people have targeted us from the beginning and this is way harder to get to his point. We’ve got a lot of work to do – and we’ve got to beat a good Johnsonville team."
SCHSL Class A baseball final
Southside Christian (26-5) vs. Johnsonville (16-4), Best-of-3
Saturday, May 21
Southside Christian at Johnsonville
Tuesday, May 24
Johnsonville at Southside Christian
Saturday, May 28
Southside Christian vs. Johnsonville, neutral site, if necessary.
Joe Dandron covers high school sports for The Greenville News. Contact him with story tips, ideas and more at jdandron@greenvillenews.com and follow him on Twitter: @JoeMDandron.
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Southside Christian baseball advances to 1A state championship series
