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Southside Christian wins Class A high school baseball state title

Southside Christian baseball started out this season with three wins in its first 13 games.

Not exactly what the South Carolina defending high school Class A state champions had in mind. But the Sabres, who lost nine seniors from last year's team, found their form midseason and finished on another high.

Southside Christian beat Lower State champion Lake View, 5-2, Tuesday night on the road to sweep the best-of-three series and win the state championship. The Sabres took the first game in a blowout, 11-0, in a six innings by mercy rule. They won nine of their last 10 games.

''Our guys have a lot of confidence in each other," Southside Christian coach Scott Freeman said. "We talk about not trying to do too much. Don't go up doing what you want to do. Go up doing what we need you to do at the plate. Sometimes that's just getting on base and other times it's moving a guy over. "I think our approaches have been much better lately and the results have shown it."

Southside Christian (20-10) lost five straight games at the end of March and even Freeman was wondering if the Sabres could make it back to the state finals. Lake View (12-6) entered the state finals on a six-game winning streak by a combined score of 29-6.

"Lake View is a great team," Freeman said. "Any time you play them, it's going to be a battle. They beat us (in the state finals) two years ago and we figured this time was going to be tough as well."

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This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Southside Christian wins Class A high school baseball state title