Richard Winn baseball caps season with title. Hammond’s championship hopes stay alive

Richard Winn capped off a perfect season on Tuesday, while Hammond kept its championship hopes alive.

The Eagles (25-0) defeated Jefferson Davis, 9-0, to win the SCISA Class A baseball championship. It was Richard Winn’s first title since 2007.

Hammond forced a deciding game in the SCISA Class 4A championship series with a 5-3 win over Augusta Christian. Game 3 of the series is at 6 p.m. on Thursday at Cardinal Newman.

Eagles punctuate perfect season

Richard Winn used a four-run third inning to take a 5-0 lead and go on to win the school’s third state championship. The other two came in 2007 and 1996.

The Eagles lost in the championship series last year and in 2019, but weren’t challenged much all year. They scored eight or more runs in 22 of their 25 games and had nine shutouts.

Landon Caulder pitched a complete-game, allowing four hits, walking one and striking out eight. Caulder also was 2-for-3 with two RBIs.

Lawson Wade was 2-for-3 with a homer and Miller Stuck led the team with three hits and two RBIs. Charlie Bonds and Jacob Chaisson also had RBIs for Richard Winn.

Big first inning helps Skyhawks

Hammond jumped on Kentucky commit Khaleel Pratt for five runs in the first inning to force a deciding game in the championship series against Augusta Christian.

The Skyhawks dropped the opener, 4-2, on Monday. Hammond is going for its third championship since 2019.

Hammond coach Chris Braciszewski said this team reminds him of the 2019 squad, which was run-ruled in one game before battling back to defeat Ben Lippen in three games.

“We know in game three anything can happen,” Braciszewski said. “I told this team at the beginning of the year they reminded me of the 2019 team. … Game three everything is off the table and it is just win or go home.”

Evan Todd and Ben Kirkpatrick each had two hits and drove in two for Hammond.

Wyatt Barrett gave the Skyhawks a strong performance on the mound, allowing one earned run on seven hits while striking out 5.2 innings.

“We knew we had to stay alive,” Barrett said. “Dylan Richardson (pitcher/shortstop) gave us a pep talk before the game and basically said if we lose, this is our last game — and if we win, we can play a game three where we can win it all. That kind of fired us all up tonight.”

Jack Miller closed things out to pick up the save. Augusta Christian made things interesting in the seventh. Virginia Tech commit Luca Perriello hit a solo homer in the top of the seventh and the Lions had the tying run at the plate.

But Miller got a flyout to end the game.

Boys Golf

Class 5A: TL Hanna won its fifth state championship and first since 1994. TLH finished with a 580, 11 shots better than Spartanburg. River Bluff was one back of Spartanburg to finish a school-best third in the tournament. Chapin was eighth and Lexington ninth.

TL Hanna’s Bennett Scaletta shot an 8-under 136 to win the individual championship by four shots over brother Jackson Scaletta. River Bluff’s Grant Skelley (143) and Ashton Eubanks (146) earned all-state honors along with Chapin’s Harrison James (144) and Blythewood’s Grant Paolucci (146).

Class 4A: Host North Augusta shot a 15-under 553 to win by 22 strokes over defending champion AC Flora.

Lugoff-Elgin finished 11th.

NA’s Davis Neal (-8) won in a playoff over Greenville’s Tip Price to win the individual championship. AC Flora’s Thomas Lamar (-3) tied for fourth and Charles Cauthen (+1) tied for ninth to earn all-state honors.

Class 3A: Woodruff defeated Beaufort in the first hole of a sudden death playoff to win the championship. Both teams tied at 609 with Wren two shots back.

Camden (658) finished fifth, Gilbert (664) eighth and Dreher (669) was ninth,. Woodruff’s Gage Howard (-1) won the individual championship by four shots.

Class 2A: Bishop England (587) won the championship by 11 shots over Oceanside Collegiate. Gray Collegiate was third with 613.

Oceanside’s Wamon Thomas (143) won the individual championship by two shots. Gray Collegiate’s Teddy Dunn (146) was third and earned all-state honors.