Kingsmen: Rock Hill faith-based baseball team ends successful inaugural year

The Kingsmen baseball team has completed its 2022 season in the Southern Collegiate Baseball League.

After finishing second in the regular season with a mark of 15-7, the Kingsmen played this past week in the season-ending league championship tournament, where they compiled a mark of 1-2. Counting their three wins on the recent mission trip, they completed the year with an overall record of 19-9.

“We played well on the field this season,” head coach Joe Hudak told The Herald. After a Hall-of-Fame-stint as Winthrop’s coach, Hudak has led a summer baseball organization in York County for years. This is the first year, though, that the team has been under the Kingsmen moniker. “We competed in every game, and overall it was another great year.”

In the opening round, the team beat the third-seeded Lake Norman Copperheads 10-9. The Kingsmen managed only seven hits but used 14 walks to their advantage. Trailing 9-6 entering the home half of the Kingsmen rallied for four runs to pull out the win.

Cam McNearney led the offense with a triple and a double. Chas DeBruhl started the game, went five innings, struck out 10 and left with the score tied 5-5. Zach Saufl, the fourth pitcher for the Kingsmen, picked up the win.

In the second round, the Kingsmen dropped a 7-5 decision on the road to the Mooresville Spinners, the top team during the regular season. The Kingsmen led 5-3 after seven innings, but the Spinners rallied for four runs in the bottom of the eighth to claim the victory. McNearney and Easton Cullison led the offense with two hits each.

Mathieu Curtis worked five and two-thirds innings during the game, but was not involved in the decision. He scattered three hits and struck out six.

The second round game started on Thursday night and rain forced it to be finished on Friday afternoon. The loss put them in the loser’s bracket, and they returned home to play the Concord Athletics in an elimination game Friday night — which resulted in an 8-4 loss and ultimately the end of the season.

Looking back on a successful inaugural season

Two local players contributed to the success the Kingsmen had on the field during the summer.

DeBruhl, who is a left-handed pitcher from Kershaw, had an exceptional year. He led the league in strikeouts with 66, and his four wins tied him for the top spot. He compiled an ERA of 1.47, which was the second best in the league.

“I did not know a lot about him,” said Hudak. “He did exceptionally well. I think the big difference for him was that he had some early success, and that gave him a lot of confidence.”

The other local player who made significant contributions was right-handed pitcher Mathieu Curtis, who is from Tega Cay. He finished the year with three wins and 30 strikeouts.

“He pitched against high school players this past spring, and college players this summer,” he added. “He was not overwhelmed pitching against the college players. He has a very bright future.”

The Kingsmen were led offensively by a pair of players.

Burke Camper led the league in home runs with five and runs batted in with 26. His .382 batting average was third best. Johnny Sweeney led the league with a .424 batting average. He was third in home runs with three, and his 19 runs batted in was fourth-best in the league.

Hudak has already started making plans for next year.

“I would love to have all of the players back next year, and most of them indicated they would like to return,” he added. “Time will tell what happens.”

The veteran coach is also thinking right now about how his team will participate in 2023.

“We could play in the league and have one mission trip like we did this summer, or take two mission trips like we did last year,” he said. “We will decide on that down the road.”

The season was also a success in another way for Hudak. He said that five of the players who were on the 2022 team were committed in their Christian faith when they arrived. He added that six more “recommitted” during the season, and three “chose to follow Christ for the first time.”

“I did not create this team so I could coach more baseball,” said Hudak. “I did it so that we could use baseball to help the players who participate to develop spiritually.”

This story was originally published August 1, 2022 at 2:13 PM.