Fort Mill baseball comes back but falls to Berkeley, forcing state championship finale

The Berkeley Stags made the most of four hits and defeated the Fort Mill Yellow Jackets 12-7 in Moncks Corner Tuesday night to even the 5A state championship series at one game each.

The Stags bolted to a 7-1 lead after two innings. The Jackets battled back and tied it at 7-7 after four innings. Berkeley then put the game away with five runs in the sixth.

Luke Garabedian staked Fort Mill to a 1-0 lead in the first inning with a home run to right field.

Berkeley countered with three in the bottom of the frame, and they did it without getting a hit. A pair of walks got the rally started. When Miller McGuire reached on a throwing error, two runs scored, and the third crossed on an infield out.

The Stags tacked on four more in the second. A hit batter, a walk, and an infield single loaded the bases. The first run scored on an infield ground out, the second one crossed on an error, and the third one scored on a double steal. A sacrifice fly to center field by Hayden Newbold drove in the final run in the outburst.

Fort Mill countered. Shortstop Connor Rasmussen led off the third inning with a home run to right field. That cut the deficit to 7-2. Dylan Schaefer singled, moved up on an infield groundout, and went to third when Scott Young singled. Schaefer scored on a wild pitch, and Young scored on Carter Blankenship’s infield groundout.

The Jackets rallied again in the fourth with three more scores. Zach Jennings led off with a single. After one out, Rasmussen singled, and Schaefer followed with a three-run home run that knotted the game at 7-7.

It stayed that way until the home half of the sixth. Austin Hewette singled to start the rally. After a wild pitch, Proctor Jackson got an intentional walk. Mason Salisbury walked to load the bases, and Hewette scored when McGuire reached on a Jackets’ error.

Newbold followed with a grand slam home run to left and the Stags had a 12-7 lead heading to the seventh.

Fort Mill did not go quietly in their final at bat. After one out, they loaded the bases on singles by Eli Craddock and Blankenship and Brent Laughter’s walk. They could not score.

“We beat ourselves tonight,” said Fort Mill head coach Travis Collier. “We out hit them 10 to four. We made only one bad pitch all night.”

He was proud of the way his team responded after being down early.

“We battled back all night,” he added. “We never gave up, and they deserve a lot of credit for that.”

Fort Mill used three pitchers in the game. Matthieu Curtis started. He left with one out in the second trailing 6-1. Andrew Craddock entered the contest at that point. He got the final two outs in the inning, and then gave his teammates a chance to get back in the game when he blanked the Stags over the next three innings. At one point he retired eight in a row. He left the game with the bases loaded and one out in the sixth.

The deciding game in the series is set for noon on Saturday at Blythewood High School. The Stags, who won a coin flip after the game, will be the home team.

“All you can ask for now is get 21 outs in the State Championship game,” added Collier. “We will be ready to go on Saturday.”

Fort Mill takes a 25-8 record into Saturday’s game, while Berkeley brings a mark of 24-4.