Piedmont Pride clinches second straight SCBL regular season championship
The Piedmont Pride is now 2-for-2.
The Rock Hill-based Southern Collegiate Baseball League club captured its second league title in as many attempts earlier this week with a 10-1 win over the Concord Weavers. The win took Joe Hudak’s team to 30-7 on the summer.
“It’s great to play well enough to win the regular season again this year,” Hudak said in a press release. “I’m very proud of how well the guys played as a team again this year.”
He attributed a large portion of the team’s success to living together during the season.
“Most summer league teams have host families for the players,” he said. “We actually house all of our players together in a dorm setting. This really helps them bond quickly, and brings them much closer together than a normal summer team.”
The Weavers jumped out to a 1-0 lead by scoring an unearned run off starter Daniel Sweeney. The Pride took the lead with two runs in the second on an RBI single off the bat of Chuck Lawing and an RBI ground-out by Bailey Montoya. They added another run in the third on two-out singles from Sam Sustersic, Justin Sparks, and Chandler Redmond.
The Pride broke the game wide open in the bottom of the fourth, scoring seven runs on nine hits. The big blow was a three-run homer by Sustersic, while Montoya, Trey Logan, Derek Horton, and Mike Morgan each had run-scoring single.
Pride reliever Jason Goe shut down the Weavers offense, throwing four innings of no-hit relief. Noah Watts pitched a hitless sixth inning, while Jake Moebius closed it with a hitless seventh. Goe earned the win, raising his record to 6-1.
As proud as Hudak is of the team’s play on the field, he is even prouder of its success off the field.
Our goal is to certainly play well on the field, and to win the SCBL title. Our greater goal is to help our players grow in their faith.
Piedmont Pride coach Joe Hudak; his team is sponsored by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes
“We are a faith-based team, which makes us different from the vast majority of summer college teams,” he said. “We have team Bible studies and chapels, and we go to church together every Sunday. We hope that each one of our players chooses to develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.”
The team has visited five different churches throughout the summer, and also does ministry work in the community.
“We also have goal to give back to York County,” Hudak said. “We volunteered twice a week at Harold C. Johnson Elementary School in York, where we stayed. Our players worked in a reading program with the elementary students. We also served as huddle leaders at our FCA Power camp, and volunteered during Elevation Church’s Love Week by collecting food for a Tega Cay food bank.”
The Pride concludes the regular season with a single game against the Carolina Vipers Wednesday evening, and a home doubleheader at 5 p.m. on Friday at the Winthrop Ballpark. The team receives a first round bye in the playoffs, and will play a best-of-three semi-final series beginning July 26 against an opponent to be determined.
Hudak is looking forward to the playoffs, but knows that winning or losing the championship is not the ultimate goal for his team.
“If we win the championship, but have not impacted our players for Christ, then our season has been a colossal failure,” he said. “If, however, our players grow in their relationship with Christ, winning the championship will only be the icing on the cake.”
This story was originally published July 20, 2016 at 8:48 PM with the headline "Piedmont Pride clinches second straight SCBL regular season championship."