Winners and losers, May 3-9

Lancaster native Tim Wallace is in his
30th season as Pioneers' head coach.
(Spartanburg Methodist photo)

Winners

* Florence-Darlington Tech has been dominant against its competition most of the season. The Stingers are 43-6 after Sunday's 8-3 win over Louisburg to reach Monday's championship game of the NJCAA Region 10 Tournament in Lexington.

Coach Preston McDonald's Stingers were averaging 10 runs per game before being "held" to eight runs. Tech has scored 489 runs in 49 games.

But the Stingers have pitching, too. University of South Carolina recruit Hunter Parks struck out 14 Louisburg batters in seven innings Sunday ... and he only made second-team all-region.  Teammates Nathan Williams (the region pitcher of the year) and Charlie Mac Toman (son of former South Carolina assistant Jim Toman) took two of the three first-team spots.

Tech meets Spartanburg Methodist at 1 p.m. Monday at Lexington County Baseball Stadium. If the Stingers win, they're the tournament champions. If SMC wins, the teams would play again later in the day. 

The Stingers went 3-1 against the Pioneers in their season series. Spartanburg won the opener by shutout, but Tech took Game 2 by shutout and won the final two as well.

* Speaking of  Spartanburg Methodist,  the Pioneers' program under coach Tim Wallace has set a high standard for other region teams to match. His teams have won 12 region championships and made seven trips to the Junior College World Series in Grand Junction, Colo. While winning region champions have never been never easy, FD Tech, USC Sumter and Louisburg, in particular, have been  the Pioneers work hard.

SMC survived two elimination games in the region tournament Sunday to earn its date with Florence-Darlington Tech.

The 10-0 win over USC Sumter in Sunday's first game was the 1,250th of Wallace's career. His team built on that with a come-from-behind win over Louisburg later in the day.

* It's been a record-setting season for USC Upstate and there's plenty of time left for more milestones.  The Big South Conference series sweep at High Point gave the Spartans 33 victories, setting a school record for wins as an NCAA Division I program.

Jordan Marks became the school's single-season strikeout leader with 87. With at least two starts remaining, he looks like a good candidate to hit triple digits. He also set a school record with his ninth win of the season and tied the school victory mark of 20.

Coach Mike McGuire's squad has won its last 11 conference games to pull 1 1/2 games ahead of Campbell and Gardner-Webb with two weeks remaining in the season. After a Tuesday game with UNC Asheville, the Spartans play host to Campbell for three games on the weekend.

* Zacchaeus Rasberry became Presbyterian's career stolen base leader for its NCAA Division I era with a pair of thefts Saturday. He has 37 career steals.

* Winthrop's sweep of Charleston Southern gave the Eagles' prospects of qualifying for the Big South Tournament a boost. Winthrop us tied for seventh, but just two games out of fourth place.

* Wofford has won 11 of its last 13 Southern Conference games.

* Coaches always enjoy an opportunity for players to get experience that may help in future seasons. Bob Jones coach Brent Casteel will get to see his team play at least two more games this week when it competes in a National Christian College Athletic Association regional in Springdale, Ark.

The Bruins are 6-24 in the program's inaugural season, and enter the seven-team tournament as the last seed. But funny things can happen in baseball. If enough bounces go BJU's way, it could earn a spot in the NCCAA World Series in Upstate South Carolina later this month.

* College of Charleston got a three-game sweep at William & Mary and now has a one-game lead in the CAA South Division. Next up is a series at second-place UNC Wilmington.

* Even through North Greenville didn't play a game. the Crusaders came out winners. The NCAA selected North Greenville to be host for the Division II South Regional later this month.

Losers

* The Citadel coach Tony Skole is finding out when it rains, it pours. His team entered the week on an eight-game losing streak, and things have only gone downhill from there. At midweek, Skole tested positive for COVID-19, even though he told The Post and Courier newspaper he had been vaccinated. That caused Skole to miss a chance to coach against former Citadel teammate Chris Lemonis when his nationally ranked Mississippi State team came to town on Wednesday.

That also prevented Skole from being in the dugout for a weekend series at Wofford. The Bulldogs lost the opener on Friday. Saturday was an off date, and Skole was schedule to drive senior players from Spartanburg to Charleston for graduation. Again, COVID-19 prevented that.

But wait. There's more: The Bulldogs looked primed to break an 10-game losing streak when they bolted to a 10-3 lead through three innings. Wofford, however, scored two runs in each of its final four at-bats to take an 11-10 lead. The Citadel got the first two runners on base to start the ninth, then moved them over with a sacrifice bunt. Twice, a Bulldogs batters hit a fly ball tantalizingly close to a two-riun double, only to fall foul. Crosby Jones flied out to end the game.

Things couldn't get worse, you say? They almost did. In Sunday's game Game 2, Wofford's Elliot Carney took a no-hitter into the ninth inning. After two quick groundouts, The Citadel's Jeffery Brown hit a bouncer to Terriers' second baseman Shane Lussier. Lussier's hurried throw bounced of the dirt into first baseman John Dempsey's glove and the no-hit bid was gone. Still Wofford closed out the series and doubleheader sweep to send The Citadel to a 12th straight loss for the second time this season.

* Clemson appeared to have righted the ship last weekend when it swept Louisville to move to 15-12 in the ACC. But the Tigers sprung a leak over the weekend, being swept at Georgia Tech to drop back to .500 in the league with two series remaining.   

The last two losses, by one run, were particularly galling. The Jackets tied Saturday's game in the eighth and won it with a walj-off homer in the ninth.  The Tigers built a 6-0 lead on Sunday only to have seven straight Tech batters get hits in a seven-run fourth inning. A seventh-inning homer proved to be the deciding blow.

Clemson is ninth in the overall conference standings.

* Coastal Carolina developed a frustrating pattern in being swept by Sun Belt Conference rival Troy. The Chanticleers fell behind big in all three games before mounting rallies that fell short.

A little of both

* To say South Carolina entered Sunday's series finale against Mississippi State desperate for a victory is probably an understatement. The Gamecocks had lost six straight SEC games - and seven of their last eight - against SEC West powerhouses Arkansas, Mississippi and Mississippi State. In most games, Carolina got decent pitching but was, overall, uncompetitive at the plate.

The Gamecocks got bad news Tuesday when freshman Jack Mahoney, who had developed into an effective midweek starter, left his start during an ineffective first inning. An examination determined he had suffered a UCL injury and won't be able to pitch the remainder of the season. 

The NCAA plans to announce NCAA Regional hosts this week and the recent troubles have pushed the Gamecocks from likely hosts to a more likely No. 2 seed in another venue.

On Sunday, the good pitching continued. Carolina had better offensive results, but still missed many chances to take control of the game.

David Mendham hit a two-run homer for the Gamecocks in the second inning, but Mississippi State rallied for a 3-2 lead. Carolina had threat after threat fizzle out until pinch-hitter Jeff Heinrich doubled in a run in the ninth to tie the score. Even then, it was unable to produce a hit for a win in regulation, leaving the bases loaded.

In the 11th, Heinrich got a one-out single and Mendham lofted a fly ball to the base of wall in left-center field to score Heinrich and break the recent slide .

* USC Beaufort had a wonderful run in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament. As the sixth seed, the and Sharks knocked off No. 1 Southeastern in the first round and reached Championship Sunday without a loss. Unfortunately, Southeastern clubbed USCB twice Sunday to win the title.