Fort Mill baseball falls to Berkeley in 5A state final, ending season for ‘special group’

The ball seemed to hang in the air for minutes.

Zach Jennings, the final batter in Saturday afternoon’s 5A state championship series finale in Blythewood, swung and launched a fly ball to left field. It floated and floated and floated, and every Fort Mill player and coach and fan in attendance held out hope that it would never come down — that Fort Mill’s season and its quest for its first state championship in 20 years could stay alive.

The ball fell, though, as it always does.

And Fort Mill (25-9) players watched from their dugout as Berkeley players tossed their gloves into the cloudless sky, mobbed the pitcher’s mound and celebrated the school’s first all-time state championship. The Stags won, 3-1, in a game that saw all four total runs scored in the second inning.

“Listen, you can’t take away what these kids did right here,” Fort Mill head coach Travis Collier said. “You can’t take that away. You gotta be so proud. I’m proud. Win or lose, I knew I was going to be proud of these kids because they’ve earned this. ... That’s a special, special group.”

Collier, a Fort Mill High alum who was on the Yellow Jackets’ most recent title team in 2002, credited his team’s seniors for helping revitalize baseball in Fort Mill, going from a .500 team to six consecutive winning seasons, including this year in which Fort Mill won 18 games before May began.

“They’ve revived baseball in Fort Mill,” Collier said. “They had a lot of people behind them and doing a lot of things for them. This is awesome. These fans right here, they rallied for us, and we’re just extremely blessed and excited to be here. But we’re very proud of this group.”

Second-inning flurry

The Yellow Jackets struck first. In the top of the second, with two outs, Brent Laughter doubled into left field. Zach Jennings then followed him in the order and singled to send Laughter home to make the score 1-0.

Berkeley wasn’t fazed. The next half-inning, Connor Barham reached when he was hit by a pitch. Rhett Legette and Austin Hewette followed with two singles to load the bases with only one out.

Then, Jackson Proctor — Berkeley’s junior left fielder who’s committed to Clemson — doubled to right field to send in Barham and Legette to make the score 2-1.

Mason Salisbury singled after Proctor, sending in Hewette and pushing the score to 3-1.

The next five innings featured six three-up, three-down half innings. There were still Fort Mill opportunities, including in the top of the fifth, when the Yellow Jackets had two runners on base with two outs — but this game mostly was a defensive battle.

And a lot of that had to do with the pitchers on the mound Saturday.

The winning pitcher, Berkeley’s Miller McGuire, threw a complete game, allowing the one run and five hits while dominating despite only throwing one strikeout.

And Fort Mill’s dealer, Connor Rasmussen, threw a great game, too, hurling 5.1 innings and striking out four while allowing just seven hits. Mathieu Curtis relieved Rasmussen for the final two outs of the bottom of the sixth.

After the game, the Fort Mill senior pitcher and East Carolina signee said the loss stung. He said that it “just wasn’t our day today,” adding that his team had a few well-hit balls directed right at Berkeley fielders and other moments that “are part of this game.”

“This senior class gave everything to this program,” Rasmussen said. “We had kids who weren’t with us freshman year who played a big role. And I’ve been a part of this since my freshman year. And we definitely left it better than we found it. And that was the main goal we had.”

WP: Miller McGuire, LP: Connor Rasmussen. Hitters: FM: Rasmussen 1-2; Luke Garabedian 1-3; Brent Laughter 1-3; Jennings 2-3 RBI. B: Jackson Proctor 1-3, 2 RBI; Mason Salisbury 2-3; Hayden Newbold 1-2 RBI; Hudson Clark 1-3; Rhett Legette 1-2; Austin Hewette 1-3.