Champs! Hilton Head Christian wins first SCISA baseball title in more than a decade
Hilton Head Christian used a big fifth inning to win its first state baseball championship in more than a decade Wednesday night.
The Eagles scored six runs in the fifth on their way to a 12-4 win over Pee Dee Academy to sweep the SCISA Class 3A best-of-three championship series. It is the school’s third state title this school year and first in baseball since 2010.
“Seeing the community out here, everybody that’s believed in us over the last three years, it’ll set in probably tomorrow when I get to work cause no days off. We will be at work tomorrow and It will probably set in then,” HHCA coach JW Wilkerson told WTOC following the win. “This is what I’ve been dreaming about for a long time. And three years ago when they hired me here I believed we could do this, and here we are.”
Wilkerson, the former Bluffton High standout, returned back to the Lowcountry after a successful run at Southwest Florida Christian Academy in Fort Myers, Fla. He spent seven seasons there and led the team to multiple playoff appearances before landing back at HHCA.
The Eagles finished the season at 24-6 and won 10 of their final 11 games. HHCA was the No. 1 seed in the upper bracket but dropped its second playoff game to Williamsburg Academy in the double-elimination tournament.
HHCA made it back through the loser’s bracket and beat Williamsburg Academy twice to earn a spot in the title series.
The Eagles won the series opener on the road Monday, 3-1, by scoring three runs in the top of the seventh. Game two was pushed back to Wednesday because of rain.
HHCA trailed 4-3 in game two before scoring six runs in the fifth to take control of the game.
The Eagles took the lead on back-to-back bases-loaded walks to make it 5-4. Cody Bradt and Steele Burd then followed with an RBI singles to make it 7-4. Roman Collella added another RBI later in the inning to make it 9-4.
Hilton Head added three more in the sixth, two coming on an error, to complete the scoring.
Walker Mikkelson picked up the win, allowing two hits over three innings.
Collela was 3-for-4 with two RBI and Bradt was 1-for-3 with two RBI. Keene Reese was 1-for-2 with an RBI and Jackson Richardson had two RBI.
Colby Richardson had three hits and an RBI to lead Pee Dee Academy.