Whitmire blows huge lead in the playoffs at home to end their season

WHITMIRE, S.C. — The Whitmire varsity baseball team season comes to an end after being on the wrong end of a comeback. The Wolverines(12-16, 7-5 region 2-A) fell 12-8 to Horse Creek Academy(11-13, 7-3 region) at home in the second round of the 1A state playoffs.

The Wolverines faced elimination after falling to Abbeville in their second round match on May 8th. They returned home on Saturday, May 10th to face Horse Creek Academy with a chance to keep their playoff hopes alive.

Whitmire got off to a strong start by scoring five runs at the bottom of the first inning. They added to their lead by scoring another run at the bottom of the fourth inning to take a 6-0 lead into the final three innings.

All the Wolverines had to do was hold on and they would keep their season going. Sounds easy, right? Well, it wasn’t and things went downhill for the Wolverines at the top of the fifth inning.

The Stallions got their first score of the game at the top of the fifth inning to cut into the deficit, but still trailed 6-1 heading into the bottom of the fifth inning. The Wolverines quickly responded and added two more runs at the bottom of the fifth inning to lead 8-1 going into the sixth inning.

Horse Creek cut into the deficit even more at the top of the sixth inning and now just trailed 8-3. The Wolverines couldn’t get anything on the scoreboard at the bottom of the sixth inning, but needed just three outs to win the game.

The Wolverines blew their lead, allowed five runs and committed two of their five errors in the game at the top of the seventh inning. The Stallions were able to tie the game, 8-8, at the top of the seventh inning. Now, Whitmire had their backs against the wall but still had a chance to win the game if they could find a way to score at the bottom of the seventh inning.

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen and the game went into extra innings. The Wolverines continued to struggle on defense and allowed four runs at the top of the eighth inning while committing another two errors. Whitmire blew their huge lead and could never recover.

“This is a tough one to swallow after jumping out to a lead. We just have to learn to put people away. The defensive miscues are magnified in playoff games and we will get better having gone through this,” said Wolverines head coach Chris Martin. “To our Seniors, there is nothing but love and respect. These 5 young men have had some incredible moments to shine throughout their high school careers. They will be missed and we look forward to being fans as they enter college and the workforce.”

Congratulations, to Whitmire on a successful and good luck to the seniors at the next level. Blake Stribble, Xzye Stephens, Kayshaun Schumpert, Chris Mathis and Aiden Vicars will be graduating at the end of this month.