Experienced Airport squad ousts rival B-C, advances to Lower State title series

Airport came into the Class 4A District VII baseball championship with a couple of advantages.

First off, region rival Brookland-Cayce would have to win the first game to force a second. Throw in the fact Airport had won 15 straight against the Bearcats and had a wealth of returning experience that played for a state championship last year.

It all added up to a gritty 3-2 victory for the Eagles to advance to Thursday’s Class 4A Lower State Championship series. Airport will open on the road against the winner of Hartsville and Midland Valley.

“It feels great,” Airport coach Tim Perry said. “This group has the experience of getting there last year. Not everybody played last year, but the majority of the juniors and seniors, they’ve been playing on this team the last two years. They know what it feels like to be in a big game. That has certainly helped us.”

Airport started senior Brandon Caughman on the mound and turned it over to Dalton Mims to record the final six outs.

Caughman (2-1) allowed two runs on three hits with a strikeout, four walks and a hit batter in five innings. He pitched out of trouble in the first and third innings when Brookland-Cayce (12-13) left the bases loaded.

Mims, who earned his first save of the season, ran his scoreless streak to 16 consecutive innings when he came in and faced the minimum over his two innings of work.

“Brandon didn’t have his best stuff, but he competed,” Perry said. “He’s got a lot of grit. He’s just a tremendous leader. Then we were able to turn it over to Dalton to close it out.”

In both innings, the Bearcats had the bases loaded, a couple of situations in which they couldn’t execute that came back to haunt them. They had a runner thrown out at the plate on a safety squeeze in the first inning. In the third, three walks and a hit batter didn’t result in a run because Caughman picked a runner off first.

The Bearcats had three eighth-graders in the starting lineup and only two seniors.

“We had a couple of throwing errors, couldn’t get the bunt down twice when we had a man on and no outs, we don’t field a bunt hit right back to us,” B-C coach Rusty Charpia said. “It’s the same things that continued to beat us all year.”

Airport (15-11-1) scored twice in the first. Cam Beckham and John Allen Forrester delivered RBI singles for a quick 2-0 lead. The Eagles added what would be the winning run when Blake Palyok reached on an error, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt and scored on Parker Whittle’s RBI single.

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W: Brandon Caughman. L: Adam Krissinger.

Hitters: A – Cam Beckham 2-3, 2B, RBI, John Allen Forrester RBI, Parker Whittle RBI. BC – Aubrey Richardson 1-3, 2B, RBI.