AC Flora baseball gets bragging rights in battle of two championship programs
The A.C. Flora baseball program has shown the ability to defeat the top teams in South Carolina over the past two decades.
On Tuesday, the Falcons defeated one of the top programs in Florida with a 6-2 win over Miami’s Westminster Christian School on the second day of the Forest Acres Classic.
A.C. Flora can advance to the championship game with a win over River Bluff on Wednesday.
“We knew we were going to play them and they are a great team,” A.C. Flora coach Andy Hallett said of Westminster. “Last time we played them in 2014, it was a great baseball game. It is really good to have them back in our tournament and a great win for our program, a high-quality win for our kids.”
Both Flora and Westminster have a rich baseball history with 18 combined state championships between them. Westminster also has a pair of national titles to go with the 11 state crowns.
Several of Westminster’s former players have gone on to play Major League Baseball, with Alex Rodriguez being the most notable alum.
This year’s team includes Vanderbilt signee and potential MLB draft choice Sal Stewart and D’Angelo Ortiz, the son of former Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz. Former Miami Marlin and Red Sox player Mike Lowell is one of the team’s coaches.
Flora’s squad has several college prospects, but it was its young pitchers Charles Flake, Hank Collins and Rence Best who stole the show against Westminster. The trio gave up just two runs on two hits in the game.
Westminster had the tying run on deck in the seventh, but Best got Rene Ramirez to ground out to end the game.
Hallett wanted to see how his young pitchers would respond in facing a lineup like WCS as he looks to help fill the void lost by Wofford commit Davis Rivers, one of the team’s top pitchers who is expected to miss the rest of the season with an arm injury.
“We talked last night about guys stepping up and getting innings Davis isn’t going to get,” Hallett said. “So, it was a really big night for us to see who was going to compete for us on the mound. Charles did a really good job and Hank is a junior varsity kid pitching against those guys right there. He bridged the gap enough so I could go to Rence. Really great job by those three guys.”
Westminster scored a run off Flake in the first but A.C. Flora scored three in the bottom of the first to take a 3-1 lead. Phillips Daniels led off the inning with a solo homer. Stephen West and Grant Loggins also drove in runs in the inning.
Daniels finished 2-for-3. Carew Bates led the Falcons with three hits, including an RBI in the fifth inning.
“We knew coming in we would have to play really well,” Daniels said. “We were looking forward to it all week and that they were a really good team. We had to bring our A game and I think we did that. After they put up one in the first, we responded with three so that set the tone for us.”
This story was originally published April 12, 2022 at 11:06 PM.
