No. 1, veteran Blythewood baseball team targets elusive first state championship
With its playoff fate secure, the Blythewood High School baseball team will use the next three weeks to get ready for what it expects to be a deep postseason run.
The Bengals hosted their annual S.C. Diamond Invitational this week and looked like the top 5A team in the state by winning their second straight tournament title.
With four victories this week, the Bengals are 20-1, ranked No. 1 in the S.C. Baseball Coaches Class 5A poll and No. 25 nationally in this week’s MaxPreps Top 25 poll.
Blythewood already has clinched the Region 4-5A championship and has three weeks left in the regular season before the playoffs begin May 3.
“Everything since the IP Classic (season-opening tournament) has been about May 3,” Blythewood coach Banks Faulkner said. “We have really managed our team accordingly. We feel like we got a team capable of playing deep into May. That is how we have managed things, and nothing has changed with this.”
Faulkner is in his fifth season as Bengals coach. The former Lexington High standout returned to the Midlands after leading Summerville to the 2016 Class 4A championship. Blythewood has been a playoff contender each year and advanced to the Class 5A championship series in 2019 before losing to Dutch Fork in a deciding game at Segra Park.
Blythewood was a favorite to win it all in 2020 before COVID shut down spring sports. Last year, the Bengals entered the playoffs as the No. 1 team in Class 5A but didn’t make it out of the district round after losing their first two games.
“It still hurts,” senior Caleb McCants said. “We aren’t going to stop until we get what we want, and that’s a championship.”
Stephen Lang-Spittler agreed with his teammate and thinks this could be the year the Bengals win their first baseball championship. He also said last year’s early exit proved to be a driving factor in getting ready for this season.
“It was incredible motivation,” Lang-Spittler said. “We know we are a good team and we know we could do a lot better than that. We really pride ourselves on playing the game the right way and playing hard every single day.”
McCants, a Coker signee, and Lang-Spittler, a College of Charleston commitment, are part of a veteran team that includes 10 seniors, eight of which have signed or committed to play college baseball. Others include Zac Cowan (Wofford), Jacob Hardy (Coker), Alex Nevils (Wofford), Alex Simmons (USC Union), Davis Wright (Spartanburg Methodist) and Kevin Steelman (College of Charleston). Nevils missed most of the early part of the season after having double-hip replacement surgery over the winter, but he’s been a big boost at the top of the lineup.
Wright and Steelman are the team’s top two pitchers and have yet to lose a start this season.
With a veteran group, Faulkner loaded the Bengals’ non-region schedule with tough opponents. They won the season-opening IP Classic, which included beating potential first-round MLB Draft pick Tristan Smith and Boiling Springs. Blythewood also has wins over defending 4A champion A.C. Flora, Berkeley, Summerville and Charlotte Christian (N.C.).
“Coach Faulkner does a great job of getting out-of-region games that will prepare us for the playoffs,” Lang-Spittler said. “Our first 10 games were incredibly tough matchups and we found ways to win. That is what makes us a great team.”
Faulkner compares this year’s Bengals to the Summerville championship team because of his team’s mature and business-like approach. They are not as vocal as some of his earlier teams at Blythewood and don’t get easily rattled.
“They have all been with me for five or six years. They have been successful since they were young,” Faulkner said. “They expect to win. They aren’t not always perfect by any stretch, but they are highly competitive and hold each other to a high standard. They take a lot of pride in what we are about.”
This story was originally published April 14, 2022 at 9:00 AM.
