Defending champion Lexington takes baseball series opener against Blythewood
The Lexington baseball team moved a step closer to playing for another state championship.
Behind a strong performance from sophomore Reidar Carlson and early offense, the Wildcats defeated Blythewood, 4-3, in the opening game of the best-of-3 Class 5A Upper State championship series.
Game 2 is set for 6 p.m. Thursday at Lexington. If necessary, Game 3 will be 2 p.m. Saturday at Blythewood.
Lexington is looking for its second straight state title. The Wildcats defeated Ashley Ridge last season. Playing in so many big playoff games the last two years has paid off lately.
The Wildcats rallied from three runs down Saturday with a seven-run seventh inning and defeated Dorman, 14-10, to advance to the Upper State championship series.
Against the Bengals, the Wildcats were able to make the big plays in the field to take the opener.
“The biggest thing we got going for us is we are battle tested,” Lexington coach Brian Hucks said. “The teams we played and the series we had with Dorman I think prepared us mentally.”
The Wildcats got another gem from Carlson, who was on the junior varsity last season and battled various injuries. But the right-hander has turned into the ace of the Wildcats’ staff.
Carlson allowed one earned run on five hits and struck out two.
Hucks thought about taking him out in the seventh after Sammy Franklin reached on a one-out walk and moved to second on a fielder’s choice. But Carlson got a ground ball to end the game.
“I just went out there with the mindset I had all season — just throw pitches in the strike zone and they will get themselves out,” Carlson said.
Both teams scored twice in the first inning and both made their share of mistakes, each committing two errors in the inning.
South Carolina signee Brandon Cromer hit a solo homer in the top of the first to give the Wildcats a 2-0 lead.
But the Bengals answered back and loaded the bases with no outs. Blythewood scored on a pair of fielder’s choices to tie it at 2-2.
Lexington took the lead in the second on Graham Coleman’s home run and Cromer’s RBI double in the third made it 4-2.
Coleman, Cromer and Toby Sobierelski each had two hits for the Wildcats.
The Bengals loaded the bases with no outs in the fifth but only scored one run, coming on Alex Myers’ sacrifice fly, to make it 4-3. Franklin was picked off second for the second out of the inning.
Then, left fielder Lincoln Hill came up with one of the biggest plays of the game. Jackson Bottar singled to left field for his third hit but Hill did a good job chasing it down and threw out courtesy runner Navy Strickland at third for the final out of the inning.
“That was a huge play by Lincoln,” Hucks said. “I was thinking we needed to go two (throw to second) to try to keep the go-ahead runner off second. But Lincoln came up and made a great throw and Logan (Blight) did a great job making the tag.”
Bowman Rummel took the loss, giving up three earned runs in four innings. Reliever Andrew Blackwell pitched three scoreless innings of relief to keep the Bengals in the game.
It was the Bengals’ first loss of the postseason and first since losing to Lexington in the regular-season finale on May 1.
“They (Lexington) are a good club, take nothing away from them. But the good thing is they still have to beat us again,” Blythewood coach Travis Poole said. “We got a chance on Thursday night. We got a 12-hour rule. We think about it for 12 hours, then we wash it and go to the next game.”
This story was originally published May 20, 2025 at 10:20 PM.
