Purple Reign: Batesburg-Leesville baseball ends championship drought
Batesburg-Leesville’s baseball title drought is over.
Playing in front of a rowdy and emotional crowd at Founders Park, the Panthers defeated Philip Simmons, 8-5, on Saturday night to win the deciding game of the best-of-three Class 2A championship series.
It is Batesburg-Leesville’s fourth baseball championship — but first since winning back-to-back titles in 1948-49.
“Words can’t put into what we are feeling right now. We are so happy and so blessed,” B-L coach Rob Bouknight said.
Bouknight went down and shook every player’s hand following the game and gave each of them a hug. Then, his players doused him with a Gatorade bath as he raised his hands toward the B-L fans.
The Panthers dropped the series opener on May 24 but rallied to win on Tuesday, 3-1, in front of a large crowd and force the deciding game.
The deciding game was moved to Founders Park, and the majority of 1,281 fans in attendance were from Batesburg-Leesville, the town of just over 5,000 people. The B-L faithful were loud, waving their purple towels and hanging on every pitch.
As the final out of the game drew closer, most of the B-L fans were on their feet, with cellphones in hand ready to capture the moment.
“It was supposed to be a neutral site and the umpire came and told us that we need to play music for them too,” Bouknight said. “Our whole town showed up. It felt like a home game.”
The Panthers gave the raucous crowd plenty to cheer about early, scoring three runs in each of the first two innings for a 6-2 lead.
Starting pitcher Braydon Hallman drove in three runs including a two-run double in the second. Jack and Carter Bouknight each had RBIs, along with Gavin Parrish.
The Panthers added two more runs to make it 8-3 after five innings.
But the Iron Horses scored twice in the top of the sixth on RBI singles by Charlie Helms and Daniel Scarth to cut it to 8-5. Philip Simmons had runners on first and second, but reliever Landon Soper got Brian Ebeling to pop out to end the inning.
In the seventh, the Panthers were sensing victory and ready to explode from the dugout and finally did as Hallman squeezed a pop-up at short to end the game.
“It is a big moment right here,” Hallman said. “.... I am a Clemson fan, but to get to play and celebrate on South Carolina’s field, an SEC field. It is amazing.”
Both Hallman and Bouknight talked about the unity and togetherness of this group which got stronger through the playoff run.
“I came up in my eighth grade year, and I am a junior now,” Hallman said. “I felt there were two groups of a team and not one team. This year, coaches and players, everyone wanted to buy in.”
Hallman picked up the win, giving up three earned runs on seven hits while striking out nine in four innings. Soper got the save, allowing two runs on three hits in the final three innings.
Scarth had three hits and two RBIs to lead Philip Simmons and Alex Romanski had two hits and an RBI.
This story was originally published May 31, 2025 at 10:01 PM.
