‘How cool is this!’ Chapin baseball adds to tradition with another state title
The Chapin baseball players were reminded of the program’s last state championship every time they took the field.
Hanging on the press box and directly behind home plate, there is a picture of the 2018 team that won a state championship.
After Thursday, there will be a new picture ready to go up as the Eagles defeated TL Hanna, 4-3, to sweep the best-of-three Class 5A Division II championship in front of a massive crowd that had people lined up in the outfield and on top of the football bleachers.
“You look at the poster on the press box — 2018 champions. All of us were here that day, and we knew that it was going to us one day,” Chapin relief pitcher Brewer Haggard said.
It is the program’s 12th state championship (second most in state history) and school’s second in less than a week as the Eagle girls soccer program won state Saturday night. Chapin has won baseball championships in four different classifications: 2A, 3A, 4A and now Class 5A Division II.
The championship comes in Dell Lever’s first season as head coach. Lever replaced hall of fame coach Scott McLeod, who won 556 games and four state titles at Chapin.
Lever, a Newberry grad, lived five minutes from the school and was well aware of the program, facing Chapin when he was an assistant Lexington, White Knoll, Irmo and Dutch Fork.
Lever said Chapin was the top job on his list if it ever came open and wanted to be part of such a tradition-rich program.
“I knew the pieces were here, and the talent is here. This is a talent rich area and a baseball hot bed,” Lever said. “I told these guys when I first met them that this a special place and they are a special group of kids.
“They have really brought in what we did. We took some lumps on the way, and we started finding ways to win .And they started to believe we can get it done.”
Lever was soaking in the championship moment, standing in the middle of the infield with arms wide open as his players dumped Gatorade on him. And when he handed the championship trophy over to the players he said “How cool is this!”
Chapin went 7-0 in the playoffs and didn’t give up more than three runs in any of its postseason games.
The Eagles won the opening game of the series on Wednesday, 7-3, but fell behind early in Game 2.
The Yellow Jackets scored twice in the first inning off starter Griff Harper. But the Eagles responded in the bottom of the first as Felix Flecha Ruiz hammered a two-run homer to tie it at 2-2.
Flecha Ruiz, a Florence-Darlington Tech signee, struck again in the fourth by hitting the first pitch of the inning from TL Hanna’s Connor Brooks for his second home run of the game to give Chapin a 3-2 lead.
“I was just seeing the ball well out of his hands and I do what I do best and that is hit the ball,” Flecha Ruiz said. “... I just wanted to do something big for my team and do what I do best.”
Lever said he was about to say something to Flecha Ruiz before his first at-bat, but he could tell the senior was locked in and ready to go.
“He was unreal,” Lever said. “... He hit an absolute rocket to answer the bell after they scored in the first. Then, his second at-bat, that was an absolute rope. He had a night. And it goes back to making moments and memories. He really catapulted us.”
Luke Cromer added an RBI single later in the inning to make it 4-2.
The Yellow Jackets cut the lead to 4-3 with an RBI single from Reese Oakley in the top of the fifth. TL Hanna had runners on first and second with one out in the sixth when Lever brought in Haggard in for Harper.
The right-hander got a quick ground ball for the second out and struck out Cesar Ochoa to end the inning.
In the seventh, the Yellow Jackets got the leadoff runner on but ended up being in a double play. Shortly after, Haggard got the final out to clinch the title and set off a massive celebration.
“I have been in those moments before. I did it in the lower state and in the district championship,” Haggard said. “I was perfectly comfortable and was built for that and knew God was watching over me. I prayed for hours that God would put me in that position and let me perform the way I did.”
Harper allowed two earned runs on six hits while striking out six in 5.1 innings to pick up the win. Haggard got the save.
Kayden Harris added two hits for Chapin.
This story was originally published May 28, 2026 at 10:11 PM.
