Perfection! Nationally ranked Gray Collegiate softball wins third-straight title
Perfect ending. Perfect season.
The Gray Collegiate softball team capped off its unbeaten year with its third straight state championship.
The War Eagles defeated AC Flora, 11-1, on Friday to sweep the Class 4A best-of-three championship series.
It is the program’s fourth state championship and third in a row. The first two titles came in Class 2A and the last two in Class 4A. The War Eagles will be moving up to Class 5A next season.
“Three in a row is awesome, and we aren’t going anywhere,” Gray coach Doug Frye said. “We got a bunch of young kids out here who can play.”
Gray went 6-0 against 5A schools this year in winning a school-record 34 games, breaking the mark of 33 set by the 2024 team. The War Eagles are ranked No. 5 nationally in the latest MaxPreps top 25 polls.
“I love this group. They have been great all year. … They played hard and got after it all year,” Frye said. “I told people at the beginning of the year that it was the best team I have ever had because they are so athletic.”
Frye talked about how this year’s squad wasn’t as reliant on the long ball. The 2025 team hit 51 home runs while this year’s only hit 22. But this year’s squad stole 121 bases, 30 more than last year.
Still, the War Eagles showed they still have the power when they need it.
Sophomore Mackenzie Sease belted two homers and drove in four runs to lead the War Eagles on Friday. The first baseman’s three-run homer put Gray Collegiate up 6-0 in the second inning.
“I was looking for the change-up, because that is what I got last game,” Sease said of her two home runs. “Our goal was to go undefeated, but we were taking it one game at a time. And our mentality all season was to knock teams out early because they lay down.”
The game was the last one for future South Carolina Gamecock softball player Aspen Boulware, who reclassified and will be playing for Ashley Chastain Woodard’s squad next year. Boulware had an RBI single in the third and then belted a solo homer in the top of the seventh on her final swing in high school to put the War Eagles up 11-1.
It was her 12th homer of the season and 64th of her career.
“I was praying in the box. Please give me one more opportunity,” Boulware said of her final at-bat. “It was pretty special.”
Frye gave Boulware, last year’s SC Gatorade Player of the Year, a curtain call in the bottom of the seventh by taking her out of the game as War Eagle fans gave her a loud ovation.
Ella Griffin led Gray with three hits, and Mackenzi Bradley was 1 for 4 with an RBI for Gray.
Charleston Southern commit Peyton Hendrx pitched a complete game, allowing one earned run on six hits while striking out 10. Hendrix, who worked her way out of a couple jams in the game, won both games of the series.
Karson Riddle led AC Flora with two hits and an RBI.
The loss ended AC Flora’s season at 23-8. The Falcons were making their first state championship appearance in program history and coach James Marlow didn’t want that accomplishment to go unnoticed. Marlow got the runner-up trophy and held it up proudly with loud cheer from the Falcons fans.
“I definitely don’t want them overlooked for all of their accomplishments,” Marlow said. “This is an amazing group. We are going to have more opportunities and learn and grow from this. Just so proud of them.”
