“I’m a senior, so it’s kind of heartbreaking thinking about it."”

Gilbert senior pitcher Travis Elliott about the prospect of his senior season coming to an end this weekend.

There was already a high level of anticipation Friday night at Segra Park with Lexington and Gilbert meeting on the diamond.

For the seniors on both teams, the game had added meeting. With concern about the coronavirus shutting down various sporting activities statewide and nationally, the contest was conceivably 1 of their last games they will every play in high school.

With the S.C. High School League expected to make a decision Monday, the Wildcats and Indians took the field for the 1st of 2 scheduled games at the home of the Columbia Fireflies.

Sparked by a pair of 4-run innings and capitalizing off 5 errors, Gilbert defeated Lexington 10-4 before a sizable fan base in attendance. 

“That’s the 1 thing about Gilbert America, they will show up to support their teams,” Gilbert head coach Ashley Burnett said. “I’m very proud to represent them that way.”

Gilbert jumped out to a 5-0 lead after 2 innings. Cooper Branham had the 1st of his 2 RBI in the 1st and a groundout by Joseph Parker led to 3 runs scored in the 2nd following a throwing error by the Wildcats. 

Lexington picked up a run in the Bottom 3rd on a RBI single by Ryan Toll. A fielding error on a groundball hit by Alex McGinty led to another Gilbert run in the Top 4th.

“Baseball has a way of humbling you,” Lexington head coach Brian Hucks said. “We went 4-0 in our tournament (the Naturchem Invitational) and then we played 2 very good programs in A.C. Flora (a 4-2 loss on Wednesday) and Gilbert and we haven’t played very well. We pride ourselves in being solid defensively and we made 5 errors in our infield. We haven’t made 5 errors all year in our infield.”  

The Wildcats rallied to within 6-4 in the Bottom 5th. Landon McMahan, Toll and Tristan Allen all belted consecutive run-scoring hits off Gilbert starter Travis Elliott.

The senior righthander held Lexington scoreless the rest of the way as he finished with 6 strikeouts. In the Top 7th, Gilbert added 4 insurance runs off an RBI sacrifice fly by Sykes, his 2nd of the game, a passed ball and RBI singles by Branham and Austin Vining. 

Braison Bourne took the loss for Lexington despite 7 strikeouts in 4 innings. 

Lexington faces Spring Valley at 4 pm, followed at 6:30 pm with a matchup between the Vikings and Gilbert at 6:30 pm. When asked about looking past Saturday, both head coaches and the players acknowledge they can only focus on what’s right in front of them.  

“Control what you can control,” Burnett said. “We don’t know what tomorrow is going to bring. We can only handle today and whatever’s going to happen, it’s out of our hands. Our job is to when they allow us to play, our job is to play our very best. If something happens and it gets suspended or something like that, our job is to be, hopefully, mature enough to handle that and come back ready to play.” 

“(The seniors) they’re just in a tough situation,” Hucks said. “They’ve worked their entire lives for their senior years and now, something completely out of their control may impact if they get to play again or have a delay or whatever may be. 

“It’s tough. We put our arms around them and tell we love them and hug them and whatever will be will be and we’ll just figure out the next step we go.” 

“I’m a senior, so it’s kind of heartbreaking thinking about it,” Elliott said. “We’re just going to come out here tomorrow and go hard.”