Batesburg-Leesville is back on top for the first time in a long time. 

The Panthers defeated Phillip Simmons 8-5 this past Saturday at Founders Park to snap a 76-year drought and win their first baseball championship since winning back-to-back in 1948 and 1949. The win marked the fourth baseball state championship in school history. 

“It hasn’t really sunk in yet, and I don't know if it’ll sink in for a while,” Batesburg-Leesville head coach Rob Bouknight said. “ I can't express what I'm feeling right now. I'm so happy for our players who have worked so hard. I’m so happy for our parents, who put time and effort into it. I’m happy for our coaches and their families, and I’m happy for the community.” 

The championship concluded a highly successful year for the Panthers, who finished 19-6-1 and won their region’s regular season title. 

Batesburg-Leesville’s run to the 2A championship came as a surprise to Bouknight, who said while he thought his team was good, he originally wasn’t sure they were championship material. 

“ I'll be honest with you. I did not,” Bouknight said. “I thought we had a pretty darn good team, and I knew that we could make a run. I just didn't know if we had enough to win at all.”

The Panthers did have enough to win it all though. The team dominated its way through its district bracket before doing the same thing in the Upper State. 

Batesburg-Leesville’s only loss this postseason came in game one of the championship series. 

The team bounced back from that loss and won the final two games and the 2A baseball title. Batesburg-Leesville outscored Phillip Simmons 11-7 for the rest of the series after its game one loss. 

“ Obviously, there was some nervousness there,” Bouknight said about his team’s odds after losing game one. “ But I mean, we knew we had a bunch of fighters, and we knew they were going to fight. I mean, at the end of the day, they’ve got to come out and make plays, and they did.” 

The bats were active early in game three. Batesburg-Leesville jumped out to a 6-3 lead as the two teams combined for nine runs through the first three innings. 

The scoring slowed down in the fourth inning as neither team earned a run. 

 ”When we had runners in scoring position and nobody out and couldn't score, I thought that was gonna come back to get us,” Bouknight said. 

Batesburg-Leesville made a pitching change in the fifth inning, relieving starter Braydon Hallman after a four-inning, nine-strikeout outing. Landon Soper pitched the final three innings, throwing two strikeouts. 

The Panthers' offense got back on track and scored two more runs in the fifth to extend its lead to 8-3 with just two innings left between them and the championship trophy. 

Phillip Simmons tried to respond late, scoring two runs in the sixth inning, but still trailed by three heading into the top of the seventh. 

In the final inning, the crowd of mostly Panthers fans could feel the moment as many began to cheer and rise out of their seats. 

Soper struck out the first Phillip Simmons batter before the second batter grounded out. Soper walked the next batter, putting an Iron Horsees player on base. He was left stranded though, as the next batter hit a pop fly to Hallman at shortstop. 

Hallman’s catch was the third and final out of the game, clinching the Panthers their title. The crowd erupted in cheers as the team rushed the field in celebration. 

“It felt like a hometown environment,” Bouknight said.