One other Lexington County baseball team punched their ticket to a state championship series while another fell victim to the elements and will have to wait to conclude their pivotal Lower State final.

Gray Collegiate was forced to go on the road to play Mid-Carolina after losing to them in the first Upper State winners bracket game on Saturday, May 13. Its 9-2 win over Pelion on Monday, May 18 gave the team its shot at redemption.

Brookland-Cayce was in a similar position Wednesday night. The  Bearcats dropped the winners bracket game to Hanahan on Saturday, May 13, and needed a 5-4 home win over Beaufort to set up a rematch with Hanahan.

Elsewhere Wednesday, River Bluff won the 5A Lower State title and moved on to the state championship series.

Gray pulls off two road victories (and one unbelievable comeback) to advance to state Championship series

The GWar Eagles faced a tough task of having to win two straight games against a great Mid-Carolina team. Leading up to Wednesday Mid-Carolina dominated Pelion 10-0 and beat Gray 3-2 two days later. 

Things looked bleak for Gray early on in the first game. Mid-Carolina jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning thanks to an error and two different RBI singles.

Mid-Carolina took the War Eagle bats out of the game completely. After six innings, Gray only had two hits for the entire game. In that time, Mid-Carolina was able to add runs in the fourth and fifth innings to extend their lead to 6-0 going into the final inning. 

With their backs against  the wall in the top of the seventh, the War Eagles strung together some hits and engineered an incredible comeback to save their season.

It started with a Kendrick Wright single to the shortstop to lead off the inning. Brent Stukes added a single with a ground ball to right field and moved Wright to second. Landon Turner made the first out of the inning with a line out to center. Zeb Taylor walked to load up the bases the next at-bat and a Blake McKoy single finally got the War Eagles on the board but still trailed 6-1 with one out.

London Spires drew a walk to score Stukes and William Eshaak walked to score Taylor and cut the lead to 6-3.

Garrett Blankenship struck out the next at-bat and with the bases loaded and down three runs, Gray was down to their final out.

Blaine Redmond stepped into the batter's box and knocked out a grand slam to complete the comeback and give Gray a 7-6 lead in the top of the seventh. 

Wright lined out after the Redmond go-ahead grand slam and after trailing 6-0 and being three outs from elimination, the War Eagles went into the bottom of the seventh with a chance to force a second game.

McKoy retired the side and sealed the miraculous 7-6 victory for Gray.

In game two, it was Gray who was the early aggressor. In the first inning, Turner reached on an error that scored Redmond and gave the War Eagles a 1-0 lead.

In the second inning, Austin Lloyd hit a solo home run out to left field and gave his team an early 2-0 advantage. 

In the top of the fifth, Mid-Carolina showed that they would not go away easily. A bases loaded walk and a sacrifice fly tied the game at two runs apiece. 

The tie, however, didn’t last long. Lloyd came up big at the plate once again with an RBI single to score Stukes and give them a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the fifth. 

Mid-Carolina battled back again in the top of the sixth, scoring on a wild pitch to tie the game at three.

Gray didn’t respond with a run in the bottom of the sixth and in the top of the seventh, Mid-Carolina got two base runners on but couldn’t bring either of them home.

In the bottom of the seventh, Wright got on with a lead-off single. Stukes moved Wright over to second with a single out to left and put runners on first and second with no outs. A strikeout and an intentional walk loaded the bases with one out and with Lloyd back up to bat, this time, with a chance to win the game and send his team to the 2A championship series. 

Lloyd hit a fly ball and reached base on an error to score Wright and give Gray a dramatic walk-off victory to win the 2A Upper State title.

The War Eagles move on to the 2A state championship series where they will face Oceanside Collegiate Academy. Game one will be at Midlands Sports Complex at 8 P.M. on Saturday, May 20. 

Brooklyn-Cayce’s fate is on hold after weather delays 

The Brookland-Cayce Bearcats got up on Hanahan 1-0 in the 3A Lower State final before rain storms caused the game to be paused in the top of the first inning. 

The game is set to resume at Hanahan at 4:30 p.m. Friday, May 18.