It took two games, but the River Bluff Gators will happily accept the extra work to accomplish what they did Wednesday night: winning the 5A Lower State title and advancing to the state championship series for a chance to win the program’s first ever state baseball championship.

Despite coming into Wednesday with some margin for error (Summerville needed to beat them twice to advance), it was still a tall task. Summerville is regarded as one of the best teams in the state and are led by South Carolina commit Carson Messina and Mississippi State commit (even though he might never step foot on campus if he gets drafted like some believe in 2024) PJ Morlando. 

The Gators had to face Messina on the mound while they started Weston Grant in game one.

The Summerville Green Wave struck first in the second inning when Joe Knight drove in Campbell McCurry and added to their lead in the third inning with a Gavin Mitchell RBI single and a Christian Scarano RBI groundout. 

The first of many home runs was hit by Summerville’s Vorlick in the fourth inning and then again when Maddox Webb launched a three-run blast out of the park to give the visitors a huge 7-0 lead.

The Gators finally joined the run party in the bottom of the fourth when Beau Hollins crushed a solo home run and again when Logan Busbee’s RBI triple scored Grant and Myles Proffitt and cut the Summerville lead to 7-3.

River Bluff continued chipping away with another run in the fifth with Thomas Powell’s RBI triple that scored Colby Reynolds. After getting down 7-0, the Gators got back in the game and trailed by only three runs going into the sixth.

But that’s as close as they would get in the first game. Webb hit another home run in the sixth and Messina hit a line drive single good for one run batted in to give the Green Wave a more comfortable 11-4 advantage going into the bottom of the seventh. 

The Gators made a decent push in the final frame as RBI by Powell and Grant cut the deficit to 11-7 with no outs in the inning, but three straight outs afterwards thwarted any real threat of a comeback.

With the loss, both teams got 30 minutes to regroup before a winner-take-all game for the Lower State title.

River Bluff won the coin toss to determine who the home team would be and announced they would start South Carolina commit Powell on the mound for the pivotal match-up.

The top of the Summerville order picked up right where it left off in the opening inning of the second game. Messina smacked a flyball double to deep center and scored Morlando to give them their first run and they scored again Mitchell’s ground out scored Messina from third. Before even having a chance to bat, River Bluff already faced a 2-0 deficit. That did not last long.

Walker Mitchell got a lead-off single off Webb, who took the mound for game two for Summerville. Hollins stepped up to the plate and hit a triple to score Walker and one batter later, Powell launched a pitch over the right field fence to give the Gators a 3-2 lead and sent the River Bluff crowd, who showed up and filled the stands, into an absolute frenzy. 

Powell’s home run gave him additional confidence on the mound, too, helping him settle down now that they had a lead. He struck out the side in the second inning and went on to strike out six batters in less than four innings of work.

But before he left the game on the mound, he made sure to make one more statement with his bat when he cranked a solo homer out to right in almost the spot as the first homer.

“I was so freakin’ excited, I was so freakin’ happy,” Powell said after the game. “I haven’t been producing lately and to come through for the guys, it was sweet.”

The Gators got in a bit of a jam in the next inning. Webb led off the inning with a ground rule double that seemingly got stuck in the fence and moved to third after a wild pitch. An additional wild pitch scored Webb and McCurry, who reached base with a walk, made his way to third. With an additional runner on first with only one out, Summerville was threatening to tie or even take the lead in the top of the fourth. But the Gators got a big break and the infield made a great play to pull off the double play and escape the jam with only one run surrendered. 

River Bluff went down in order in the bottom of the fourth and Summerville looked to threaten to score again. After Morlando was intentionally walked, Messina got hit by an Andrew Vaughan pitch to give the Green Wave the tying and leading run on first and second base. But once again, the Gators escaped when Webb popped up straight to Hollins at first base. 

River Bluff didn’t manage to score for the rest of the game and took the 4-3 advantage into the final inning with only three outs separating the team from an appearance in the 5A state championship series.   

With Vaughan on the mound to close it out, like he has many games this season, River Bluff got those three outs, ending with a groundout to second and securing the Lower State title for the Gators.

“Tonight, our guys stepped up,” Gators head coach Mark Bonnette said after the game. “Thomas Powell stepped up, Beau stepped up. And then Andrew Vaughan, who has had some absolutely amazing outings but he’s also had a few heartbreaking ones. I’m so happy for Andrew and for him to be the guy on the mound to finish it.”

When talking about Powell, the coach has been vocal about his development as a pitcher. When the Gators lost their top arm at the beginning of the season, Powell was elevated to be one of the team’s most reliable pitchers and over the course of the season, earned the coaching staff’s trust. When it came time to trust him with the season on the line, Bonnette and the staff had no doubt that Powell would get the job done.

“Thomas earned our confidencee," Bonnette said. "There were a couple of chances earlier in the year that I wished we would have pitched him but we weren’t quite sure what we had fully. Obviously we know now that we have a bulldog. We got a competitor. He has that ‘it’ factor.”

In the Lower State title game, Powell pitched almost four innings, struck out six, only gave up three runs, earning the win while also going 2-2 with two home runs and three RBI. 

It was an emotional win as the team and fans poured out onto the field to celebrate. Bonnette, who fought back tears after the game, watched the ensuing celebration and reflected on a team that he said will be one of the most memorable in his 25 years of coaching high school baseball. He's determined to win the program’s first state championship with the group. 

“I want to finish it," Bonnette said. "This is the third time in 10 years that we’ve been there at a new school. I want to finish it off for this school, for this community and for these guys and our former players.”

The Gators will face Blythewood in the state championship series starting Saturday, May 20, at home with the time to be determined.