Whale Branch alum Nick Pringle and the Alabama Crimson Tide earned the No. 4 seed in the West bracket and will face No. 13 seed College of Charleston in the first round Friday evening in Spokane, Washington.
And the USC Salkehatchie men’s basketball team earned its own dose of the madness this weekend with a Cinderella run through the NJCAA Atlantic Division Tournament in Hickory, N.C.
You might recall Salk discontinued its men’s hoops program for a season and brought in Matt Lynch to rebuild the foundation. With a roster of exclusively freshmen, many of them international players, Salk went into the region tournament as the No. 7 seed but knocked off the top two seeds en route to the title, capped with a 69-58 win over top-seeded Caldwell to claim a spot in the NJCAA Division I tournament starting next week in Hutchinson, Kansas.
The intensity is picking up on the soccer pitch, too, with key region matchups on tap Friday night between longtime Lowco rivals.
LowcoSports.com’s Wes Kerr was in The Nest at Hilton Head High for a showdown between the Seahawks and the Bluffton Bobcats. After playing to a scoreless draw in the first half, Hilton Head’s Sharlene Mosqueira and Piper Baxter each found the back of the net after halftime, and Lawton Crose kept the sheet clean for the Seahawks, who improved to 2-1 in region play with a 2-nil victory.
New Team Lowco contributor Conner Worl caught the other end of the Bridge Bowl matchup in The Den, and the home team won by the same score. Dorian Fuñez and Andres Abril scored second-half goals and Josh Fox’s Bobcats kept the Seahawks off the board for a 2-nil win. Nice bounce back for Bluffton after a tough 1-0 loss to Lucy Beckham on Tuesday.
Elsewhere on the pitch, Beaufort swept rival Battery Creek in a pair of lopsided shutouts, and Hilton Head Prep split with the Walker School, as the girls rolled to a 9-nil win.
Shifting to the softball diamond, we had another Lowco-on-Lowco matchup taking place at Bluffton High School, where the May River Sharks continued their impressive start to the season with an 18-0 rout of a young Bobcats team. Ana Caraballo was in charge all night, holding the Bobcats to two hits in a shutout and going 3-for-3 with a double, a homer, and four RBIs. Olivia Williams, Charlotte Berkley and Caydon Swofford each had three hits and combined for six RBIs for May River.
Beaufort’s Adalyn Johnson tossed a four-inning no-hitter with 11 strikeouts in a 15-0 win over Philip Simmons, while Battery Creek’s Stella Schubert and John Paul the 2nd’s Tevi Mullen both threw three-inning no-nos in blowout wins over North Charleston and Whale Branch, and Colleton Prep’s Sydney Stivender struck out nine in a three-hitter to beat Andrew Jackson Academy.
The USCB softball team was at home in Hardeeville this weekend, and the Sand Sharks played three competitive games with the Flagler Saints but came up on the wrong end of all three, dropping a pair of two-run games and a one-run contest.
On the baseball diamond, Beaufort High bounced back strong to blank Philip Simmons 3-0 on Friday after starting the week with three losses. Hudson Mullen struck out 15 Iron Horses in a two-hit shutout and Jadyn Andrews delivered an RBI triple.
JPII’s Ross Putnam pitched another gem to blank Thomas Heyward, striking out six in a four-hitter to lead the Golden Warriors to a 3-0 win.
Bluffton, May River, and Colleton Prep all picked up non-region wins on the diamond, while the USCB Sand Sharks were swept in a three-game road set against Peach Belt Conference leader North Georgia.
It was a busy Saturday on the track, too, with Lowco squads competing all over the state. May River’s boys won the 4x800 and distance medley relays at the Mellow Mushroom Relays, while the Hilton Head boys won the sprint medley, John Paul the 2nd’s Sebastian Frickel won the 3200 and Zac Henderson won the 800 at the Melicue Metts Invitational in Orangeburg, and Hampton County’s girls won the 4x800 relay with Randi Vaughn taking the 3200 at the Pelion Invitational.
And finally, if you pulled for the Buffalo Bills for the first time last season because of a certain defensive lineman, you have a new favorite team. Hilton Head High alum Poona Ford found his new home this weekend, signing a one-year deal with the Los Angeles Chargers.
Justin Jarrett, Lowco Sports
Last Night in the LowCo
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March 2024
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