Pinewood Prep captures its first baseball state championship

Pinewood Prep is known for basketball and soccer championships, but baseball can now be added to the list.

Pinewood Prep defeated Northwood Academy, 5-3, in Game 3 of the SCISA Class AAA state championship series to win its first title in baseball on Thursday night.

Senior center fielder Laquan Gilliard homered and had two RBIs and senior closer Austin Heflin held the lead over the final 3 1/3 innings.

'I'm so proud of our players, because that team we beat tonight is a very good baseball team,' said Pinewood coach Evan Powell, who is leaving the school after six years to become headmaster at Williamsburg Academy. 'I figured we'd have to play our best game of the season to win, and I think we did. We played great defensively and we got some key hits. It's a well-deserved championship for these kids.'

Pinewood scored two runs in the first inning. Heflin's single to center, coupled with an error, scored Jairus Schumann and Gilliard hit a high chopper through the infield to score Heflin.

Northwood answered with a run in the bottom of the first, scoring when Brandon Stoots tripled to left to drive in Seth Graham, who had doubled.

Gilliard homered to left to open the fourth inning, pushing the lead to 3-1. Northwood answered with a run in the bottom of the inning on Ty Powell's RBI groundout.

With a runner on third, Heflin got Graham to hit a hard shot that appeared headed to right field for a hit. But, Pinewood second baseman Kennan Keller dove to his left and snared the grounder, throwing to first to nip Graham.

Pinewood scored two runs in the fifth. Chris Askins led off with a double. Chris Morgan bunted him to third, but reached first when Northwood failed to cover the base on the play. Schumann's sacrifice fly to right scored Askins and Heflin's fly to center scored Morgan for a 5-2 lead.

Chris Cook's sacrifice fly in the fifth scored Stoots to cut the lead to 5-3. Northwood had runners on second and third with one out in the bottom of the sixth, but Heflin induced a pair of ground balls to end the inning.

For Heflin, one of several players to transfer from Summerville to Pinewood over the last two years, winning the state championship was vindication for not even making the state playoffs last year.

'You know we came over here and figured we'd win two state championships, but we were humbled last year when we didn't make the playoffs,' said Heflin. 'We were much more focused this year. We respected our opponents and worked hard. We knew it would be tough and Northwood is a great team, but we just made the plays tonight.'

Northwood finished as the state runner-up for the second consecutive year. Head coach Jerry Stoots tipped his cap to the winners.

'They played well,' he said. 'They made some good defensive plays. We had our chances. We had the guys on base. It just wasn't our night. We had a good year. We were 24-6 and three losses came to Pinewood.

'It's disappointing to lose, but we had a good group of young men who played hard all year.'