Bishops set school record with 8 homers

The Bishop England baseball team set a school record with eight home runs in Friday's 12-1 victory at Hanahan.

The Bishops got on track early. With two outs in the first inning, Brison Celek, Alex Abrams and Jimmy Lindberg hit back-to-back-to-back home runs.

But the Bishops were hardly through, playing in the friendly confines of Sportsman's Field.

Abrams and Lindberg both finished with two homers. Corey Forrester, Ryan Connolly and Morgan Bastian also blasted homers.

Bastian, a sophomore, hit what was the longest homer of the night, blasting a shot over the air-conditioning unit and onto the roof of the auditorium in right field.

"That was a bomb." Hanahan coach Brian Mitchell. "That was one of the longest ones I've ever seen hit here."

Sportsman's Field is very homer-friendly because of its short distances, but Mitchell said five of the Bishops' homers would have been out at any high school field.

"There were a couple that just cleared, but they smoked a lot of them, no-doubters."

The victory concluded the regular season for the Bishops, who finished with a 20-2 record. The Bishops lost to Wando 6-0 Thursday night.

"I've never seen that many home runs," said Bishop England coach Bill Collier, who has a 45-10 record in two years as head coach. "The kids sort of had a sour taste in their mouths after losing to Wando and wanted to do something about it. They wanted to end the regular season on a good note."

Bishop England, which is a No. 1 seed in the Class AA playoffs, begins tournament play at home on Thursday.

No. 1 seed

Northwood Academy was awarded the No. 1 seed in the SCISA Class AAA baseball lower bracket, while Pinewood Prep was the No. 2 seed in the upper bracket that caused some controversy.

Northwood Academy beat Pinewood Prep 11-5 on Thursday night, giving both teams 9-1 records in Region I-AAA. Pinewood beat Northwood Academy in the other game that counted in the region standings.

Pinewood pointed to region bylaws and claimed a one-game playoff game was needed to determine the No. 1 seed. Northwood Academy said there was precedent in counting its non-conference victory over the Panthers in a tournament as a tie breaker.

Neither team could work in a playoff game over the weekend because it's prom season so SCISA officials placed the two teams in opposite brackets, meaning they can't meet until the state championship series.

Both teams got what they wanted: a first-round bye and a home date on Friday.

Northwood Academy will host the winner of the Augusta Christian-Hilton Head Prep series, while Pinewood hosts either Wilson Hall, Ben Lippen or Cardinal Newman.

Reach Philip M. Bowman at pbowman@postandcourier.com or at 937-5592. Read his blog at postandcourier/prepblog.