BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Hope Christian Academy’s baseball team defeated High Springs’ First Christian 13-1 on May 11 to win the Southeastern Christian Conference tournament championship, giving Hope its first-ever SECC title winner in any sport.
“They achieved what they wanted to do,” Hope Coach Brent Hanson said, adding, “I couldn’t be more happy for them.”
The Lions (11-3), who entered the SECC tournament off a division championship, ended the season on an eight-game win streak, scoring a total of 67 runs during that span, while opponents scored just 16 runs.
“Every game, they got better,” Hanson said. “They improved all year.”
Though he was confident about his team’s chances in the tournament, Hanson admitted he was anxious prior to the Lions’ first game, which was against Brunswick Christian. He said Brunswick probably had the best pitching staff in the conference.
Hanson said Hope, though, probably led the conference in hits and runs scored. He felt his team could come out on top if it got just a few hits, saying that the Lions were also the conference’s best defensive team.
Four players finished with at least two hits in a 6-2 win over Brunswick on May 11 that put the Lions into the championship game.
Dalton Thomas went 3 for 3 with a double and was also 3 for 3 on stolen-base attempts.
Walker Munroe went 3 for 4, while Noah Gaffney and Ty Briscoe were 2 for 3 and 2 for 4, respectively.
Briscoe, Marcus Chever, Zach Hansen and Jackson Jones each went 2 for 2 on stolen-base attempts.
That win set up a final-game matchup against a First Christian team that swept Hope in the regular season. First Christian defeated the Lions 5-3 in the season opener on March 7 and 3-2 on April 1.
The Lions wanted the chance to play First Christian again.
“That’s kind of what we were hoping for,” Hanson said.
Briscoe and Thomas went 3 for 3 and 3 for 4, respectively, with each hitting a double in the Lions’ 13-1 championship win. Briscoe was 3 for 3 on stolen-base attempts, while Thomas went 2 for 2.
Munroe and Wyatt Gauthier each went 2 for 3, with Gauthier hitting two doubles.
Jude Hanson was 2 for 2 on stolen-base attempts.
