Carolina Forest baseball rolls on with playoff win over Sumter

The Carolina Forest baseball team has had moments in the past where one error spiraled into two.

Two errors spiraled into disastrous consequences. The Panthers had lost games in the regular season and playoffs because of that, and seasons even came to an end.

Wednesday, coach Jack Jolly watched as his newly confident squad shrugged off that exact situation en route to a 5-0 victory over Sumter. The Panthers, following two second-inning errors, gunned down a Gamecock baserunner at the plate and pitcher Jakob Frishmuth got a harmless ground ball to get out of a bases-loaded jam.

“Early in the year, our pitchers weren’t able to overcome that and make the pitches they needed to get out of the inning,” Jolly said. “Now, they’re starting to make very good pitches in those situations, and we’re making the plays behind them. It’s maturity. It’s confidence.

“Earlier in the year, we fold there.”

The Panthers didn’t this time, and in the next inning, they pounded in four runs to put the team that it had never beaten until a month ago on its back. Joey Lewandowski started the rally with an RBI sacrifice bunt. The next batter, Cameron Cauble kept it going with an RBI single.

Two batters later, Frishmuth pumped in two more with his single to right-center.

An already loose Panthers squad – coaches and players were joking around moments before the 7 p.m. first pitch – took their excitement to the next level.

“It gave me a huge boost,” Frishmuth said. “It’s just a huge momentum booster, for all of us.”

It continued throughout, especially defensively.

Frishmuth gave up only three Sumter hits, two of which came in the seventh inning. The Panthers didn’t commit another error after those two in the second and they stranded five more Gamecocks on base in the final four innings.

The loss eliminated the defending Class AAAA state champs from the playoffs and means Carolina Forest is the final Grand Strand team playing after Wednesday losses by Myrtle Beach and Waccamaw.

More importantly, it also means the Panthers will have another crack at a Wando team that knocked them into the elimination round with a 2-1 win on Monday. Jolly’s team will have to win two games on the road in order to make the state finals.

“It was a bad game. We didn’t have enough energy in the dugout,” Frishmuth said of Monday’s loss. “We had to bounce back. It’s our drive to want to win states.”

Carolina Forest has now outlasted all but four teams in all of Class AAAA. It could be considered the surprise squad - J.L. Mann, Northwestern and Wando were all ranked among the top seven in the final South Carolina Baseball Coaches Association regular-season rankings.

By earning victories in three of their final four region games and winning five of their first six playoff games the last two weeks, the Panthers are still standing.

“There’s no doubt that we’re playing our best baseball at the right time,” Jolly said. “It’s a process. We were OK at the beginning of the year. But I wouldn’t say we were very good. We didn’t know how to put it all together.

“We want to be one of the best programs in the area and the region. You have to make a statement in the playoffs for that to happen.”

This story was originally published May 13, 2015 at 10:32 PM with the headline "Carolina Forest baseball rolls on with playoff win over Sumter."