High school roundup (March 19, 2016)

Softball

▪ Aynor 8, (at) Latta 5 | Tony Mills is hoping to keep the Blue Jackets softball program at the highest of levels.

A win over last year’s Class A state champ is a good start.

Mills is in his first season as head coach – taking over for the retired Sandie Jones after helping out with the program while leading the school’s junior varsity team – and the hopes are just as high a year removed from Aynor’s Class AA title.

“It was a real good first game of the season,” Mills said.

On Wednesday the Blue Jackets picked up where they left off last season, jumping out to a 5-0 lead before holding off the Vikings. While the win was a solid start, Mills isn’t looking too far ahead.

“We’ve not talked about the state championship from last year. We’ve talked about playing one game at a time,” Mills said. “I’m very pleased with how we hit the ball early; we got up 5-0 and held on. We played good defense and had solid pitching. We made only one error, which is a good thing this early in the season. I was very pleased with our kids.”

The coaching staff has two returning coaches, but the main two – Jones and Pete Roberts – rode off into the sunset as champions. Mills and Co. are hoping to keep up the success.

“It’s exciting for me to be a part of the program and keep things going,” Mills said. “I inherited a great team. I’m excited and hopefully we’ll have another good year.”

▪ Green Sea Floyds 16, (at) Mullins 0 (5) | Paige McDaniels struckout eight batters and had three hits to lead the Trojans past the Auctioneers.

▪ St. James 2, (at) Conway 0 | Shelby Spaziani tossed a shutout and drove in two runs to lead the Sharks past the Tigers.

“She pitched some last year, but we’ve always been pitch by committee around here,” St. James coach Adam Jones said. “She’s our number one around here this year.”

The other pitchers in the rotation are freshmen, so Spaziani will be looked upon to lead the staff, Jones said.

“Hopefully our senior will carry us, but we feel confident if we have to go to the freshmen,” he said.

Overall, the Sharks are 3-3.

“We’re getting there,” Jones said. “We have a long ways to go and have a lot of work to do. We’re starting to play together as a team.”

▪  Jacob Sheuer doesn’t claim to be the world’s best track and field coach. He does, however, believe his own experiences can only help his young runners at St. James.

Scheuer was a standout performer at Coastal Carolina through 2011 and has been working with the Sharks the last five years.

“I don’t know so much about the coaching stuff, but [I bring] the love for track [and knowledge] for getting more and more people out each year,” he said of taking over for longtime coach Steve Brunty after Wednesday’s win in a four-team meet.

Winning Wednesday’s meet against North Myrtle Beach, Socastee and Waccamaw was encouraging, Scheuer said.

“We’re excited about the year,” he said. “Lots of runners are ahead of where they were last year.”

That includes Trey Myers, who won a pair of events Wednesday.

“I’m really looking forward to seeing what they can do supplemented by some of the others out there,” Scheuer said of Myers and fellow standout Jelin Bellamy. “It’s exciting. It is. It’s exciting.”

On the girls side, Alexis Alston won a pair of events for the Sharks, who finished third.

“She’s pretty started back right where she left off,” St. James coach Ken McSorley said of Alston, who qualified for four events at state last year. “Her high hurdles was just amazing today. Her rhythm looked really smooth. In the 100 she was just fantastic against great competition from Waccamaw.”

McSorley is also excited to see the growth of Ka’Mauri Humes, an eighth-grader who is showing plenty of potential during her second year running track.

“She’s starting to believe in herself,” McSorley said. “She’s starting to catch the fever. Last year she would some of the other girls and think ‘I can’t be as good as her.’ Now she’s starting to see her potential.”

Boys golf

▪  Kevin Burris shot a 1-over 37 to earn medalist honors and lead Carolina Forest to a win over Socastee in both teams’ season opener Tuesday at Prestwick Country Club.

Baseball

▪ St. James 12, (at) Conway 4 | Liam Bloom drove in four runs as the Sharks routed the Tigers.

▪ (At) Wando 25, Socastee 1 | The Braves were routed.

This story was originally published March 10, 2016 at 12:10 AM with the headline "High school roundup (March 19, 2016)."