Carolina Forest baseball earns national ranking

The Carolina Forest baseball team already holds the No. 1 ranking in the state of South Carolina.

Now the Panthers own a spot in a national poll as well.

Jack Jolly’s team – which is 10-1 overall, 4-0 in region play and won the preseason IP Classic – rose to No. 24 in the MaxPreps.com computer rankings following three more lopsided wins in the last week. In addition to their overall record, the Panthers have won their first four region games by a total of 28 runs. They are the only team from South Carolina included in either of MaxPreps’ two rankings systems.

Carolina Forest will participate in the sixth annual Diamond Invitational at Blythewood High School outside Columbia this week. The tournament, which begins Thursday, also features Class AAAA’s No. 2 J.L. Mann, No. 3 Summerville, No. 4 White Knoll and No. 6 Dorman, as well as Class AAA No. 1 Belton-Honea Path.

The Panthers will open against Lexington before facing Blythewood on Friday and J.L. Mann on Saturday. The tournament finals will be played Sunday.

This story was originally published March 28, 2016 at 5:18 PM with the headline "Carolina Forest baseball earns national ranking."